Foodies' Delight - Mirchi Bajji

I call myself as a pure hyderabadi. Some say you can identify a hyderabadi easily :)
If your answer is "YES" to most of the points below, then you are a Hyderabadi!

Mirchi Bajji

1. Your answer is 'Seeedha Chale Jao' when somebody asks you for directions, whether it is to Malakpet, Masab Tank, Malkajgiri or Moosapet.
2. You have at least one cousin, friend, colleague or acquaintance in the US in software.
3. Everytime somebody gives you a piece of good news, the first thing you ask them is "Party kab hain?"
4. You call 11 AM as 'SUBAH SUBAH'
5. You look at the fixed price stand and still ask 'DENE KA BOLO'
6. You crave for Pani Puris, Bhel Puri, Pav Bhaji and Mirchi Bajji etc., though you have many restaurants serving exotic food around.

And as said in the last point, I started craving for some spicy chat food from the moment I saw the JFI event hosted by SaffronTrail this month. And the ingredient for the month is Chillies, and what could be a better option to choose for the event - Mirchi Bajji.

Green Chillies

So here is the recipe for it.

Ingredients:
10 Long Green Chillies
2 cups Gram flour
1 tbsp Rice flour
1/4th tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Ajwan(vaamu)
Salt, to taste
Vegetable/ Sunflower Oil, for frying

For Filling:
1 cup Roasted peanuts, ground to coarse/fine powder.
2 tbsp Tamarind Paste
Salt, to taste

For Serving/Garnishing:
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
Chat Masala
1 Lemon, cut into quaters

Method:

1. Wash the chillies, make a slit on one side of the chillies, with ends intact and carefully remove the seeds.
2. Boil some water in a small pot with salt, drop these green chillies for a minute or two. Take them out and dry them on a kitchen towel.(You can even skip this step)
3. Mix gram flour, rice flour, salt, baking soda, salt, ajwan and make a thick batter.
4. In a small cup mix peanuts powder, salt and tamarind paste. Stuff this mixture inside the slit green chillies.(You can experiment with other stuffings too)




Green Chillies, stuffed with peanut, tamarind mixture




5. Heat oil in a wok, dip the chillies one by one in the batter and deep fry them.
6. For serving, make a slit on fried mirchi bajjis, sprinkle with some chat masala, chopped onion.
7. Serve hot!

Hot Hot Mirchi Bajji :)

And the verdict:
What can I say, I went back 5 years to my college days at the very first bite... Ummm... it reminded me of Hyderabad once again.
J relished each one, watching his favourite movie :)
A perfect companion on a lazy, cloudy or rainy evening, teamed with a cup of hot chai.


Food Event!
This is my entry for Jihva For Ingredients - Chillies, hosted by Nanditha of SaffronTrail