Mirchi Ka Salan

Mirchi ka salan (or Green chilly gravy) is a classic Hyderabadi dish. This dish is very unique in taste and is generally eaten with steamed rice or roti. However, traditionally this dish is served with Hyderabadi Biryani. 

Even though this dish is very unique in its taste, people with low tolerance for spice find it difficult to pallate this dish as it uses green chillies. As an alternative, I would suggest you to use green bell peppers instead of green chillies to tone down the spicy flavor



Ingredients :

For dry powder :

1/4 cup roasted peanuts
1/4 cup sesame seeds

For fresh masala paste :

2 medium sized onions, coarsely chopped
3 medium sized tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh scrapped coconut
1 1/2  tbspn garlic paste
1 1/2 tbspn ginger paste

For cooking Mirchi :

15-18 long green chillies (Bhavnagri mirchi)
Oil for frying

For Salan :

5-6 tbspns oil
8-10  fenugreek seeds(methi seeds)
1 tspn cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tspn mustard seeds (rai)
1/4 tspn nigella seeds (kalonji)
5-6 curry leaves
1/2 tspn turmeric powder
2 tbspns corriander-cumin powder (Dhana-jeera powder)
1 tbspn red chilly powder
1/2 cup thin tamarind water
Salt to taste

For Garnishing :

2 tbspns chopped coriander

Method :

To make Dry Powder :
Take roasted peanuts and seasme seeds in a grinder and make a coarse powder of the the same. This powder may be made well in advance and preserved in a air-tight container. 

To make fresh masala paste :
Take onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and scrapped coconut into a blender and make a smooth paste. 

To make Mirchi ka Salan :
To start with, wash and dry green chillies. Then slit the chillies vertically without cutting through. Gently remove all the seeds from it. Simultaneouly heat sufficient quantity of oil in a pan and deep fry the de-seeded chillies for 3-4 minutes or till the time the colour of chillies change into a milder one. Drain the fried chillies on an absorbent paper.

After frying the chillies, take 5-6 tbspns of oil (reuse the oil used for frying the chillies) in a separate pan. Add fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds and curry leaves into the oil. Once the seeds start crackling, add fresh masala paste to it. Cook it till the time the paste releases oil from the sides. 

Once the paste is cooked, add turmeric powder, corriander-cumin powder and red chilly powder and mix it well. Quickly add some water to it so that the spices retains its colour and are not brunt. Then add the dry powder of seasme seeds and peanuts to it. Mix it with the sauce. Then add tamarind water to the mixture. Adjust the consistency by adding some water to it. Bring it to a boil and add salt to taste.

Finally add fried green chillies and mix it together. Simmer till the sauce is thick. Garnish it with freshly chopped corriander leaves. Serve hot with Biryani or steamed rice. 

Notes :

Ensure that you stand at an appropriate distance while frying chillies as they splutter during the frying process. 
The green chillies may be substituted by green bell peppers / capsicum.

Stepwise Pictures :