Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mirchi Bajji with potato stuffing

After my Hottest Pepper article today, craving for "Mirchi bajji" started  a lot.
What is famous for Mirchi? Ask any andhra wala he  will tell u
"Guntur" is famous for Hot red chilli peppers and Hot Mirchi bajji.
It has the Asia's Largest "Chilli Pepper" Mirchi Market yard.
A couple of years ago, a fire accident destroyed the Mirchi yard completely.
Mirchi bajji is a dumpling prepared with Hot chilli green peppers dipped in "Garbanzo flour batter"
Stuffings inside the Bajji vary according to region.

There are 4 types of stuffing i tried and each stuffing has its own taste.
The different stuffings vary according to region.

Andhra style:
The stuffing includes Tamrind sauce, Vaamu/Caraway seeds, onions and Pepper seeds.
This is a typical Street food.
Rayalaseema  style stuffing:
Rayalaseema is famous for "Phalli" or peanuts.
Bajji stuffing is made with phalli and coconut mixture.
Telangana style:
Stuffing is prepared with just caraway seeds and tamrind and deep fried.
The deep fried bajji is cut in to pieces and deep  fried again.
This is also called cut mirchi.
This is a crispy bajji which goes well with sweet sauce, Phalli chutney.
Go to gokul chat restaurant in hyderabad to enjoy this Bajji.


The road side typical "Mirchi bajji" has more and more stuffings.
Bajji is stuffed with coconut, and tamrind sauce with caraway seeds.
This mirchi is slit horizontally and stuffed again with onions, tomatoes,  lemon sqeeze, Coriander leaves/cilantro and topped with Jeera and black pepper powder.
Here is myrecipe for a typical roadside mirchi bajji:


For batter:
2 tblspn Rice flour
1 cup besan flour
caraway seeds roasted and powdered - 3 tblspn
Baking soda - 1 tblspn.


For stuffing:
Thick Sqeezed Tamrind sauce - 1/4th cup
Coconut grated - 1/4th cup
Caraway seeds - 1/4th cup roasted 
Pepper seeds seperated from the slitted  Peppers before deep frying
Salt as per taste.

Mirchi Toppings:
Finely chopped Onions
Finely  chopped Tomatoes
Cilantro
Lemon sqeezed
salt
Cumin and chilli powder



Recipe is as follows:

Slit peppers horizontally and remove seeds from inside.
Reserve these seeds for stuffing.
Mix squeezed tamrind sauce, grated coconut, celery seeds, Cumin seed powdered and salt in to a paste.
Fill the coconut stuffing in to the slitted bajjis.
Dip them in the batter and deep fry them  till golden brown.
Let them Cool down on a rack.
Slit the mirchi again where it was slit earlier.
Now stuff the mirchi again with Chopped Onions, minced green peppers, tomatoes, cumin powder and  chopped cilantro and serve with squeezed lemon juice.
You can even add "Potato curry" fried with onions  and spices to the filling.

I have tried a different stuffing for my Cut mirchi bajji.
Instead of following the traditional method, i  used heavy stuffing for my bajjis.
It came out so great that my husband completed all the bajjis.

Here is my stuffing:

Potatoes boiled - handfull
Onions - handfull
Chat masala - 3 tblspn
mirchi seeds removed from mirchi earlier
roasted chana daal - 4tblspn
Peanuts roasted - 3tblspn
salt to taste

Chana daal is of two types.
One is Pacchi senaga pappu which is used in tempering tamrind rice.
Gulla senagapappu  is pre roasted chana daal. You can eat this chanadaal for timepass without roasting.
This pappu is grinded in to  besan flour.
Make sure you use roasted pacchi senagapappu.
Roast peanuts and chana daal seperately and grind coarsly.
Fry the onions, till tender and add boiled potatoes, chat masala, chilli seeds, green  chillies if required.
Mash the fried curry and stuff inside the mirchi and dip in the  batter and fry them.
After slitting the fried peppers top with the onions and tomatoes with lemon and cilantro.

Try this stuffing and post your comments.
This bajji goes great with PKP(Pidatha Kandi Pappu)

No comments: