Mahanandi

Living in Consciousness ~ Indi(r)a’s Food and Garden Weblog

Stuffed Green Chilli Bajjis (Mirapakaya Bajjilu)

Stuffed green chilli bajjis – whole green chillies are filled with different kinds of mixtures then dipped in gram flour batter and deep fried in oil. They are often served as accompaniment to a main meal in South India, but they are delicious as an appetizer/first course with a cup of yogurt on the side or with a glass of water:)-.

Besan Batter, Slit and deseeded green chillies floating in salted water, 3 different stuffings and green chillies filled with stuffing

Recipe:
(For 10 to 15 green chillies)

Green chillies – Special type of green chillies are used to make stuffed bajjis. You can find them usually in Indian grocery shops. Select straight green chillies, wash and dry them first. Take a green chilli, make a slit lengthwise in the middle, keeping the ends intact. With a knife or a spoon remove the seeds, clean the insides and make space for stuffing. Put these slit, cleaned green chillies in bowl of salted water. If you are sensitive to green chillies, it’s better to wear gloves, take heed of Mrs D and Chopper Dave advise.

Stuffing: I’ve prepared three different kinds of stuffing. (I’ve had them already in my kitchen, what I did was just put them together).

First one is my favorite, traditional Raayala Seema fare that my mother prepares at home:

Half cup of roasted chana dal(dalia), 2 tablespoons of dry coconut powder and tamarind juice, 1 tsp of cumin, 1/4 tsp of salt – powder them together.

The second type of stuffing is what one can find in bajjis from street side stalls in Hyderabad. Very famous and long lines in front of these stalls for bajjis, particularly during monsoon season.

Half cup of sesame seeds, 1 tsp each of coriander seeds and cumin (all three roasted), 3 tablespoons of coconut powder and tamarind juice – mixed and made into thick paste.

The third variety is more of a North Indian fare, learned from a friend.

I had some leftover potato curry – (Fried potato and onions seasoned with garam masala powder) – I reheated the curry in microwave and mashed the potatoes into thick paste.

Batter: One cup of gram flour (besan), quarter cup of rice flour, pinch of baking soda, salt to taste and half to one glass of water – mix them all thoroughly into thick batter (more like dosa/pancake batter consistency).

Oil – Peanut oil for deep-frying.

green chillies filled with different types of stuffing - all ready for a dip in the batter and fry in hot oil
Green chillies filled with 3 different kinds of stuffing

Fill up the gap with stuffing of all the green chillies one by one and keep them on a plate. Again, one by one, dip them into the batter, drop them gently into hot oil, deep-fry them until golden, turning frequently. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain well on absorbent paper towels.

If you want your bajjis more like street stall bajjis, what you have to do is, first dip each green chilli into batter fully, slide the side opposite of slit side onto edge of vessel, so that side of green chilli has no batter covering it and will be in direct contact with the hot oil, when deep fried. That exposed green chilli will taste crunchy.

But for an authentic taste of street food, double dip and fry again. (Dip the fried green chillibajjis in batter, this time coating them all around and deep fry in hot oil till golden. You can see both varieties in the picture below.)

Stuffed Green Chilli Bajjis (Mirchi Bajjis)
Stuffed green chilli bajjis – both, single and double dipped and fried.

Posted by Indira©Copyrighted in Amma & Authentic Andhra,Gram Flour (Besan),Green Chillies,Peppers,Rice Flour (Wednesday November 2, 2005 at 8:44 pm- permalink)
Comments (35)

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35 comments for Stuffed Green Chilli Bajjis (Mirapakaya Bajjilu) »

  1. You have made some of my old memories come back with your bajjis. Could you send them by mail-order :-)?

    Comment by vj — November 2, 2005 @ 9:13 pm

  2. That looks mouth-watering!

    Comment by mika — November 2, 2005 @ 9:55 pm

  3. your presentation is really superb!!!!

    Comment by deepa — November 3, 2005 @ 12:19 am

  4. Oh, that looks gorgeous. I will have to try them.

    BTW–I am going to be cooking your bitter melon curry this Friday. I will definately post about the results, and credit you with the recipe with a link. Morganna will be helping me cook, and her boyfriend is coming to dinner, so we will try them on him, too.

