Author Notes
Served with a mint chutney, these fritters have the perfect balance of textures and flavors: the spicy pepper against the cool mint yogurt, crispy and soft at the same time. It makes for an excellent tea time snack with a cup of hot chai.
Tips:
- If you'd like to make it less spicy, gently slit open the peppers and take out the seeds. Soak in cold water for a few minutes and then pat dry.
- To check if your oil is hot enough, drop a little batter in. If it puffs up, you're ready to start frying.
- If you'd like to "fancy it up," consider stuffing the peppers with either paneer or ricotta. —Aysha | The Malabar Tea Room
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Ingredients
- For the bajji (fritters):
-
7
jalapeños (roughly 250 grams)
-
1 cup
gram flour
-
1/4 cup
corn flour
-
1/4 teaspoon
baking soda
-
1/4 teaspoon
cayenne pepper
-
1/3 cup
water, plus more if needed
-
4 cups
vegetable oil
-
Salt, to taste
- For the mint chutney:
-
1 cup
mint leaves
-
2
cloves garlic
-
2
green chile
-
4 tablespoons
yogurt
-
1 splash
lime juice
-
Salt, to taste
Directions
-
To make the bajjis, remove the stalks from the jalapeños, drain the liquid out of them, and rinse in cold water. Set aside.
-
In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients, except for salt.
-
Pour water into the dry ingredients, and stir. The batter needs to be thick, with no lumps. Add more water if needed.
-
Heat the oil in a deep-bottomed pan over medium heat.
-
Once hot, carefully take 2 teaspoons of the oil from the pan and mix into the batter until well-combined.
-
Dip each jalapeño into the batter, until well-coated, then slowly lower into the pan with oil.
-
Using this method, deep-fry each pepper until golden. Transfer onto a paper towel.
-
To make the chutney, grind the mint leaves, garlic and chiles to a fine paste. Stir in the yogurt, lime juice, and salt.
-
Serve the fried peppers with the chutney.
An Indian food-writer with a penchant for cookbooks with obscure ingredients, Aysha spends most of her time adapting recipes from the world over in her small-town south-Indian kitchen with her mother, and recording the successful experiments at www.malabartearoom.com. When not tinkering about in the kitchen, she can be found reading up on possible Game of Thrones theories that will bring back Jon Snow.
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