Pepper fry

Food Talk

Pushpesh Pant

Dulma

For years, we wondered where the dulma, a genre that delightfully packs assorted vegetables with myriad mouth-watering fillings, came from. Particularly popular in Awadh, Hyderabad and Bengal, it is prepared most often with tomatoes, wax gourd and capsicums. The common filling is spicy potato mash, but can be exoticised as much as you like. The beauty is that you can enrich the dulma with khoya, dried fruits and nuts, or lighten it with sprouts, mushrooms and diced veggies to play with colour, texture and flavours. At Lavaash, run by friend Saby, the penny dropped. Of course, it came to India from Greece, courtesy the Armenians about 500 years ago. The original two in one recipe was in all probability the dolomantes — rice-packed vine leaves. We can’t make up our mind if we love the Indian variation in its tomato or the simla mirch avtar more! Bharwan simla mirch this time!

Ingredients

• Peppers 6
• Paneer 400 g
• Onions 2 medium sized (diced)
• Cumin powder ½ tsp
• Tomato puree (fresh) 1 cup
• Haldi powder 1tsp
• Kashmiri red chilli powder 1tsp
• Garam masala powder ½ tsp
• Salt
• Oil ¼ cup

Method

Slice the tops of the capsicums with a sharp knife and preserve these. Core and deseed the peppers. Heat oil in a pan to stir fry onions till translucent, add turmeric and cumin powder, salt and half the tomato puree. Add paneer and cook till moisture evaporates.

Divide in equal portions and pack this mixture in hollowed peppers.

Take the remaining tomato puree and cook it slightly with salt and red chilli powder and garam masala.

Place into a baking dish or kadhai on slow fire, pour the puree in it and add the stuffed peppers on top. Cook for about 20 minutes more on low flame.