Rajasthani Bharwa Hari Mirch /बेसन भरी हरी मिर्च (Stuffed Green Chilies)

Besan Stuffed Green Chilies

Besan (Black Gram Flour) Stuffed Green Chili

Big fat green chili serves varied purpose in Indian culinary. Make pakodas, cut and add to salad to give lovely flavor, Make pickle out of them with lemon and ginger or make stuffed vegetable. Each and every above said variation is mouthwatering. I love the vegetable made by stuffing it with besan. The chili stuffed with besan lasts in the fridge for 10-15 days also. As a side dish it is one of my favorite. I prefer making changes according to my taste, and this recipe is a fine example of it. In Rajasthan potatoes are not added and the chilies are much more than I prefer. So this is my version of Rajasthani Bharwa Mirch.

Preparation Time: 10 min.

Cooking Time: 40-50 min

Servings: 10-15 Chilies

Ingredients Required for making Stuffed Green Chili:

• 250 gm. Big fat Green chilies

• 150 gm. Besan (Gram flour)

• 3 Medium size Potatoes

• 1 Teaspoon Red chili Powder

• 1 Tea spoon Garam masala

• 100 gm. Onions (2 medium size onions)

• 4-5 Cloves of Garlic

• 2-3 cm. Piece of Ginger

• 1/2 Tea spoon Turmeric

• 1 Tea spoon Amchur (Dry raw mango powder)

• Salt to taste

• 25 ml. Cooking oil

Direction for making Stuffed Green Chili:

• Wash the chilies and towel dry them.

• Remove the stalk from the chili slit them lengthwise from one side keeping the other side intact.

• Carefully Remove the portion holding seeds and discard.

Green Chilies Cleaned and slit from one side De-seeded

• Peel and cut the onions very fine.

• Peel and cut garlic fine.

• Grate the ginger.

• Boil the potatoes.

• Peel and mash the potatoes to small pieces.

• Roast the besan in a thick bottom wok till it starts giving out nice smell and the color changed to very light brown.

Roasted Besan (Black gram flour)

• Heat 5 ml. oil in a thick bottom wok till smoking hot.

• Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds.

• When the seeds have spluttered then add finely cut onions and lower the flame.

• Add onions to the seasoning and cook on low flame till transparent (Approximately 4-5 min.).

Onion cooked to transparent state

• Add finely cut garlic and grated ginger and cook with continuous stirring till garlic gains brownish pink color.

• Add roasted besan and mix nicely.

• Cook for 2 min. only with continuous stirring.

Onion and roasted besan cooked for 2 min.

• Add boiled mashed potatoes and mix.

Boiled Mashed Potatoes added to the besan onion mixture

• Add

• Salt

• Red chili powder

• Turmeric powder

• Amchur powder (Dried raw mango powder)

• Garam masala

• Mix nicely so that the spices get mixed uniformly.

Spices added to roasted besan Potato mixture

• Sprinkle 20 ml. water and mix.

• Cover and switch off the gas.

• Let the filling cool in the wok. The flavor of spices will mix nicely in the filling and the filling will remain moist.

Filling ready for stuffing the Green chilies

• When the filling comes to room temperature, stuff each green chili with the filling. Keep pressing the filling while stuffing the chili.

• When all chilies are stuffed wrap each chili individually with thread so ensure the filling does not come out during cooking.

Green chilies stuffed with besan filling and wrapped with thread

• Take 15 ml oil in a thick bottom wok and heat it.

• When the oil is hot put stuffed chilies one by one in the oil.

• Lower the heat and give a gentle stir so that oil gets coated on all sides of all chilies.

Stuffed Green Chilies put in hot oil

• Cook on low flame for 2 min without covering and turn the chilies gently.

Oil coated on all chilies and being cooked on low flame

• Cook for 2 min. more without covering and then sprinkle 4-5 ml water and turn the chilies.

• Cover and cook for 5 min. with occasional turning of chilies.

• Turn the chilies, cover and cook for 10 min on low flame again.

• Remove the cover and cook with turning on high flame for just two min.

• Stuffed green chilies are ready to be served.

Spicy Stuffed Green Chilies waiting to be served

• Remove the thread wrapping before serving.
• If you do not want tyo go through the hassel of wrapping and unwrapping the thread from the Bharwa mirch then cook it on the Non-stick tawa (Non-stick iron plate) it will require just 1 ml. of oil and even the exposed side of mirch can be made crisp and brown.

Bharwa Mirch cooed on Tawa

• Enjoy besan stuffed green chilies in any meal with whatever you like it goes well with almost everything.

Besan Stuffed Green Chilies

Thread wrapping removed before serving

Tips:

• Make sure the chilies are slit from only one side the other side should be intact.

• Besan (Black gram flour) should be roasted on low flame to get the correct state of roasting, high lame roasting can cause burning of besan.

• Take care while turning the chilies else the stuffing may spill out.

• Do not sprinkle too much water. Water is sprinkled to maintain moisture in the stuffing.

