This story has the fixings of the same old plot with the same old twist, except that this involves rich, deep, vibrant colors in the background. So, during the weekend when we went to do the usual grocery, I was smitten by a pack of mini peppers sitting coyly in the corner. I stood there looking at the tiny vegetable, gazing at their even, vibrant colors admiring them as though they were flowers.The bigger ones have usually caught my eye, but not the smaller ones and I have wondered ever since how I happened to missed them before. 

Anyway the first thing that came to my mind after bringing them home was to make “Stuffed Pepeprs”. My MIL makes an awesome paste “masolu” for stuffed Brinjal/Eggplant. It is a hit when she makes it here and decided to make that coconut stuffing for these beautiful Mini Peppers.

Ingredients  

• 10 -15 small mini peppers
• 1 medium onion
• ¾ cup shredded coconut
• Juice of lemon sized tamarind
• Little jaggery for taste
• Coriander leaves
• Salt, oil

Ingredients to dry roast 

• 1 Tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp urad daal
• 1 tsp chana daal
• ½ tsp methi seeds
• ½ tsp sesame seeds
• 3-4 red chillies

Preparation:

• Wash all the peppers thoroughly and keep aside.
• Dice the onion into small pieces.
• Dry roast all the ingredients one by one and keep them aside to cool.
• Grind the coconut along with red chillies, salt, tamarind juice and water.
• v      Half way through add the roasted ingredients and grind it to a smooth paste. Add water as required. The paste should be a bit thick and not runny.
• v      Take the peppers one by one and slit it length wise on one of it’s side. Make sure to retain the pepper in one piece.
• v     Take a spoonful of paste and put this slowly into the opening of the pepper where a slit was made.  Make sure not to tear the slit more. Repeat this for all the remaining peppers.

Method:

• Heat oil in a thick bottom pan; add the diced onions and sauté until transparent.

• Remove the onions and keep aside. Reduce the heat to medium, add some more oil and start placing the peppers one by one in the pan.

• Cover a lid and let them cook for a while. After a while check if the peppers are browning on the bottom. If so then change the direction, so that the brown part is at the top. Add more oil if required and cover the lid.

• Check to see if the other side is done as well. Then add the cooked onions and the remaining masala paste and continue to cook.

• Once the masala is cooked, steam in little bit oil. Mix and garnish with coriander leaves.

This can be served as a wonderful accompaniment with rice or rotis.

NOTE:  These are actually sweet peppers and not hot at all. They impart more sweetness after the peppers are cooked. The ones that are hot are smaller in size, once the size of the pepper starts increasing they are not hot at all.