Friday, January 26, 2007

Besan Capsicum


My mother has made this recipe at home for as long as I can remember - and we have always called it "Marathi Capsicum". Maybe she learned it from one of her Maharashtrian friends, but I have a lot of Maharashtrian friends and have never had this at any of their homes. No matter where it originates from (for sure this is not a traditional Bengali recipe), it tastes delicious and is really simple to make. Goes well with Rotis or Daal-Rice.

Ingredients:
2 large Bell Peppers (capsicum)
About 3/4 cup gram flour (besan)
red chilly powder to taste
1 tsp nigella seeds
Salt and Oil as needed.
pinch of turmeric (optional)

Method:
Cut the pepper into small pieces (too large pieces will lead to the gram flour getting burnt before the peppers are fully cooked.
Mix in the gram flour with the peppers. They should be partially coated as shown in the picture.


Heat oil and add the nigella seeds.
After a few minutes add the pepper and gram flour mixture and stir. Allow it to cook and stir a couple of times in between. It should be ready in about 10 minutes. Remove from heat as soon as the peppers are fully cooked.

Variation: I use the Gits "Pakora" Mix when I am out of gram flour. I liked this version a lot since the mix is basically gram flour with some other spices mixed in it.

Labels:

7 Comments:

Blogger Bong Mom said...

That's new to me, never tried besan with capsicum before, what other veggies can we use ?
Looks good and a nice green too

January 26, 2007 at 7:53 PM  
Blogger FH said...

Looks great!I have one recipe too.Gits tip is wonderful.I will try that next.Thanks SJ.

January 27, 2007 at 6:34 AM  
Blogger SJ said...

Hi Sandeepa,
You could probably use any other vegetable that will cook in the same time the besan gets done. I have always used capsicum myself. Turns out tasty.

Hi Asha,
I end up using the Gits mix quite often as I always keep one packet at hand (as opposed to buying a huge packet of besan which I;ll take forever to finish).

January 29, 2007 at 2:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am a big besan fan and capsicum too....gonna try this tonite....thanjs for sharing...

February 6, 2007 at 5:52 AM  
Blogger KF said...

hai nice curry and new to me ,What is nigalla seeds?Nice picture.I will try this .Thanks for sharing.

March 13, 2007 at 6:59 PM  
Blogger SJ said...

Hi Dilip, let me know how it turns out.

Hi Kitchenfairy, nigella seeds are also sold as "kalonji" in most Indian stores.

March 15, 2007 at 10:20 PM  
Anonymous poonam said...

Hi, I am a Maharshtrian & we make this sabji very often, so it is a marathi dish. The only difference is we put the roasted besan after cooking capsicum and keep it on flame just for few seconds.

September 7, 2009 at 4:22 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home