Ingredients

For the ground spice blend:

1 tbsp black mustard seeds

2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1/2 tsp fennel seeds *

3-4 black peppercorns

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 tsp dried coriander powder

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For the stuffing:

3 tbsp mustard oil

1/8 tsp asafoetida powder

3/4 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 tbsp nigella seeds, roughly ground just to release some flavor

1 tbsp sesame seeds

1 2-inch piece ginger, minced

1/2 dried habanero pepper, minced

1/2 green chili, minced

1 medium yellow onion, diced into 1/4" cubes

3 medium russet potatoes, boiled whole then peeled and diced into 1/2" cubes

1 1/2 cup of firm paneer, diced into 1/4" cubes

salt to taste

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The star of the show:

13-14 sweet peppers

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Directions

1. Wash, cut in half, then roughly de-seed all of the sweet peppers.
2. Prepare all of the aromatics (onion, ginger, green chili, habanero), potatoes, and paneer by chopping them up as specified above.
3. Prepare the ground spice blend using a mortar and pestel, by first grinding down the black mustard seeds, then adding in the cumin, fennel, and black peppercorns until the spice blend looks like a roughly fine powder. Mix in the garam masala, turmeric, and coriander powder as well and set aside.
4. In a pan, add in the mustard oil and let it heat up on medium for a minute.
5. Turn the heat to low, and add in the whole cumin seeds and asafoetida, shortly followed by the ground spice blend. Let them sit for 30 seconds.
6. Add in the ginger, green chili, and habanero. Let those sit for about 1 minute before also adding in the onions and around 1/2 tsp of salt. Keep stirring the onions so they cook evenly.
7. Right after the onions go translucent, add in the paneer and nigella seeds. If you need to add a little bit more mustard oil at this point, go ahead.
8. Let the paneer get a very slight golden-brown hue before mixing in the diced cooked potatoes. Use your spatula to break up any large pieces of potato. At this point, adjust the salt to taste. After about 3 minutes, remove the stuffing from the heat and set aside.
9. Once the stuffing is cool enough to touch, start stuffing the peppers! Stuff each one so that the surface is flat, so that it gets a good even crust in the next step.
10. Heat up some mustard oil (or extra virgin olive oil if you want) in a pan on medium-low heat and add in the peppers face down. (You might have to crisp up the peppers in two batches depending on the size of your pan.) In order to get an even crisp on your peppers, I recommend putting a plate on top of the peppers and pressing it down with my hands from time to time.
11. Keep an eye on the peppers and flip them in about 2 minutes.
12. Let the back side of the stuffed peppers also get a slight golden brown char on them before removing them from the heat, and now you're ready to serve! You can eat them as is, or with some Indian roti. If you want to dress these peppers up even more, you could even whip up a creamy cashew gravy bed to serve them on top of. I hope you enjoy!

* I find it easier to process the fennel seeds into a powder separately but you can grind them down altogether with the other spices too.