Mirchi ka Salan Hyderabad style is a spicy curry made with long green chillies, peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut and tamarind.
Salan is an Urdu word that means curry or gravy while Mirchi is nothing but chillies. The preparation is of Hyderabad origin and is served alongside biryani. This can be paired along with plain rice or Indian flat breads like rotis or parathas as well.
The tangy gravy is quite delectable. One could either use tamarind or curd for the sourness.
Mirchi ka Salan is one of the famous Hyderabadi preparations that makes an appearance at weddings and other celebrations. The chillies used here are not so spicy, but you could deseed them if you want.
The gravy calls for regular ingredients found easily in our kitchen pantry, but the preparation is a bit time-consuming. To begin with you need to pan roast the sesame, coconut and spices etc and grind into a paste, before you cook the gravy. The gravy has to cook well patiently, till the oil surfaces, after which the deseeded chillies are added along with tamarind pulp.
My experience with Andhra Pradesh food is quite memorable. Let me start by stating that I do love spicy food. That being said, the experience I am about to narrate, will make me look like a spice fearing person.
We had a stop-over at Mysore while travelling on a family holiday to Coorg (a hill-station in South India). After witnessing the grandeur of the Mysore Palace, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant nearby to it. The place was buzzing and we were a bit short on time for our onward journey to the hill-station, so placed an order for a Biryani (Andhra style) to make it a quick lunch.
And lo and behold the spices made me so heady that I couldn’t stop gulping water after each morsel. My tongue was on fire. I thought I am seeing stars in broad daylight.
Ofcourse, the biryani was really tasty, but the spice quotient was so high and very different compared to what I had ever tasted before. Those days I used to not delve deep into any recipe to see what type of chillies they used in Andhra cuisine. But now I know. No wonder they call it the Mexico of India.
So which is the chilli that is largely responsible for the oh-so spicy Andhra food ? It is none other than the Guntur chilli. It really packs a punch ! Up until that day I was of the opinion that the Kolhapur variety of gravies and the Goan vindaloo curries are spicy.
But I must admit that even today I have a burning desire to try the same biryani once again – it tasted really good.
Guntur Chilli : It is named after the Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh where it is grown.
Let’s move on to the recipe of Mirchi ka salan which thankfully is quite moderately spiced. I recommend try making this when you have a vegetarian spread, it makes a beautiful side-dish.
Mirchi ka Salan Hyderabad style
Ingredients :
- 10 to 12 Indian Bhavnagari chillies (light green in colour and they are less spicy)
- 1 tbsp tamarind dissolved in ⅓ cup hot water
- 5 to 2 cups water
- ½ tsp mustard
- ½ tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 8 to 10 curry leaves
- 3 to 4 tbsp oil
- salt as required
For the ground masala
- ¼ cup dessicated coconut
- 5 tbsp sesame seeds, roasted
- 1 medium size onion, sliced
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves
- ½ inch ginger
- ½ tsp red chili powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp garam masala powder
- ½ cup of water for grinding or add as required
Method :
Prepare the ground masala :
- In a pan lightly brown the onions
- Add the dessicated coconut and brown it.
- Later sesame seeds to this mixture and roast for 1-2 minutes. (2 tbsp of peanuts can be added)
- Make a smooth paste of the above with garlic, ginger, all the spice powders adding little water.
To prepare the salan :
- Next remove the chilli crowns or you can also keep them intact.
- Rinse and wipe dry the green chilies.
- Slit the chilies vertically and deseed them
- In a pan add oil and fry the mustard seeds till they pop.
- Then add nigella seeds and cumin seeds.
- Add curry leaves and fry for a minute.
- Add the ground masala paste. fry for 3-4 minutes or more till you can see oil floating on the top and sides of the masala.
- Now add tamarind pulp
- Later add 2 cups water and keep to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the slit green chillies plus salt and simmer for 5 to 6 minutes more.
- Garnish with coriander leaves.
- Serve mirchi ka salan hot with veg biryani or even plain steamed rice.
Using freshly roasted ingredients is a MUST makes all the difference. Keep the spice quotient low, since this dish is paired with biryanis which already have a lot of flavour.
Note :
1. I have avoided using peanuts in this recipe. If you wish, you can pan roast 2 tbsp peanuts and grind into the masala paste. (Traditionally peanuts are used in this recipe)
2. If you want a roasted flavour in the chillies you can brown the chillies on a pan with 2 drops of oil before placing them in the gravy to cook.
