Mirchi ka salan

I was looking for a low key accompaniment for biryani and came across this recipe.  We always end up making cucumber raita for any kind of pulao/veg rice/biryani.  The combo is yummy and refreshing for sure, but in the way that a seasoned tongue demands more I was on the lookout for a wholesome accompaniment for rice dishes.  This fits the bill.  Apparently salan can be done from other vegetables as well (such as tomato/brinjal?) but this version is simply awesome. 


I got the recipe from this page http://www.cookingandme.com/ and of course tinkered with it a little bit.  The recipe can be found on this link: (http://www.cookingandme.com/2013/07/mirchi-ka-salan-mirchi-ka-salan-recipe.html)  The recipe here was very well presented and neat/concise instructions literally made it a cakewalk.

I used jalapenos instead of the type of mirchi recommended in this page, firstly because we love the toasted jalapenos, secondly because I only had the small green chillies with me and I am sure that would be way too spicy for us.

I omitted the jeera powder simply because I did not have it in my pantry.  Here's what I did.

I washed 5 jalapenos, wiped them dry with a paper towel, split them in half and roasted them with a tsp. of cooking oil on a tawa till they were uniform.  I could have taken out the seeds but let them be - this way the spice level was individualized - if you liked spicy you could bite into it.

On a dry pan I roasted 3 tbsp. freshly grated coconut, followed by 1 tbsp. of sesame seeds and 3 tbsp. of peeled peanuts.  This mixture toasts very easily and I had to constantly turn it around with a spoon so that they were uniformly brown.  When this cooled down I ground it into a fine paste and kept aside.

In the same pan I roasted jalapenos, I added 1 tbsp. cooking oil, added mustard and fenugreek; when mustard sputtered I added finely chopped onion (1 big onion) and curry leaves.  I added salt, turmeric, 1 tsp. of red chilly powder, 1 tbsp of coriander-chilly powder.  When onion was brown added 2 cups of water and let it simmer.  There was a nice aroma from the fenugreek seeds.  The recipe called for tamarind extract.  I have fresh tamarind, and since I had not soaked the tamarind ahead, I added an inch or so of fresh tamarind when this mixture was simmering.  We are not great fans of sweet/sour combination hence did not add the tsp. of sugar which the recipe calls for.

In a few minutes I added the ground paste and let it thicken till the desired consistency.  I added the jalapenos and let it simmer just for a minute or two.  We let it rest for about an hour. 

Since this was a super hit in my home, I "expanded" this recipe the next day by cutting the jalapenos into three or four pieces and pretty much did everything else afresh, the paste and the onions/masala etc.

The beauty of this recipe is its flexibility - your preference matters whether its the spice level or the consistency of the gravy(based on the coconut-sesame-peanut paste).  This was a reasonably simple and fun preparation.