Chilli Bhajji

Volume

5-6 people.

Ingredients

- 20 elephant trunk peppers (medium size) (big chilli peppers)
- 4 potatos
- 3 onions
- 8 green chillis
- 1 davara corriander
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 3 tsp salt
- 2 tsp red chilli powder
- 2 tbsp oil
- 4 davara of bhajji bonda batter / pakoda batter (MTR)
  - 2 davara besan
  - 0.5 davara maida (all purpose flour)
  - 0.5 davara rice flour
  - 4 tsp salt + red chilli powder
  - 1 tsp baking powder
  - 6 tbsp curd
  - Water
- 0.75L refined oil (sauce pan half full)

Other Requirements

- Few sauce pans (wide top)
- Masher
- Perforated ladel

Steps to Prepare

1. Prepare the Stuffing

  1. Peel and cut the potatos into small cubes. This will help boil them better and faster.

  2. Boil the potatos in enough wtaer to cover them. Add 0.5 tsp turmeric and 1.5 tsp salt while boiling. Once soft enough to easily cut and mash with a spoon, they are ready and done.
  3. Cut the onions, chillis and corriander. Cook the onions, chillis and corriander in 2 tbsp oil, 0.5 tsp turmeric, 1.5 tsp salt and 2 tsp red chilli powder. Once the raw look is gone and the veggies are thoroughly cooked, they are ready.

  4. Drain the potatos. And mash them using a masher.

  5. Add the veggies together, mash and mix into a single paste like masala. Add some red chilli powder (if necessary), and salt to taste, to give it the required spicy flavour. Heat the masala while mashing, and add some water if need be, to ensure that it mixes well and isn't chunky.

2. Prepare the Batter

  1. If MTR bhajji bonda (pakoda) batter mix is available, mix the batter powder with water in a 2:1 (powder:water) ratio to make 4 davaras of batter. 2 tsp of red chilli powder can be added to this batter mix as well to make it spicier.

  2. If not available, take 2 davara of besan, 0.5 davaras of maida and 0.5 davaras of rice flour and mix.
  3. Keep incrementally adding water to this powder mix to convert it into a thick paste. The paste should remain thick, but just flowy enough that it will fall off a spoon when picked up.
  4. Add also 6 tbsp of curd and 1 tsp of baking powder. The curd and baking soda help fluff up the final bhajji, whereas rice flour ensures that it comes out crisply.
  5. Add also 2 tsp each of salt and red chilli powder, so that the outer covering is also crisp.

3. Prepare the Bhajji

  1. Cut each elephant trunk pepper into 2 pieces, along its vertical axis. Remove the pulp to create space for the stffing. Leave the seeds in place if possible.

  2. Stuff each pepper half with the stuffing. Make sure it's not so full that the stuffing will fall out while deep frying.

  3. Fill a large sauce pan with 0.75L of refined oil. The sauce pan should be about half full, and have a wide top.
  4. Roll a bhajji around in the batter and make sure that it's fully covered in the batter, with a thin, but complete coat. Here it is useful to use a spoon to cover the side which has the filling and is open. This will ensure that the stuffing doesn't fall into the batter. Then the side which is closed (chilli) can be dipped into the batter to cover sufficiently.

  5. Once the oil is hot, and ready, we begin adding bhajjis. To test, add a drop of bhajji batter to the oil. If it sizzles and fluffs out into a crisp covering immeditely, only the is the oil hot enough. From the side of the sauce pan, carefully place a coated bhajji into the hot oil (avoid splashing).

  6. Allow it to deep fry until golden brown. Use the ladel to turnit around a little bit, so that all sides get equally fired, without burning.

  7. When well done, use the perforated ladel to lift the bhajji out and place it on a plate covered with tissue paper, to soak up the excess oil.

  8. Through the process, the heat level of the flame might have to eb reduced, to ensure that the oil doesn't get too hot and splutter.

Serve bhajji with some combination of spicy green chutney / schezwan sauce, maggi hot and sweet sauce and spicy tom-mayo dipping sauce.