    Comment by Barbara — November 3, 2005 @ 1:18 am

  5. Ok, I don’t normally go ga-ga for stuffed peppers, but it’s good to try new things! They look (and sound) *very* good…especially with the potato curry…yum.

    Oh, and I tried a new dish over the weekend; Malai Kofta. Loved it!

    Comment by Stephanie — November 3, 2005 @ 1:43 am

  6. waaaah :'( I want one of those!

    Foodlova

    Comment by Anonymous — November 3, 2005 @ 8:18 am

  7. VJ..thanks, if only they’d stay fresh:)

    Mika.. do you have any other stuffing mix for bajjis?

    Deepa..thanks.

    Barbara..I am little bit worried, that’s a tough recipe to like for first timers, but you already know the taste of Indian bitter gourd. My fingers are crossed. 🙂

    Stephanie..Even I,who likes hot and spicy things can’t finish them fully. I eat only the end portion of green chilli bajji, that too with a glass of cold water on the side. Scorchingly hot(even after removing the seeds), but some like Vijay, are crazy for that kind of taste.
    Malai Kofta.. yum. It’s been a while since I made that curry. Which recipe did you follow, are you going to blog(photo) about it?

    Comment by Indira — November 3, 2005 @ 10:59 am

  8. Hi Indira- The first two stuffings are new to me. Although the potato version is the restaurant version here, I have had some with no stuffing (Pitt Udipi style), with spice-besan mix, with cut raw onion and even one with cheese.

    Comment by mika — November 3, 2005 @ 2:36 pm

  9. Indira, Matt and I went out Friday night to see the the play “The Trojan Women”, and stopped off at one of our favorite restaurants, Sitar (http://www.easttennesseedining.com/sitar.html). But now that I’ve tried it, I’m interested in making it myself!

    Comment by Stephanie — November 3, 2005 @ 3:00 pm

  10. Gosh, these bajjis should be absolute dynamite. I love spicy hot food, but even I have to put my hands up and surrender when it comes to these:) WAAAAAY too hot, even with yogurt on the side.

    Comment by shammi — November 3, 2005 @ 3:02 pm

  11. Your pictures are very realistic…
    What camera are you using..?

    Comment by Indian — November 4, 2005 @ 9:44 am

  12. Indian.. Thanks, it’s Nikon Coolpix 5400.

    Comment by Indira — November 4, 2005 @ 2:46 pm

  13. hey Indira, I tried the stuffed bhajji with the potatos- I had some left over. It came out yum. My husband enjoyed it. I am yet try two other stuffing which is very new to me.

    Comment by Priya — November 5, 2005 @ 10:56 pm

  14. I louweee milaga bajji. When I was a 3 months pregnant, I had such a huge craving for it that I sneaked out and had one from a road-side stall 🙂 My mother was livid when she found out 😀

    Comment by ammani — November 6, 2005 @ 3:34 am

  15. Yum! I made these a long time ago after seeing a recipe on Sanjeevkapoor.com. They were a big hit with my household.

    Comment by Verdant — December 28, 2005 @ 11:30 am

  16. Indira-Superb as always. My husband loves these and, for that matter, so do I.

    Indira replies:
    Chilli bajjis are irresistible, aren’t they?:)
    Glad to hear that you two liked them.

    Comment by deccanheffaump — July 22, 2006 @ 1:49 pm

  17. Oh..double dips!! that’s how they look so well coated…

    Do you watch Seinfeld reruns? This reminded me of George’s double dip.. 🙂

    Comment by InjiPennu — August 1, 2006 @ 8:34 pm

  18. Hi Indira,i have tried several dishes mentioned by you and all of them have turned out to be a hit but when i tried chilli bajji they just didnt come out right.i used the last filling (potatoes and onion)as suggested by you and on frying the chillies all the filling came out through the slit.what went wrong could u suggest something.how can i avoid this???

    Comment by sitara — August 17, 2006 @ 5:36 pm

  19. they r looking delicious. i will definetly try hyderabadi one as i belong to there but not knows well abt hyderabadi cooking.
    so thnx for the nice recipies

    Comment by farah — October 4, 2006 @ 6:01 pm

  20. Always been a fan of chili bajjis. The Rayal seema stuffing’s new to me. I generally make the ajwain stuffing or you could also try stuffing them with mexican cheese. Thats yummy too!

