Drying chillis in a mixture of buttermilk and corriander leaf fresh, lots of salt for several days in an earthen jar. Remove when white and put on trys in sun all day until dry. Store in a very dry place for up to 3 years if use silicon packets in container, just make sure it doesnt touch edibles. We use chillis from Guntur District in Andhra Pradesh and they are so delicious!
Fryums are a common addition to a meal to add toast texture to dals. First we prepare a thick paste and then take old saree material and lay out flat using rocks to hold down edges. Then, we spoon on dollops of paste to saree and let dry in sun. Remove at night and then lay out again next morning until completely sun dried, about 1 week. If cracking too much the paste was not thick enough.
Pastes can be made with anytuing from chickpea flour to rice flour. Many fvorites are potato flour and tapioca flour. You will want to take 1 liter of water and bring to a boil add ground green chillis, and 4 Tablespoons of whole cumin seed and 5 to 10 tablespoons of salt. Fryums are usually very salty, so salt to taste. Once boiling add flour of choice (rice, corn, jowar, millet or ragi, besan or potato flour) Bring mixture to a boil and watch it thicken. you want it to be thick like molassas but still runny. Finish by putting on saree and setting out in sun. Do not turn or mess with them. As you see below we have put a plastic cover over them that is transparent, we do this only to keep flys or dirt from landing on them, as India is very dusty.
To make Fryums we heat up 5 tbs oil for several minutes, then we place a few of them in oil and jiggle a little, once puffy flip and repeat. should only take 1 minute for them to fry up. Serve with dal and a vegetable curry! Enjoy!
Paradesi Bhaarya 