Indian green Chillies

Hari Mirch

It appears the term Hari Mirch (Hindi), which is used in Indian everyday parlance with the meaning of “green Chilli or Indian finger Chilli”, is not specific to a particular variety, but rather a generic name you can apply to your “Hari Mirch” of choice.

One of the most popular Indian green Chillies is the Jwala or Indian Finger hot Chilli. The Jwala is a reasonably hot Chilli with a Scoville rating of between 20000 and 30000 SHU. This places this Indian green Chilli in the same heat range as Serranos and Cayenne Chillies. Not “blow your socks off “hot, but certainly with enough heat to let you know that you’ve eaten a Chilli

The Jwala grows to approximately four inches in length and has a wrinkly appearance. The term finger in its name is from its shape, which is long and curled. In its young form, it is green, but as it matures, it will turn red.

The flavour of Jwala Chillies is described as having an apple note followed by a medium pungency. This makes it a superb Chilli to make sambals with tomato, onions, cucumber and green coriander to serve with curry. It is also delicious when served as a Chilli powder

These Chillies are used to great effect in Indian cuisine. There are many recipes for Indian pickles. They can also be used to make Hari Mirch Keema (chicken mince with yoghurt, chillies, and spices), a wide variety of other meat and vegetable curries and fantastic green Chilli powder.  It is also served raw with Samosas, Vada Pav and other similar Indian snacks.

Be your favourite Indian green Chilli, a Jwala, Hari Mirch, an Indian Finger Chilli or whatever you may call it, one thing is clear; these are wonderful chillies.

Image credit

Image: Shalu Sharma/ CC by 2.0 via Flikr

Link button