Dried curd chillies/ Sukhi dahi Mirchi

Known by different names across regions (e.g. Majjiga Mirapa, Challa Mirapakayalu etc.), these dried green chillies are very famous in South India. As is obvious from the name, curd and chillies are the main ingredients for making these chillies.

 

 

The entire process will take around a week’s time and is best carried out during hot summers to help effective drying of chillies. Though the process is a bit lengthy, I am sure you will enjoy making of these chillies as much as the final product!

 

In our family, we like to have it as an accompaniment with khichdi, dal-chawal, and curd-rice. Since chillies are soaked in buttermilk during preparation, their pungency mostly goes away. These　chillies add a nice mix of sour, salty and mildly pungent flavor to the whole meal :).  Even my seven year daughter enjoys having 4-5 chillies at a time with khichdi!

 

 

Ingredients:

In the making process
 

Green Chillies ----------------------------------- 1 kg

Cumin seeds (Jeera) ---------------------------- 1/2 cup

Asafoetida (Hing) ------------------------------- 1 tbsp
Sour Curd ---------------------------------------- 1 litre Churned

Salt ------------------------------------------------ 3 tbsp


At time of cooking

Oil/ Ghee ----------------------------------------- 2 tbsp


Wash the chillies and dry them. Stem should be intact.

Take a chilli and make a slit on one side as shown in the picture below. Repeat the process for all the chillies. Huh...little tiring.

 

 

Grind jeera.

 

 

Add Hing and salt in it. Grind to mix all.

 

The curd should be sour...a real sour curd like 3-4 days old curd. Take the churned curd and mix enough water for a butter milk consistency.

Pour the butter milk into a plastic container with a tight lid. Add ground spices into it.

 

Mix Well and add chillies. Press the chillies so that they are well soaked in the butter milk. When you press them they will come up, but will be coated by the buttermilk.

 

 

 

Put the lid and leave this for 2 days on room temperature. Mix the chillies 2-3 times a day so that the chillies which are on surface go down into the buttermilk to soak it. You will notice that gradually the colour of chillies is getting lighter.

 

After 2 days; i.e. the 3rd day morning, take out all the chillies from the buttermilk. Keep them in a colander to stain all the buttermilk. Keep all the buttermilk safe in the container. Dry the chillies in the sun for the whole day. In the evening, put dried chillies in the buttermilk again. Mix well and put the lid.

 

Repeat the process for another 2 days. In this process you will see that the colour of the soaked chillies have changed from green to white. If not, then the same process should be repeated for another 1-2 days.

 

Now dry the chillies and store in an air tight container.

 

 

 

Cooking:

 

Heat oil in a pan. Add 4-5 chillies at a time to fry. Enjoy the yummy chillies.

 

 

 

 

 

Some Ideas:

 

1. Always start with small lots of chillies like 250 gms or even smaller. Rest of the ingredients can be taken in proportion of it.

3.When malai/ cream is churned to get butter, the residual liquid / matha (traditional buttermilk) can be used in this recipe.

 

 

Shahi Paneer

Shahi paneer is a very famous delicacy from North India. This is a very rich dish of paneer with cream and cashews. So, normally its a special occassion dish. 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

Paneer ----------------------------------- 250 gms

Onion ------------------------------------ 2 medium chopped

Tomato ---------------------------------- 3 medium chopped

Cream / Malai -------------------------- 2 tbsp

Elaichi /Green Cardamom------------ 1 powdered

Cashew ---------------------------------- 8-10

Ginger ----------------------------------- 1" grated

Garam masala -------------------------- 1/2 tsp

Green Chillies -------------------------- 2

Bay Leaf -------------------------------- 1

Ghee / Oil ------------------------------- 1 1/2 tbsp

Take a pan. Add ghee and heat. Add Onions and saute for a minute. Onion should not turn brown.  Then add cashews and saute for 2 minutes or until cashews turn light brown. Add Tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are pulpy. Now cool the mixture and grind into a fine paste. If required add water.

Heat this ground mixture in the same pan. Add a bay leaf and boil it.

 

 

Cook for 2 minutes on low flame. Add Cream and mix well. Then add paneer and elaichi powder. Cook for 2 more minutes. Add garam masala and mix. Serve hot with Chapati, Paratha, Naan or Jeera Rice.

 

 

 

 

 Some ideas:

1. To make it less creamy/ heavy you can reduce the amount of cream and cashew.