Suggested Variations:

• If the chilies are very fat then instead of side slit they can be cut from the top and the seed can be removed from the top. Once the stuffing is done then the cap removed from the top can be gently inserted in the stuffed chilies. Wrapping with thread will not be required.

• Potatoes can be replaced with coarsely ground and soaked Nutrela (coarse powder of chunks of soya beans). If stuffing is prepared without potatoes then the chilies can last for a month also in the fridge without getting spoiled.

• Finely cut green chilies, coriander sprigs can be added to the stuffing.

• Capsicum can be taken instead of fat thick green chilies.

Kadai Pulav (Fried Rice With Vegetables)

Kadai Pulav with Salad and Coriander-Mint chutney

Rice with lots of vegetables in it makes a complete meal. Fried rice is one of the best methods to make children eat vegetables. For me till date it remains the best preparation of rice. It is absolutely easy to make and tasty with all sort of nutrients accumulated in a singal dish.Beans and Nutrela provide proteins,Carrots and cauliflower vitamin A.,Onion provides sulfur and vitamin C along with Potassium. Apart from these much needed dietary fibers and micro nutrients come from these vegetables.Rice provides the carbohydrates. Thus making this dish a complete food.

Preparation Time: 15 min.

Cooking Time: 15 – 20 min

Servings: 4 Large servings

Ingredients Required for Making Fried Rice:

• 250 gm. Rice

• 50 gm. French Beans

• 50 gm. Carrots

Carrots and beans cut thin pieces

• 4-5 florets of Cauliflower

• 1Onion (medium size)(optional)

• 2 cm. Piece of Ginger

• 10-15 Nutrela

• Salt to taste

• 1/2Tea spoon Red chili powder

• 1/2Tea spoon Garam masala

• 10 ml Ghee  / Olive oil or any cooking oil

• 2-3 Sprigs of Fresh Coriander leaves

• 1/2 Tea spoon Cumin seeds

• 1-2 Bay leaves

• 2-3 cloves

• 1 Green chili

Green chilies

Direction for Making Fried Rice:

• Wash the rice and soak it in water for 20-30 min.

• Soak nutrela in water for 1 hr.

Soaked Nutrela

• Boil the rice in a container or cooker till it gets cooked but does not become extremely soft and sticky.

• Cut ginger to small pieces.

• While the rice is cooking cut the Onions long and thin

• Cut Carrots, Beans Cauliflower florets long and thin.

Vegetables and Nutrela for fried rice

Cauliflower florets cut to long pieces

• Squeeze water from the soaked Nutrela, throw the water and keep soaked nutrela aside.

• Grate ginger.

• Slice green chili from middle length wise and remove the seeds.

• Remove the boiled rice and pass lots of water through it so as to remove all excess starch from cooked rice. This will avoid cooked rice grains from getting stuck to each other.

• Keep aside the cooked rice.

Boiled Rice

• Add cut onion a long and thin.

Long thin cut Onion

• Heat ghee / oil in a thick bottom wok and when the ghee is hot add 

• Cumin seeds

• Bay leaves and 

• Cloves and cook for 30 sec.

• Add grated ginger,onion and green chili.Cook on low flame till they become translucent.

Onions fried to translucent state

• Add soaked nutrela and cook for 2-3 min. with continuous stirring.

• Add cut vegetables and stir cook them for 3-4 min.

Nutrela and vegetables added to translucent onion

Vegetables and Nutrela cooked for 3 min. and ready for spices to be added

• The vegetables will change the color but will maintain the crunchy texture.

• Add 

• turmeric

• Garam masala,

• Red chili powder

• Salt and mix nicely.

Spices added to Vegetables

Spices mixed in vegetables and being cooked for 1 min.

• Add cooked rice (boiled rice) and mix nicely.

Rice added to vegetable and spices mixture

• Cook with continuous stirring for 1-2 min.

Rice mixed with spices and vegetabl

• Cover and cook for 2-3 min. with occasional stirring.

• Switch off the gas after 2-3 min. of cooking. Let the rice stand for 1-2 min. The spices flavor will soak nicely in the rice.

• Garnish with Coriander leaves.

Add caption

• Serve hot fried rice with salad, chutney and raita.

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/mango-pickle-north-indian-style.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/tangy-mango-pickle-maharashra-style.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/spicy-mixed-vegetable-pickle-less-oily.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/07/pahari-kheere-ka-raita-cucumber-and.html

Kadai Pulav with Salad and Chutney

Tips:

• If rice is being cooked in the cooker then once the pressure is built in the cooker cook for 2 min and switch off the gas.

• If rice is being cooked in open container then excess water can be taken and once rice is cooked the remainder water should be drained off.

• Saffola rice is low on starch and the rice grains do not stick to each other.

• If you wish to add cabbage in the fried rice then do not add onion, onion and cabbage do not go too well together.

• Left over rice from meals can be used for making fried rice.

Suggested Variations:

• If you do not like yellow color in fried rice then turmeric should be avoided.

• Cottage cheese, shredded chicken / mutton can be sauteed and added along with the vegetables.

