Mulaku Bajii/ Chili Bajii/Batter Fried Caribe Peppers: Vegan free with Gluten free option

I think I am in the mood of frying fritters these days, as the weather is cold, and the evening tea requires some piping hot fritters to enjoy with. May be a soup is a good idea to too, however now I am leaning towards fritters. Always I would buy banana peppers, thinking that I am going to make fritters, but would never get a chance to make it, and banana peppers will end up in curries at last. I last made Jalapeno poppers which I loved it.

During one grocery shopping I saw a sale on Caribe Peppers and my heart got filled with joy. I had never heard of caribe peppers, but they look similar to banana peppers. Thought I can buy some and make my mom’s favorite curry. After coming home I did a search on Caribe peppers, and came to know that they can vary from mild to hot category, unlike banana pepper. I thought what if it in on the hotter side and so ended up against making curry with the caribe peppers.

 We in our local language of Malayalam call banana peppers as Thondan mulaku. We add it in our curries as a vegetable, include it even in sea food curries, make fritters with them, and make pickle with them. You name it and we make everything with it. After coming here, I miss everything, those delicious peppers, and mom’s curry with it. When Appa went for a walk, he would bring back some snack to eat for us, and usually they were fritters like Parippu vada, Uzhunnu Vada, Ulli vada, or this Mulaku Bajji. Trust me with all these fritters your tea is going to very tasty. Amma was fond of mulaku bajji a lot, and whenever possible she used to make it at home too.

Do you know that heat or pungency of chilies are measured using Scoville heat units   SHU. Nag Bhut Jolokia a pepper from Assam and Nagaland Trinidad Moruga Scorpion from Trinidad and Tobago  is hottest chili peppers of world with 1.6 M and 2.0 M SHU. Even though we Indians can’t live without chili pepper, chili pepper got introduced to India only after Portuguese came for trade. That is little bit history of our favorite chili pepper.

Chili pepper contains a chemical called Capsaicin, which is a safe and effective as topical analgesic agent in the management of arthritis, and also used to treat diabetic neuropathy and headaches. It also helps to relieve congestion, lower high blood pressure, burn fast and lose weight, inflammation etc, read more from here.

 Since I was not sure about the heat level of caribe peppers I removed the seeds as a precaution; however these one turned out to be not the hot variety. I made fritters with it, and enjoyed our tea. I think we can use Caribe peppers as an alternative for making this fritters if you are not able to find banana peppers in hand.

Batter is made with chickpeas flour and rice flour, flavored with red chili powder, turmeric powder and asafetodia, and if you want gluten free option skip asafetodia as it contain wheat flour. Make loose batter similar to pancake batter and dip the seeded caribe peppers and fry it in hot oil until it becomes golden brown in color. Enjoy with ketchup and your evening tea or coffee.

Here comes the recipe. 

I made like this 

Enjoy with your tea 

 Print Recipe from here

 Mulaku Bhaji/ / Chili Bajji/Batter Fried Caribe Peppers

Adapted from my mother’s recipe

Prep Time    10 minutes

Cook Time    15 minutes

Serves    5

Ingredients:

5  Caribe Peppers

3/4 cup Besan/ Chickpea flour

1/8 cup Rice flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/8 teaspoon Asafoetida( If you want gluten free option, remove this )

3 cups Canola oil

3/4 cup+1/8 cup Water

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder.

How I  made

Heat oil in thick bottom pan, temperature should be 375F.

Wash the peppers and make a slit in the center of caribe peppers, scoop out the seeds, make sure to keep the stem intact.

In a small pan add besan/chickpea flour, rice flour, salt, chili powder, asafoetida and add water to to make loose pancake batter.

Take peppers with its stem and dip in the batter, makes sure to cover the entire pepper both inside outside covered with batter.

Carefully transfer the batter covered peppers into the hot oil, fry flipping in between until it becomes golden brown color.

Remove from the oil using a slotted spoon transfer to kitchen towel to remove excess oil.

Enjoy with ketchup.

Variations:

• Instead of Caribe peppers you can use Banana peppers. .

I am linking this delicious fritters to Hearth and Soul blog  hop hosted here. 
Favorite recipes : Lentil/Legumes/ Beans Recipes  here  
Dish In 30 minutes: Rice recipes 
Sumee's culinary bites : Bon Vivant: Healthy appetite