Friday, May 19, 2006

Capsicum Zhunka

This is specially for my Vegetarian readers and friends.
I dedicate this to you.
I cooked it the first time, after I tasted it today during lunch from the lunch box of a colleague. His mom cooked it, it was awesome and I asked the recipe to another colleague. I rushed home and tried it. I actually had a Mutton dish in drafy for today but what the heck...

It is not actually Zhunka, but it is prepared similar to the onion Zhunka, the Maharashtrian Delicacy, so I just named it capsicum Zhunka...



This is the first of a series of Besan (chick pea flour) based recipes, quite common in Maharashtra. After vada, zhunka is the most popular Besan based preparation in Maharashtra. What I am writing about today is a Zhunka Derivative. It also is a derivative of the stuffed capsicum that I posted recently, because this is similar to zhunka and stuffed capsicum because instead of stuffing the capsicum with the Besan masala, I just chop capsicum and stir fry it with the masala.
Now since it is besan based and besan absorbs a lot of oil, it takes a lot of oil to cook this dish, and so it must not be the healthiest food around, but what the heck. It tastes just too good. And maybe, it should be had once in a while.

Ingredients:

Three capsicums, chopped into half cm squares, like in the picture.
Two medium Onions, chopped fine.
1 tsp of mustard seeds.
Half tsp of red chilli powder, and dhania powder.
A pinch of turmeric and salt to taste.
1 cup of besan.
Peanut or vegetable oil.

Steps:

Heat 3 tbs oil in a thick bottom kadhai.
Add the mustard seeds and let sputter.
Add the onions, reduce heat and cover the kadhai.
After 2-3 minutes when the onions are limp, add the chopped capsicum.
Sauté for a few minutes.
Add the red chilli, dhania, turmeric and salt to taste.
Add the besan and mix very well.
In low heat, keep stirring the mixture. It takes a lot of stirring to cook the besan uniformly.
Cover it, keep for 1 minute, open it, stir it, cover it again.
Repeat for 4-5 times till done.


Note:

The Stock market had the largest ever fall today. Sensex crashed by more than 820 points and Nifty by more than 240 points. I had been anticipating the fall for a long time, and luckily I had bought some nifty Put options yesterday. Yes, yesterday... and I made a 700% profit, by selling the options. I bougth nifty put 3400 yesterday because the market went up suddenly and I had made a very good gain the day before as well, and I thought what the heck and parlayed some of the profits. Today's fall was most unexpected, and the gain was a windfall. I am off the market for now. I won't be a second time lucky.... Actually, since I made a so much profit, I also bought two lots of nifty call today when I sold off the put options. lol. Let's see if the market rebounds tomorrow.

I had bought the Put options to hedge my holdings, but since I made profits, I felt like, why not play with the profits...... Well, it was Luck... maybe I will buy myself something...

I won't have time to square off my positions tomorrow though. Got a meeting from 9:30 to 3:30........ owwwww....with a VP..... But I will have lunch break....

18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

arrey, Anthony, when you are making windfall profits on the Sensex, you don't need ads on your blog! Remember I told you that revenues come from outside your blog ;-)

Congrats, BTW! I'm thrilled for you!!

5/18/2006 11:58:00 PM  
Blogger Sumitha said...

This looks so yummy and easy to do!I cook okra in a similar way,but never thought of capsicum.I shall definetly try this.Thanks!

5/18/2006 11:59:00 PM  
Blogger BDSN said...

Yes i have tried this kind of recipe or similar recipe i should say from Kay's blog.It came out goooood...well this recipe is pretty simple too....hey BTW i dont know if u recd the mail i sent to anthonysmirror @gmail.com..it's a contribution to the curry mela...

5/19/2006 02:39:00 AM  
Blogger Vineela said...

Hi Anthony,
Nice .I like capsicum curry always.
Vineela

5/19/2006 05:29:00 AM  
Blogger Sudha said...

Nice capsicum curry..a must try recipe..will surly try it out soon...

5/19/2006 05:37:00 AM  
Blogger Admin said...

@ Manisha: I know yaar... I told you It was kind of an experiment, everybody talks about Adsense blah blah... anbd It will at least take 2 years for the cents to build up to the first cheque.... hehehhee.. thanks anyway, It was the first time I got so lucky on derivatives...

5/19/2006 07:47:00 AM  
Blogger Admin said...

Sumitha: and i will try okra lol... It was the first time i tried this too..

BDSN: Oh yeah, KAY does cooks up some real cool food. and I got your mail thank you very much... Will be up by tomorrow evening...

@ Vineela: and i didn't know how to prepare capsicum till recently :-)

@ Sudhav, and ain't it real simple :-)

5/19/2006 07:49:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ohh man this is an easy dish to prepare...going to try this one for sure...

Good time for investors to buy....
i am eyeing...ITC/Godrej Inds/Rel Petro

U have a nice time in your looooong meeting :P

5/19/2006 08:44:00 AM  
Blogger Aqua said...

oh gosh...why did i have to peek into your food blog?? ...the pork vindaloo looks yummy and now i'm STARVING!! hmm, so y're a budding chef huh antony? moi? i can just about boil an egg...and for that too i need a timer :)

5/19/2006 07:56:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@Mehak: nice to know that you do bargain shopping.. lol

@ Aqua: that was funny.. i hope you don't burn the egg...

5/20/2006 09:08:00 AM  
Blogger Sumitha said...

Hi Tony,Just made the capsicum zhunka now,it is yummy!I shall post it in my blog soon,Thanks a billion for introducing me to a tasty new dish!

5/22/2006 01:16:00 AM  
Blogger Purnima said...

hi..first time on ur blog..lovely zunka..wd surely try it...tks..
-PD.

8/03/2007 09:23:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice recipe..i know abt okra..with capscicum wow....a simple but a tastier one

10/03/2007 02:05:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great recipe. Thanks a lot.. simple to cook and yummy!!

8/20/2008 04:39:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Antony
Different recipe. I was searching for a good capsicum dish. This looks great. I will try it today. But I have a small doubt... while adding the besan shud i mix in water or add it directly?.....
Ramya

2/28/2009 12:16:00 PM  
Blogger Padma said...

Tried this recipe. It's really good and simple. I would make a few suggestions though. The besan tends to clump up and stick the minute you stir it in. So I'd suggest mixing in the salt and chilly powder into the besan before you stir it in. That way your seasoning will be more even spread in the besan.

3/19/2009 05:42:00 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Anthony.........thats a quick recipe.........tried it......turned out real good!!!!!

4/18/2009 10:56:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Anthony

Tried it.. it turned out to be super...

was looking for a capsicum dish..
but instead of much oil i added water for makin consistency - jst as health consious I am..
thanks a lot...

12/19/2010 08:38:00 PM  

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