BELL PEPPER ZUNKA RECIPE ~Capsicum Zunka ~ Bell Pepper Stir Fry with Besan

Using a kadai, lightly dry toast/roast the gram flour/ Besan / Kadalai Maavu to just wake up the flavour. This step is not essential but you will notice slight added flavour in your final dish.

Now heat oil in kadai, preferably non-stick or heavy bottomed aluminum pan, as you need to scrape quite a bit to avoid burning. Temper with mustard and cumin seeds. Add ginger & garlic and saute for a minute. Add the chopped onions and bell peppers / capsicum with a pinch of sugar. Saute for few minutes over medium flame, cook until slightly tender but firm. Do not cook them till death, we need good colour, firmness & crunch to the veggies.

Now bring the flame down to low, slowly add the besan flour, red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and salt. No water necessary, the water from salt and the veggies should help to curl up the Besan flour. Keep stirring and scrapping until it forms small lumps and eventually curl up like small beads. Saute until the mixture turns like a dry stir-fry with all the besan flour rolled into tiny beads. The consistency should resemble like puttu  😉 , something like thick usili mix. Keep sauteing for 3 to 4 minutes and switch off. One friend also suggested adding few drops of lemon juice at the end, but was making the dish little sour, so.. you be the best judge. Here is a closer look for you…..

Serve hot with chapati / roti / paratha.  I’ve tried this with sambar, rasam and curd rice too – they compliment well!