Chire Bhaja and A Wiki Project

There is something very special about simplicity. I find it extremely difficult to express it in words and I might actually spoil its beauty by doing it. So I am going to let the pictures talk and your taste buds imagine. I learnt this recipe from my mum-in-law. I always used to think that one would require lots of oil to make chire bhaja but I was pleasantly surprised when she made this today for evening tea. This is a very popular tea time snacks for people in Bengal and it tastes great.

I recently came across a wiki project called Mycitycuisine.org – A Traveller's Guide to Local Cuisine  which I think is a great effort and will be really useful for travellers who would like to try out the local cuisine. Please check out the webpage and if possible please contribute. You can add dishes by Countries/States/Course. Once this site gets populated, it will be a common place to find cuisines from any country/region.

 

Ingredients:

200gm Chire (flattened rice, the thin ones)

2 tbsp oil

2-3 green chillies (thinly sliced)

1 tbsp finely chopped red onion

Handful of peanuts

Handful of Chanachur (Bombay mix)

Pinch of Salt

Method:

Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan, then fry the peanuts in it. Remove them once they are golden brown. Now add the chire to the oil, keep the heat to medium-low (as you don’t want your chire to burn) and keep stirring. Add little salt to it, and keep frying it till it becomes crispy and slightly puffed up. It will take about 5 minutes or so. Take it off the heat and add rest of the ingredients i.e. green chillies, onions, fried peanuts and chanachur (which is also known as Bombay mix in the UK). Enjoy with a steaming cup of chai (Tea).