STUFFED MIRCHI

My grandma – we lovingly call her Nani, is the BEST cook in the world! She probably is the one who most inspired my love for cooking. She can take the most simplest of dishes and transform it into the most irresistible recipe anyone’s ever eaten. She taught me that if you don’t have an ingredient in a recipe, substitute it with something you have and it will turn out just as good if not better! The most mundane dishes like dal, brinjal curry, and cauliflower curry were made into tasty meals by Nani. Nothing, NOTHING ever goes waste in her kitchen.

One of my most favorite dishes by Nani is the Muvvankayi or stuffed brinjals Andhra style. But she made even this famous recipe her own by changing the recipe for the stuffing. A few years ago I decided to tweak her brinjal recipe to make my version of ‘Stuffed Mirchi’ with large sweet peppers. It is a big hit with my friends to this day! I have decided to share my ‘secret’ recipe with you today.

Ingredients:

6 large sweet peppers, cut in half and deseeded

2 large onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch ginger, minced

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

Pinch of turmeric

Salt to taste

2 tbsp oil

Other than the peppers and oil, mix all the other ingredients.

Stuff the peppers with this mixture.

Heat oil in a pan on medium heat and place the stuffed peppers in a single layer. Let cook of 4 minutes and gently turn occasionally till browned on all sides. Cook on medium low heat as the peppers tend to cook faster than the filling. Once the stuffing is cooked,18 minutes or so.

Remove from fire and serve hot with rotis or rice. Hope you enjoy this dish as much as my friends do.

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Everything on the cake but the fairy and candle were hand made and looking back at my very first major venture, I must say - Not bad eh???

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