Passport & Plate - Mirchi bajji
India | Monday, February 23, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Mirchi (Green chilli)-250 grams
Palli podi (peanut powder)-20 grams
Uppu(Salt)-1 ¼ table spoon
nimma uppu(lemon salt)-1 table spoon
manchi nune(vegetable Oil)-1/4 liter
Senaga pindi (Bengal gram flour)-250 grams
Biyyam pindi (Rice flour)-50 grams
Karam (Red Chilli powder)-1 table spoon
vanta soda (cooking soda)- 1 pinch
Oma (aijwain seeds)-2 grams
Nellu (water) – 1 glass
How to prepare this recipeStep1: Take the required amount of chilies (say 250 grams). Cut the green chilies one side from top to bottom and remove the inside white specks from chilies and keep it a side.
Note: No of green chili = No of mirchi bajji required
Step 2: Now we need to prepare chili masala (mirapakaya masala). For which take a bowl, then add peanut powder (palli podi-20 grams), salt (uppu-1/4 table spoon), lemon salt (nimma nippu-2 grams) and very little amount of water. Now combine these ingredients till it becomes a semi- thick paste.
Step 3: Now fill the prepared paste (Chili masala) in the open portion of the previously cut chilies and place it a side.
Step 4: Take a bowl and fill it with the Bengal gram flour (Senaga pindi-250 grams). Add Red chili powder (karam-1 table spoon), salt (uppu-1 table spoon), oma (ajwain seeds-2 grams), Biyyam pindi (Rice flour-50 grams),Vanta soda (cooking soda-1 pinch). Now combine these ingredients add the required amount of water until the thick yellow mixture paste is formed.
Step 5: Place the frying pan (mukudu) on the stove and fill it with the vegetable oil (1/4 liter) and wait till the oil acquires a required amount of normal heat.
Step 6: Now take a chili and dip in the thick yellow paste. While dipping hold the open portion site of the chili and dip the chili completely in the paste. Make sure that the paste is applied to complete chili in the all sides. Now place the pasted chili in the frying. Wait till the chili gets fried which can known by the thick of the color of the paste.
Repeat the process for all the chilies. Each time to fry, you can add more than one chili at time according to the size of the pan and the amount of the oil in it.
Step 7: After attaining the mirchi bajji color required (thick solid yellow). Take the mirchi bajji out of the frying pan using the straining ladle. Use the straining ladle to make sure when taking the bajji out, so that no oil comes with it.
The story behind this recipeI come from a lower middle class family in India. My parents both were daily laborers. In my child hood, I and my sister would wait till night for my parents to come from their daily labor. Sometimes it could cross night 9’0 clock. Unlike anyone we want our parents to come late at that time. Because at the place where my mom works, if the workers stayed after 9’0 clock they will bring snacks for them and every time this would be ‘mirchi bajji’. My mom used to not eat that snack and wait till she gets home to give it to us. We used to literally wait for the clock to tick 9 and have mirchi bajji. I and my sister used to fight hard to decide on who will eat big mirchi bajji. At those times that plate mirchi bajji (4 bajji’s) was a treat my mother used to give to us sacrificing her hunger. It may sound funny to me now but that Rs 20 bajji treat was the thing me and my sister longed to have every day.
Now at present times for me and my sister and even for my mother favorite food is mirchi bajji. Whatever the festival or any important occasion mirchi bajji is a compulsory food item to have, not as a remembrance of the past but as a taste of the present.
