ALOO STUFFED MIRCHI BAJJI

Mirchi bajji means green chilies stuffed with some spices and dipped in the chickpea flour and deep fried in hot oil.These mirchi bajji s are very famous in India as a tea time snack but every one makes it with a little different stuffing Amma (my mom) use to make it with ajwain(vamu) and fried chickpea(veyinchina sengapapu, porikadali) and little salt she use to grind all these ingredients in to a fine powder and stuff it in to the slit green chilies. After deep frying again she use to slit the bajji and again stuff with chopped onion with little lemon juice. But my MIL use to makes this in almost the same way but she use to mix the filling with very thin tamarind juice my MIL wont add onion to this, she use to say if you add onion then you don’t find the real taste of mirchi any way that is her opinion. And one more person who makes the mirchi bajji very delicious that is a tiffen center fellow near my house in vijayawada. He is a MSC degree holder, he didn’t find the job then he started tiffen center morning he makes idlis and dosas and in the evening from 4 o clock he starts making mirchi bajjis and punugulu believe me those mirchi bajjis and punugulu taste just perfect but after 6oclock you don’t get any thing all of them will be finished by that time.

And coming to this aloo stuffed mirchi bajji I learnt this from a Chat Bandar fellow in Jaipur. Last year when I went to Jaipur for tour one evening I went for shopping, I finished shopping and when I coming back I saw this Chat Bandar fellow who is making mirchi bajji with stuffing of aloo . First I was surprised he is stuffing aloo in mirchi bajjis and he is making them very super fast means he is frying 50 or more bajjis at a time. So I was very impressed with how he is making bajjis and also so very tempted with the aroma of mirchi bajjis .so I went to there and ask that fellow can you tell me the recipe first he didn’t agree to give me the recipe. But I am not going to leave this person with out knowing the recipe. I gave him a100 rs and told him that I am not from Jaipur, I am from Andhra so his business wont effect and I liked this bajjis very much and I wanted to make them at home After this he gave me this recipe. Thanks a lot to that Chat Bandar owner for this delicious snack. And here I go with the recipe………….

INGREDIENTS:-----
Green chillies --- 10 no. ( you can use any bajji chilies like banana peppers or any long variety green chilies)
FOR STUFFING:----
Potatoes ---- 2 big
Green chillies – 3 finely chopped
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder – 1/2 tea sp
Coriander leaves --- 1/2 cup finely chopped
Dry mango powder (amchoor) ---1/2 tea sp
Onion --- 1 medium finely chopped
FOR BATTER:---
Besan (chick pea flour, sengapindi)
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder --- 1/2 tea sp
Baking powder – 1 pinch
Water for making batter
METHOD:-----
1. Slit the green chilli its entire length and remove seeds and leave a side.
2. Boil potato and peel and mash well and mix all other stuffing ingredients and mix well and divide in to 10 small parts and stuff this aloo mixture in to chilies
3. Now mix chick pea flour, salt to taste , red chili powder, and baking powder then add water and make a batter like fitters batter or thick dosa batter
4. Now heat oil for deep frying in a deep frying pan to check the oil heat drop a small drop of batter in to the oil and see if the batter comes up immediately the oil is ready for frying.
5. Now dip the stuffed chilies in this batter and slowly drop them in to hot oil and fry till nice golden color.

6. Remove from the oil and set a side for few min. s and again cut them in to 2 inch pieces and fry this bajji pieces in hot oil in a low flame till crisp remove from the oil and sprinkle some lemon juice on them and serve with slice onion
7. Serve with green chutney or imli chutney .
8. If you want to serve this mirchi bajji after a long time then after removing them from the oil keep them a side and again fri one more time in hot oil till crisp and golden color just before you serve.
This MIRCHI BAJJI S are going to participate in JFI - CHILLI event at Cardamom - The Queen of spices and event by Indira of Mahanandi.