    Comment by Smitha — October 19, 2006 @ 8:34 pm

  21. Excellent recipe. The street vendors (at least in Hyderabad)usually add kameera ie old fermented mix of besan to make the bajji fluffy. This is some what like using yeast starter in baking. I have tried making with a very little bit of active dry yeast and giving it about half an hour for the yeast to work its magic. Bajjis come out great.

    Comment by gcsunil — September 6, 2007 @ 4:29 am

  22. Thank you for sharing these excellent variations of bhaji mix. I googled ‘green chili bhaji’ and was directed to this page. I am from Malaysia and some of the street vendors here sell vegetable bhaji, but most green chilli bhajis sold here are awful. The seeds are not removed and the chillies are not stuffed, and this makes an otherwise delicious vegetarian snack bitter-tasting and somewhat soggy in the middle. I will try out the Raayala Seema version, but will serve it with carrot/tomato chutney and mint dip instead.
    Thank you once again for making my day.

    Comment by Wong Ee Lynn — January 9, 2008 @ 1:18 am

  23. Execellent resource

    Comment by Laxmi Nimma — February 8, 2008 @ 7:00 pm

  24. […] I got the idea for this filling from this wonderful recipe by Mahanadi . […]

    Pingback by Stuufed chilli bajji - Milagai Bhajji | Spicy Tasty — March 7, 2008 @ 2:05 pm

  25. indira, this is everyones favourite recipe! i think the peppers u used are the regular ones. i would love to use the bigger peppers which are actually used for this mirapakaya bhajji. they have enough room for stuffing.with raw onions to the side this makes for one hot recipe!

    Comment by srividya — March 12, 2008 @ 9:17 am

  26. thank you. my husband loved them when i made for his b’day

    Comment by Veronique — April 21, 2008 @ 1:28 pm

  27. ur preparation of hot hot mirchi bajji’s seems to be wonderful. I love them a lot. this time let me try it with stuffing as u suggeted.

    Comment by Dr. D. Neela Priya — May 28, 2008 @ 3:45 am

  28. I tried Telanga stuffed mirchi bajji, its Fantastic. All my Family members loved it.

    Comment by vanitha — June 5, 2008 @ 9:47 am

  29. Wow, I love your recipe, I will try the Hyderabad type today, Im sure it would come well, thanks again for posting!

    Comment by Khushi — January 13, 2009 @ 12:37 pm

  30. Very nicely explained…About to try now.. Thanks

    Comment by padma — May 19, 2009 @ 6:19 pm

  31. Hi Vijay and Indira
    Many thanks for a brilliant site and a fabulous recipe. I am from Hyderabad, but could never figure out the stuffing that went in. Your recipes are as authentic as they can get.

    These bajjis are very addictive and the reason is that the nerve cells on our tongue release a chemical called substance P due to which the body produces chemicals called endorphines – and these act on brain cells in the same way that opium-derived drug morphine does. As a result, you feel good.

    Ref: http://www.chilliworld.com/chilli_FAQ.asp#Why%20do%20we%20like%20to%20eat%20chilli?

    Wishing you all the very best!
    Thanks,
    Vijay(I am also a Vijay!)

    Comment by Vijay — November 30, 2009 @ 6:29 am

  32. I made the mirchi bajji with Serrano peppers. They tasted awesome. Garnished them with black salt and it was very authentic. I tried the hyderabadi style ones.

    Very Good recipe.

    Comment by Srik — October 15, 2011 @ 6:45 pm

  33. awesome recipe. tried all the stuffing 🙂 tx

    Comment by malthy simha — December 9, 2011 @ 4:09 am

  34. Half cup of sesame seeds,
    1 tsp each of coriander seeds and cumin
    1 tablespoon of ajwain.
    (all four lightly roasted).
    One cup of roasted chana dal.
    all these ground to a grainy texture then mix 4 tablespoons of coconut powder and tamarind juice.
    salt to taste
    mixed and made into thick paste
    Try this this came excellent in taste

    Comment by Padma — December 27, 2011 @ 9:42 pm

  35. Great recipe. Tried it today with amazing result 🙂

    Comment by Doodle — July 14, 2012 @ 6:24 am

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