Mirchi Salan

I love Hyderabadi gravies since they are a tad different from the typical onion-tomato gravies and go well with rotis and possibly with biryani and other rice dishes.
Serves 6 or more

4 anaheim peppers
4 bell peppers

Roast and Dry grind:
peanuts -1/4 - 1/2 cup
sesame seeds - 1/4 - 1/2 cup
 jeera - 1/4 cup

Wet grind:
onion - 1 large
tomato - 2 medium
coconut - 1/4 cup
Ginger - 1 piece
garlic - 3 cloves
tamarind - 1 marble - sized piece or 1-2 tsp of extract.

For seasoning:
Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
1 cumin seeds - 2 tsp
nigella seeds - 1 tsp
fenugreek (methi) seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
oil - depends on method of cooking

chilli powder - 1 tsp
coriander powder - 1 tsp
cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
chopped coriander - garnish

Chop the peppers into thick slices You can use all Anaheim peppers and skip the bell peppers or vice versa.

Dry roast peanuts cumin and sesame seeds and transfer to your spice grinder.
In as little or as much oil as you like, saute the peppers till they are cooked and have brown/white spots. (I have got this done with as little as 1 tsp of oil). This step is important. The peppers need to be cooked well at this stage.

Now comes a choice:
If you don't mind using an obscene amount of oil but want to cook traditionally, grind the onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, tamarind and coconut together. Keep the peppers aside and in the same oil (or more) add the seasonings (cumin, mustard, nigella, fenugreek  seeds and curry leaves) to sputter.  Then cook the ground  mixture along with ground peanuts, sesame and cumin seeds, chilli powder, coriander-cumin powder with copious amounts of oil until you start to see oil leaking out of the paste and the raw smell is replaced by an aroma.

Else, if oil freaks you out, saute the onions, garlic and ginger followed by the tomatoes until cooked in a tsp of oil and then grind it with tamarind.
Add the seasonings (mustard, nigella, cumin, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves) in a tsp of oil followed by the dry ground and wet ground mixture, chilli and cumin-coriander powders and cook  till the mixture sputters (Since the ingredients are precooked this method does not need any additional oil)

Regardless of method used for above,
Add the sauteed peppers, salt and 2 cups of water and remove from flame once the dish boils a bit. Garnish with coriander leaves (cilantro)

Taste differences between methods: Maybe the flavors blend a little better in the liberal oil method but am not sure the difference is significant enough to warrant the sinfulness) Try and let me know!