Mor milagai recipe, Sun dried chillies

Mor milagai, Sund dried chillies, also called as Sandige Menasu in karnataka, is a popular sun dried thing made in summer time, using chillies and sour butter milk. My mom regularly makes mor milagai at home during summer season and stores it for a year. Mor milgai is a perfect accompaniment for Curd rice, also we use it for making Puli upma, puli pongal and the raw mango rasam. The chillies are soaked in sour curd and sun dried till they becomes crispy and stored in air tight bottles.  Whenever needed, we fry them in oil and use it.  So why are we soaking the chillies in sour curd, sour curd balances the spiciness of the chillis. I always buy and keep a pack of store bought Mor Milagai from shops. Last month when i went to chennai, i saw a cart full of bright, green Thanjavur milagais, which are used to make this mor milagais, in West mambalam market. Though i don't have terrace or balcony at home, i still got some chillies and packed it carefully and brought it home. Two years back i have attempted making mor milgais at home, when my mom was here, but couldn't dry it completely due to lack of direct sunlight.

I have a friend, who moved to our apartment last year and she lives in a house which has a huge terrace. So kept it at my house for 3 days and later passed it to my friend, and my friend's mother in law took the complete responsibility of drying it to perfect crispiness and returned back to me after a week. Many thanks to her initiative of doing this for me. Here in Singapore we get rains often and so it took a week. For the summer in Chennai it generally gets dried in 3 days. Let's see how to make mor milagai at home.

Mor milagai recipe

• Recipe Cusine: Indian
• Prep Time: 1 week
• Cook time: Nil
• Serves: 2 cups
• Author: Jeyashri
• Recipe Category: Accompaniments 
• Description: Mor milagai, Sund dried chillies, also called as Sandige Menasu in karnataka, is a popular sun dried thing made in summer time, using chillies and sour butter milk.

     Green chili  3 cups
     Thick Sour buttermilk  1/2 cup
     Salt  as needed

Method :

• First make the sour buttermilk by keeping the buttermilk outside the refrigerator for a whole day. 
• Wash the chilis and pat dry them.  Slightly slit them in the center. This is to get the buttermilk mixture to seep inside the chillies. A small prick is fine.
• Put the chillies in a wide bowl, and pour the sour buttermilk on this. Add salt as needed. I used rock salt. 
• Mix this well so that the chillies get nicely coated in the thick sour buttermilk. 
• Let this soak for a 2 days. Cover it and keep it aside. 
• Everyday morning using a clean dry spoon, mix this well. 
• On the third day, take out the chillis only and spread this in a plate and keep it under the sunlight.
• Let the remaining buttermilk in the vessel be left in it covered.
• Once it is dried under sunlight for a whole day, take this back and put this into the buttermilk again. 
• The buttermilk will not be more, it will be just 2-3 tblsps left.
• The next day again take out the chilies and sun dry them. By this time, the buttermilk must have completely absorbed, but if anything left, repeat the same next day.
• I didn't take step wise pictures after this as i have sent it for drying to my friend's house.
• Once all the buttermilk are completely absorbed, sun dry the chillies till they become crisp. 
• Once they are crisp, store them in an airtight container and keep it in a dry place.
• Whenever needed, add 2 tsp of oil in a pan and saute few dried chillis till they turn crisp. 
• Usually they deep fry the mor milagai and use it. If you wish to do it that way go ahead and do it. 

Notes:

1. My mom soak 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds| venthayam overnight and grind this into a fine paste and add it along with sour buttermilk. I somehow didn't like the texture of the venthayam in that, so skipped it. 
2. Mor milagai tastes best with Thayir sadam and it's a popular combo of Tamilnadu. 

    

Method with step by step pictures :

• First make the sour buttermilk by keeping the buttermilk outside the refrigerator for a whole day. 
• Wash the chilis and pat dry them. Slightly slit them in the center. This is to get the buttermilk mixture to seep inside the chillies. A small prick is fine.
• Put the chillies in a wide bowl, and pour the sour buttermilk on this. Add salt as needed. I used rock salt. 
• Mix this well so that the chillies get nicely coated in the thick sour buttermilk. 

• Let this soak for a 2 days. Cover it and keep it aside. 
• Everyday morning using a clean dry spoon, mix this well. 
• On the third day, take out the chillis only and spread this in a plate and keep it under the sunlight.
• Let the remaining buttermilk in the vessel be left in it covered.
• Once it is dried under sunlight for a whole day, take this back and put this into the buttermilk again. 
• The buttermilk will not be more, it will be just 2-3 tblsps left.

• The next day again take out the chilies and sun dry them. By this time, the buttermilk must have completely absorbed, but if anything left, repeat the same next day.
• I didn't take step wise pictures after this as i have sent it for drying to my friend's house.
• Once all the buttermilk are completely absorbed, sun dry the chillies till they become crisp. 
• Once they are crisp, store them in an airtight container and keep it in a dry place.

• Whenever needed, add 2 tsp of oil in a pan and saute few dried chillis till they turn crisp. 
• Usually they deep fry the mor milagai and use it. If you wish to do it that way go ahead and do it. 

Notes:

1. My mom soak 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds| venthayam overnight and grind this into a fine paste and add it along with sour buttermilk. I somehow didn't like the texture of the venthayam in that, so skipped it. 
2. Mor milagai tastes best with Thayir sadam and it's a popular combo in Tamilnadu.