Mirchi Ka Salan

Ingredients

• 250 g long mild green chillies, such as bhavnagari or banana peppers
• 45 g raw peanuts
• 20 g white sesame seeds
• 25 g dried or desiccated coconut
• 1 onion, sliced
• 10 g ginger
• 12 garlic cloves
• 25 g tamarind
• 6 tbsp oil
• 3/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp nigella seeds
• 12 curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tbsp jaggery
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 480 ml water

Before you cook

• Slit the chillies lengthways down one side, leaving the stems on, and scrape out most of the seeds.
• Soak the tamarind in 120 ml of hot water for 15 minutes, then squeeze and strain it.
• Slice the onion and peel the ginger and garlic.

Steps

1. Dry roast the peanuts in a heavy pan over medium heat for six minutes, until the skins blister and loosen.
2. Add the sesame seeds and coconut and roast for two minutes more, until the sesame starts to pop.
3. Tip everything onto a plate to cool.
4. Pour three tablespoons of oil into the same pan and fry the sliced onion, ginger and garlic for nine minutes, until soft and golden.
5. Let the onion mixture cool, then grind it with the roasted peanuts, sesame and coconut and 240 ml of water to a very smooth paste.
6. Heat the remaining three tablespoons of oil in a wide pan and fry the slit chillies for five minutes, turning them, until the skins blister and go pale.
7. Lift the chillies out onto a plate.
8. Add the mustard, cumin and nigella seeds to the same oil and let them crackle.
9. Add the curry leaves, then the turmeric, chilli powder and salt, and stir for ten seconds.
10. Pour in the ground paste, standing back as it spits, and fry for five minutes.
11. Add the tamarind extract and 480 ml of water and bring the salan to a boil.
12. Simmer uncovered on low heat for twenty minutes, stirring now and then, until it darkens, thickens and oil pools on the surface.
13. Stir in the jaggery and slide the fried chillies back into the pan.
14. Cover and simmer for eight minutes, until the chillies are soft but still whole.
15. Taste and balance it with more tamarind or jaggery, then serve alongside biryani.