Time flies and how! This year’s Diwali is also over. But then hope you all had a wonderful and a blessed Deepavali. We had a crazy time both on the home front and the work front and so could not post any Diwali related sweets and savories. Compound to that both me and my son fell sick and so we had a very subdued festival this year. Ah! But that is life and now hopefully things are coming back to normal.
Coming back to this recipe of Mirchi Ka Salan, we had this quite recently at one of our friend’s place for dinner along with Ghee Rice and Raita. This was a new dish for us (OK not the name, but the taste), but we enjoyed the sweet-spicy-tangy gravy along with hot rice. We enjoyed it so much that we promptly took the recipe and could not wait to try it at home ourselves.
For those not familiar with this dish, Mirchi ka salan is a spicy-sweet-tangy curry made of roasted chili, peanut, sesame. This is a popular dish of Hyderabad and is traditionally this is accompanied with chicken or Vegetable Biryani. Even though the title says ‘Mirchi’ (Chilli), this is not spicy and the spice level can be altered based on taste.
We tried making this at home few weeks ago and I enlisted the help of DH for this as he has a penchant for cooking traditional, exotic stuff. As we proceeded we realized that it is not all that difficult to make. Couple of attempts and we should be well on way cooking like a pro. We enjoyed the combination of peanuts, coconut, and sesame gravy with Rotis and plain Rice.
Ingredients:
- 7-8 Yellow banana pepper / jalapeno pepper/ (deseeded) (if they are long cut into 3 pieces)
- 2-3 garlic pods grated
- Ginger grated
- ¾ cup chopped onion
- oil
Masala for grinding
- ½ cup shredded Coconut
- ½ cup peanuts/groundnuts
- 2-3 Red chillies
- 1 Tbsp Coriander seeds
- 2 tsp Jeera/cumin seeds
- ½ tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
- 2 Tbsp Sesame seeds
- 3-4 Cloves
- 2-3 Cinnamon pieces
- 1 Tbsp Tamarind paste
- Salt
- jaggery
Method:
- Lightly roast the methi seeds, sesame seeds, cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds, jeera seeds until they acquire light brown color. Keep aside.
- In the same pan, roast the peanuts until you are able to separate out the skin. Keep aside to cool and remove the skin completely.
- In a heavy bottom flat pan, on medium heat add some oil and roast the whole pepper until it is mildly charred. Keep aside.
- Meanwhile grind together coconut, red chillies, tamarind paste, jaggery along with the items roasted in step 1 and step 2. Add water as needed.
- In the same heavy bottom pan, add oil, then garlic and ginger. Then add the chopped onions until it is brown and translucent.
- Add the ground masala to this and mix well. Allow to boil and add water if required. We prefer the gravy to be thick, so I did not add too much water.
- Finally add the roasted pepper to this gravy and cook by covering the lid for about 5 minutes.
- Goes very well with Biryani, Plain Rice, Rotis/Chapathis and with Raita on the side.
That salan looks yummy Supriya. I have had salan at a Pakistani friend’s house before but I don’t think it had all these yummy goodness of sesame, peanuts and coconut. I just assumed salan means sabzi in Urdu. Now I know better. 🙂
Sorry to hear you and your son were sick during Diwali. Hope you are both feeling better. 🙂
My DH too likes to cook the traditional stuff and follows the recipe to a T, which is one of the reasons we can’t cook together. 🙂
I’ve this a few times and always enjoyed it. In a restaurant once, it was served with naan, which was not a good combo at all! Looks wonderful, RC!
Thank you so much for this recipe RC! I have heard/read a lot about Mirchi ka salan … now I can make it too. 🙂
Sounds wonderful with rice.
Slurrrp…It’s time for lunch here and I am really craving for it. Really homely presentation! 🙂
Mirchi ka Salan, one of the authentic curries of Hyderabad. Will definitely this version!
love that bowl, like anything made with chilli peppers, looks delicious.
Hope you guys are better now that is awful when we are sick in festival days.
I always buy chilli peppers to make salan but end up with bajjis! This one is very appetizing!
You got me really drooling here, wow! love this salan.
This is a best combination with Hyderabadi Dum Biryani…
I had this first with some biryani and I liked it so much that I licking the serving spoon when there no saln left in the bowl!
I love the combination of biriyani and mirch ka salan….It looks yummy dear
im in love with the colour of the mirch ka salan..i somehow couldnt manage to get such a rich colour when i made it. Maybe i’ll follow this recipe the next time 🙂
Salan looks yummy.
Hope you and son are doing better now! TC
Send you DH to my place for cooking this, it looks so so delicous.
Looks yummy.I have seen recipes for this is some cookery books but not yet tried it.Its perfect with plain steamed rice and also biryani and rotis.
Hope you are back on your feet.Here my daughter as well as myself were feverish bang on Diwali day and are still on the recovery road.Do take care
nice mirchi-ka-salan dear……….it’s looking delicious.
Hello,
Can I try this recipe with the canned banana peppers.. I mean the ones we get to eat with pizza and salads…
Please let me know..
Lisa, I had to check a bit before I gave you the right answer. I have never used the canned banan peppers, but I guess you can dry them first and then roast them. That should work. Good luck :_)
First time here…You have a nice blog with lots of delicious recipes. Superb clicks and presentation…
Gosh!That is one tempting dish, RC!Lovely!
I love mirch ka salan and yours looks perfect, RC. Hope you had a great Diwali!
Hope you are feeling better Supriya.
We eat this only in restaurants, never tried it at home. Now I have your recipe to make. It looks very elaborate & complicated:-)
Salan looks great!
Always wanted to taste Mirchi Ka Salan…but never made it…may be now…but I always thought it’ll be like reddish in colour….i guess b’coz of mirchi….
I love this curry,but i didn’t get recipe,thanks for sharing with us.looks perfect.
This is one of my favourite dishes!! at one point I used to make the gravy with even paneer or mushrooms! Your dish looks really inviting!
Awesome presentation…I’m sure it will taste just as yum. What grinder do you use to get such a smooth gravy?
Thanks
Thanks Levy for the warm comments. I use Preethi mixer grinder that I had got from india.But I am sure any blender will work.
Hi Supriya, I just made it and I like it so much. This is my first taste of salan. I omitted cinnamon and cloves because my mother in law doesn’t like it. Can’t wait to see her and my husband’s reaction. Will write that too after lunch.
They loved it too Supriya, especially my husband. We had it for dinner also. Thank you for posting this recipe.
Thank you so much Madhuram for trying and letting me know, glad you liked it and I really appreciate it. I will show this to my husband also as he had put so much effort in making this recipe.
That really looks delicious, I love this dish a lot 🙂
Mircci ka salan is a sweet and spicy food, and I love foods like this. It really makes me sweat and eat a lot. This also has healthy benefits because of the herbs and spices from the spice rack mixed in the recipe.
My daughter has told me she is planning to marry a Pakistani man next month, so I’ve been frantically searching the internet to learn about Pakistani culture . I love curry, so I figured the best place to start was Pakistani recipes, but it seems there is so much more to the food culture other than just curry. Well, I didnt know that. Thanks for the interesting read anyway, I’ll be sure to check out some of your other posts once all the wedding preparationis done!