Oven Baked Stuffed Capsicum

It feels so bad to be posting just once in a week. Don't know if its my personal feeling or this is the way it is....but life in India seems to be too busy that finding time to cook in leisure is in itself a luxury. Am yet to find that luxury though. So, I decided to post some of the posts which were saved up for such rainy days. Now, when I have the time to post, they are coming in handy.

Last month, while we had gone farm picking, I got hold of some really cute capsicums and could think of nothing but make stuffed curry out of them. I decided to bake them in the oven instead of roasting them stove top and it turned out equally good with roti and rice! 

Ingredients:

- 6 small capsicums

- 1 medium onion finely chopped

- 1/2 cup lima beans 

- 1/2 cup mixed veggies finely chopped

- 1/2 tsp each of coriander powder, chilly powder,  jeera(cumin) powder and garam masala

- 1/2 tsp jeera(cumin) seeds for seasoning

- 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

- 1 tbsp coarsely ground peanuts

- Salt to taste

- 1 tsp oil

Prep time: 10 mins           Cook time: 1 hour

Preparation:

- Chop the head of the capsicum and core the seeds from inside.

- Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg F while you get the stuffing ready.

- Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add jeera and allow to splutter. Now, add the onions and ginger garlic paste and saute until the onions turn translucent.

- To this, add the veggies, lima beans and all the masala powder and salt. If needed add some water. Mix everything and cook covered or open.

- When the veggie masala is dry and cooked, add the peanut powder and fry for a minute before removing from heat. Garnish with some coriander leaves for added flavour

- On cooling, scoop the masala into the cored capsicums and arrange them in a baking tray or pan.

- Spray the stuffed capscums with cooking oil and place them in the lower rack of the pre-heated oven.

- Bake for 30 minutes. Baking time may vary depending on the oven. 

- If you do not have an oven, you can try them in a pan on stove top as well. Ensure to turn the capsicum over on all sides to cook it evenly.

Foot note:

- Since the capsicums are not cooked in spice, you could add little extra salt in the stuffing if you prefer. 

- You can choose to make any kind of stuffing you prefer.

Raddish Stuffed Jalapeno Curry

It was yet another one of those evenings....I was frantically searching for a curry to make for dinner to go with rotis. Now, that am blogging seriously, I have come across some really delectable blogs with some very yummy recipes. It will be very mean of me if I do not give due credits for the basic idea!

I came across this red raddish curry in one of my fellow bloggers site and adapted it to make my version of stuffed curry. You can check out the original recipe here!

Well, I had a white raddish and these long bright green jalapenos which have been waiting to be cooked for almost a month now! I can swear by the Jalapenos and also award it the most long standing veggie in fridge:-)!

Ingredients:

- 4 Jalapenos of your choice
- 1 medium raddish if white or 2 cups of chopped red raddish
- 1 medium onion
- 1/2 medium tomato or 1 small tomato
- 1/4 tsp chilly powder
- 1/8 tsp turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- 3 tsp oil

For Masala powder:

- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp channa dhal
- 1 tbsp peanuts
- 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
- 1 tbsp shredded coconut
- 2 red chillies

Prep time: 20 mins                Cook time: 30 mins

Preparation:

- Peel the skin of raddish and chop it into fine pieces. Chop the onions and tomatoes finely and set aside.
- In a pan, heat 1/4 tsp oil and fry the ingredients given under "masala powder" above.
- Set aside and grind into a powder on cooling.

- In a pan, heat 1 tsp oil, add the raddish, onions and tomatoes. To this add the chilly powder, turmeric and salt and cook covered on medium for 10 mins.

- Keep stirring in between to incorporate the flavours well. Once the raddish is cooked well, add the masala powder as needed. You can store the remaining powder to use in some other curries.
- The curry is ready now. It can be served as is with rice or roti. However, I used Jalapenos and stuffed them!

Stuffing:

- Cut off the stem of the Jalapenos and cut them into 2 or 3 pieces depending on length.

- Core the inside of the Jalapenos and remove all seeds. If you prefer very less spice, you could rinse them in running water once!

- Now, stuff the prepared curry into the Jalapenos tightly pushing them down with the tail of a spoon.

- In a pan, heat 2 tsp of oil, add the Jaapenos one after the other and fry them on medium or low heat.
- Turn over the Jalapenos on all sides and cook them well until the flavour of the curry and the chilly infuse into one another.

- Jalapeno cooks really fast and should be done in about 10 mins.Tasty Jalapeno stuffed raddish curry is ready to serve with rice or chapathi!

Foot note:

- If you are making just the curry, you can add one or two more red chillies while grinding the masala. Since i was going to stuff them into the Jalapeno, i added less chilly in the masala.
- Use the remaining curry as is.