So I made the simple Bengali Chire Bhaja - ‘Crispy
flattened rice with sweet peas and peanuts’ as a snack last evening and we
both loved it. As a kid I never enjoyed this dish, I guess that is because, wherever I
ate, they either added peanuts like misers or the Chire was not as kurmure
(crispy) as I like. There are different variants of this snack in different
households, some add peas, some don’t, some add sugar, and some don’t. This
recipe requires quite a bit of cooking oil as the flattened rice absorbs all
the oil you can pour and very fast at that, hence keep the Oil to minimum. The ingredients listed will make the snack for three people, I wanted
to make for two, but it was more than enough for the two of us.
Ingredients to make Chire Bhaja:
Chire Bhaja/Flattened Rice – 2 cups
Cooking Oil – 2
tbsps
Raw Peanuts – ½ cup
Shelled Green Peas
– ½ cup – I used the frozen kind
Whole Dry Red Chilli
– 2
Red Chilli Powder
– ½ tsp (to your taste)
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste
Black Pepper to taste
Sugar to balance
Method:
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a Kadhai
and fry the raw peanuts in the oil, add a pinch of salt, keep stirring, fry them
till the peanuts are done. The skin of the peanuts will turn a dark color indicating
that they are done. Once done scoop them out and drain them on a paper towel.
To the same oil, add the green peas and fry them for a while
with a pinch of salt. The frozen green peas take very less time to get done
compared to the Peanuts. Scoop them out and drain them on a paper towel too.,
Add the rest of the Oil to the Kadhai. Once the Oil is hot, tear the two whole dried red chillies
and add to this oil, let it sizzle. This process flavors the oil.
Stir in the 2 cups of flattened rice, keep the heat to medium while frying the flattened rice. Keep stirring otherwise it will
burn the rice at the bottom and it will not taste good. The flattened rice will
absorb all the oil, keep stirring.
Add the Salt, Sugar, Red Chili Powder and Black Pepper Powder and keep stirring.
Once desired crispiness is reached, add the Peanuts and Peas to it and mix
thoroughly. Be very careful while doing a taste test as all the ingredients
tend to get extremely hot and can burn your tongue like never before.
Serve with Chai - Tea of
your choice..heaven!
No comments:
Post a Comment