• To add color and nutrition red, green, yellow bell pepper can be added along with other vegetables.

•  Fresh green peas can be added to the onions and cooked for 2-3 min. before rest of the vegetable s are added.

Green Peas

Vegetable Pulav (Rice cooked with vegetables)

Vegetable Pulav

Vegetable pulav is a complete food by itself. Rice when cooked with lots of vegetables makes it very attractive and colorful in appearance. It is a real fun in our family when pulav is being made as my husband loves making pulav for the family, and the minutest details right from the amount of vegetable to cutting them to appropriate size and so on, he looks himself where as I have a fields day and get to enjoy the vegetable pulav without doing any work.!!

Preparation Time: 20min.

Cooking Time: 30min.

Servings: Four large servings

Ingredients required for making Vegetable Pulav:

• 200gm. Rice
• 50gm. French Beans
• 50gm. Carrot
• 2 Medium size Potatoes. (optional)
• 50 – 75gm. Nutrela (soya nuggets, optional)
• 2 medium size Tomatoes
• 50-75gm. Onions
• 1/2 Tea spoon Turmeric Powder
• 3-4 Cloves.
• 1 black cardamom
• 2 Bay leaves
• 2-3cm. cinnamon stick
• 5gm. Garam Masala(1 tea spoon approx..)
• 50gm. Ginger- Garlic paste (2-3 tea spoon approx..)
• Salt to taste
• 25ml. Ghee / cooking oil
• Water

Directions to prepare Vegetable Pulav:

• Clean and wash rice
• Soak the washed rice in 250ml. water
• Soak Nutrela for 30min. in water

.

Soaked Nutrela

• Wash and dry all vegetables.
• Cut beans, carrots, into 3-4cm. long thin pieces.

Carrot and French beans cut for Pulav

• Cut onions to thin long pieces.

Onions cut length wise for Pulav

• Cut Tomatoes to pieces.

Tomatoes for pulav

• Take 10ml. Ghee/oil in a pressure cooker and heat it on high flame.
• When the ghee/oil is smoking hot reduce the flame.
• Squeeze water from soaked Nutrela and shallow fry them in oil/ghee.

Carrot, French beans and soaked squeezed nutrela

• Remove Nutrela when they become golden brown and keep aside.
• Add remaining 15ml. of ghee/oil and heat.
• Add bay leaves, cloves, black cardamom and cinnamon stick.
• Cloves will start spluttering and wonderful smell of spices will start coming.
• Add Onion and cook on low flame till they become transparent
• Add Ginger-garlic paste and cook for 2 min. with regular stirring.
• Add Potatoes and cook for 2-3 min. with regular stirring..
• Add beans, carrots and cook for 2-3min. with regular stirring.
• Add tomatoes and cook they become soft.
• Add shallow fried Nutrela and mix

.

All vegetables and soaked fried nutrela being cooked

• Drain the soaked rice and keep the water aside.
• Add rice to the cooker and mix with gentle stirring so as the rice, vegetable, spices mixture becomes homogeneous.

Soaked rice added to the vegetable mixture

• Add turmeric powder, salt, garam masala , red chili powder and mix.

Salt, Turmeric powder, Garam masala and Red chili powder added to rice and vegetables

Spices mixed to rice and vegetable mixture

• Add the water kept aside after draining the rice.

Water added to rice, vegetable and spices mixture

• Mix gently.
• Close the lid of cooker and put the flame on high.
• When the pressure is built in the cooker reduce the flame to low and cook for 5 min.
• Switch off the gas and allow the pressure in the cooker to subside.
• Open the cooker and get the first look and wonderful smell of vegetable pulav.

Vegetable Pulav

Take it out on a serving dish and serve with curd/raita, pickle

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/mango-pickle-north-indian-style.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/tangy-mango-pickle-maharashra-style.html

 http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/spicy-mixed-vegetable-pickle-less-oily.html
 / chutney  http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html, salad and roasted papad.
I love eating this pulav with Ghee and pickle.

Vegetable Pulav with Curd, Coriander chutney, Salad and Papad

Tips:-

• Those who do not take onions, garlic can omit it and instead replace onions, garlic with cumin seeds.
• The rice used in the above recipe is Dulhan basmati rice, the requirement of water may vary little with different variety of rice.
• While washing basmati rice wash them in a sieve with running water.
• Do not rub rice with hands as the flavor goes off with vigorous washing.
• If you like spicy food then you can add red chili powder to you taste.
• Do not release he pressure from cooker after switching off the gas let it subside by itself, the flavor of spices will get seeped in rice nicely.

Suggested Variations:

• Cauliflower, Broccoli,Cottage cheese can be also be put in pulav.
• Fresh Peas added to the pulav gives it a very good flavor and color.
• Badi can be fried and added instead of nutrela.

Fried Badi

• Pulav tastes best with basmati rice, but you can choose rice as per your choice.
• For those who for any reason like less oil, can reduce the amount of ghee/oil as per the requirement.