TY & Quick Food Fix: Besan Mirchi

Thank you for the wonderful emails, yes all is well. Just a lot of things on my plate and sadly blogging is suffering. However I am continuing to write on: Mommy-In-Making, so feel free to stop by there.

Meanwhile... I leave you guys for a week with the unbeatable: "Besan Simla Mirchi" recipe from my MIL. When they were visiting, my MIL made it for us and I loved it and loved how simple it was, so I tried to make it and it turned out really bad! Then I made it twice a week for 4 months until finally my FIL was like- “Now it’s more like your moms! Good! “
I still make it pretty often! Sumit does our grocery shopping and he has stopped buying bell peppers (Capsicum) lest I make it again! Hehe

But it’s heavenly and totally follows my rules of a Quick Food Fix:

Things needed:
Bell Peppers/ Capsicum (Any color- I generally make it with green) - 2: Chopped in cubes
Besan/ Gram Flour - 3 spoons (1 bell pepper to 1.5 spoon ratio), you can add more if you like the besan aroma's like I do!
Saunf - 2 tsp (I add three since I love saunf flavor in food!)
Spices: Per Taste: Salt, Red Chilli Powder, Dhaniya Powder, Amchur, Turmeric (Garam Masala/ hing if you like- I skip it all the time)

Process:
1. Heat oil in a pan
2. When hot, add Saunf until lightly golden. This takes less than a minute.
3. Add chopped bell peppers, toss/ sauté for 1 minutes.
4. Add all spices except amchur and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes till the bell peppers are slightly tender.
5. Now add besan
6. Stir vehemently to avoid besan lumping Golden rule, the bell peppers must look coated with besan, if you think besan is less, add a little more)
7. Continue stirring for 5 minutes until besan turns into a pretty mustards color or the aroma of cooked besan fills the room or both.
8. Add amchur and now close the pan for another minute.

The main thing is keep an eye on the besan- it should not stick to the pan or burn! This is where I used to go wrong all the time, either the besan turned out under cooked or over cooked or bell peppers were gooey soft or too hard. Trust me, practice makes this dish perfect. Now I can make it with my eyes closed.... of course it’s not even close to my MIL's flavor... I honestly feel my FIL told me it tastes nice to not have it yet again!
To his defense, on there return, the first thing he wanted to have was: My hand's besan mirchi! My MIL feels happy that I carry the tradition forward!

I am a sucker for all filminess! Hehe

Note: Yes, you can replace the Bell Peppers with any kind of Mirchi- but just make sure you can handle the spice of the other types.

Note 2: This picture is from one of my 'good attempts'! And Was served at a party and am happy to say there were no left overs!