Fire on the plate - stuffed sweet pepper

Of all the vegetarian food I ever sampled in my life, I find Gujarati food to be quite exotic. During my Geological field trips, I stayed in Kutch for few weeks and I was taken by their warm hospitality. The influence of Jain culture predominantly makes the region to be vegetarian.

 Few years back I brought this cook book, Prashad Cookbook : Indian Vegetarian. Apart from showcasing traditional Gujrati recipes, the book follows the journey of Kaushy Patel and her family from India to UK. Kaushy currently resides in London and has a restaurant there.

The one recipe which I particularly enjoyed from this cookbook is : Renghan Reveya ( eggplant satay).

Earlier I had the notion that vegetarian food primarily deals with vegetables, but  Kaushy  has shown that there could be myriad of vegetarian variations by combining the staples ( like legumes and nuts) in right proportion!

Renghan means brinjal/egg plant in Gujarati. I have simplified the original recipe to suit to my needs. Instead of baby eggplants, I used sweet peppers. I have a feeling that this recipe can be also replicated with green plantains as well!

Ingredients:

• Sweet  peppers - 12 pieces
• Peanuts - 100 gms
• Chickpea flour - 50 gms
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Cilantro - 5-7 springs
• Grated ginger - 1/2 tea spoon
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tea spoon
• Tomato paste - 3 tea sppon
• Plain yogurt  - 3 teaspoon ( hang it a a cheesecloth for half an hour to remove excess water)
• Garam masala 
• Turmeric powder
• Rock salt  
• Vegetable oil 

Process:

• Clean the peppers and make a small incision ( I prefer to leave the stem on for decor purposes)
• In the meanwhile make the stuffing for bell pepper.
• Dry roast peanuts until they turn slightly brown. Remove them from fire and let it cool down. Husk them and grind to a fine powder.
• Dry roast chickpea flour for 4-5 minutes ( once it reaches the optimum temperature, it should be aromatic). 
• Mix the peanut powder, chick pea flour thoroughly. Add cumin seeds, chopped corriander, grated ginger, a pinch of asafoetida and rock salt. Add little oil and combine everything. Leave this mixture to settle well for half an hour.
• Now put the stuffing inside the  pepper. Ensure that the pepper doesn't crack while you stuff them.
• Lightly fry the bell peppers in a flat pan for about 15 mins ( ensure that all sides are equally cooked). I use minimum spray oil for frying
• Making the gravy : Add oil in a pan. Once it is hot, add cumin seeds, asafoetida. Let it crackle for few seconds. Add a pinch of turmeric powder. In a separate bowl add tomato paste and yogurt. Add  half tea spoon of garam masala, salt to it and whisk it thoroughly. Before adding this paste to the pan, ensure the temperature is set to low.
• Once you add this yogurt -tomato paste to pan, slowly increase the temperature. Now add the fried stuffed peppers and cover it with a lid. Let it rest for 10 minutes so that the peppers absorb the curry.
• Serve hot with plain rice or roti!

I have always got rave reviews whenever I have presented this dish to my friends/family. In my opinion this dish looks good and tastes equally good. Why not try it?!!