Hyderabadi Mirchi Ka Salan

Hyderabadi Mirchi ka Salan:-

Mirchi ka salan (Urdu: مرچی کا سالن‎), or curried chili peppers, is a popular chili and peanut curry of Hyderabad, Telangana. It accompaniesHyderabadi biryani. The dish contains green chillies, peanuts, till seeds, dry coconut, cumin seeds, ginger and garlic paste, turmeric powder,bay leaf and thick tamarind juice.

Mirchi ka Salan is a traditional Hyderabadi dish prepared in weddings and special occasions. It is a spicy dish served with rice or chapati. The mirchi (chili) is cooked in spices, and peanut adds a grainy texture to this dish. Originally this is made with long spicy chilies available in India.

For most Hyderabadis, mirchi ka salan is the perfect accompaniment to biryani. Nothing more. But for many people who savour this spicy, tangy and mellow dish, it appears like a dish that can stand on its own. However, not many know that this spicy chilli curry was once upon a time eaten with rice or chapati. Yes, the Nawabs of Hyderabad relished it that way. 

A Dish By Itslef:

For the Shah Alam Khan family, the preparation of mirchi ka salan is considered to be an art and like biryani, this dish is also lavished as much attention in cooking. Nawab Shah Alam Khan, connoisseur and the final word on Hyderabadi gourmet cuisine, shares his tale about this spicy Hyderabadi dish. "I belong to an old order, a jagirdar family and have moved with lot of jagirdars. I don't remember ever having biryani with any kind of curry or mirchi ka salan. Biryani itself is a meal with flavours of spices and should be eaten separately. Similarly, mirchi ka salan is also a dish in itself which has been there for centuries and the nawabs used to have it with chapatis or plain rice," he reveals and adds, "In our time, we had only one way of making mirchi ka salan, the brownish one, which is still made in our houses. It has fried onions with well pounded chironji and almonds. Then the paste of ginger, garlic and garam masala is added along with tamarind with long fat mirchis. It's simple, yet tasty. Then, gradually another recipe was discovered, the whitish one which did not have tamarind but kharna, a bigger citrus fruit which is rarely found these days.

"However, in both the recipes, there shouldn't be too many chillies, they spoil the taste. Moreover, I feel, over a period of time, people have developed a taste and mirchi ka salan has become a part of biryani now and everybody has started making it differently," says Shah Alam Khan.

Well, this nawabi family has a huge list of recipes to share, which many would love to rustle up. "We also make a dish called muchumbar, it's a better version of mirchi ka salan and nobody knows about it except our family. The ingredients are almost the same, but the procedure of making it is different and it contains more onions. It's tastier than our regular mirchi ka salan," he reveals.

Ingredients:

• 8 Anaheim pepper or use the pepper which are mild
• 1/4 cup coconut powder
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• Approx. 3 tablespoon raw peanuts
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1-1/2 tablespoon besan (Bengal gram flour)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)
• 1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds/kalanji
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
• 2 teaspoons ginger finely grated
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder/adjust to taste
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon garam masala
• About 3 cups of water

Method

1. Wash and wipe dry the peppers; slit the peppers vertically.
2. Grind the peanuts, sesame seeds, and coconut to make powder, set aside.
3. Mix tamarind paste, ginger, turmeric, and red chili powder with 1/4 cup of water. Set aside.
4. Use the flat frying pan, heat the oil on medium heat, and stir-fry the peppers till light brown all around. Take them out over paper towel.
5. Use the same pan as pan will have oil remaining, oil should be moderately hot. Add cumin seeds and mustard seeds as seeds crack add besan and nigella seeds stir fry for about one minute. Add the peanut powder and stir fry for about two minutes mix will be golden brown.
6. Add the spice paste and cook for 2-3 minutes stirring. Spice mix will start to leave the oil, add salt, sugar, 3 cups of water, and bring the gravy to boil.
7. Lower the heat to medium low and let it simmer for about 6-8 minutes.
8. Add the stir fried peppers and cover with gravy. Sprinkle the garam Masala, cover the pan and let it cook for another 3-4 minutes.
9. The gravy thickens as it cooks.
10. Mirchi ka Salam is ready. Serve hot over the plain rice or with briyani.

Enjoy!