Sunday, April 1, 2001		What's Cooking

Pickles to tickle your palate
By Geetu

THE magic of spicy, tangy and mouth-watering pickles has captured millions of taste-buds since time immemorial. There will be very few who can resist the temptation of tasting these yet many a young homemaker is scared to try her hands at making pickles.

With a considerable fall in the prices of seasonal vegetables the time is just ripe for khatta meetha mixed vegetable pickle or for that spicy chilli pickle

Here are some recipes of pickles which you always wanted to make yourself but were hesitant about trying. Make these in a small quantity at first and then you can graduate to large scale production.

1 kg Tomatoes

30 gm ginger

20-30 gm garlic

10 gm ground rai

Green chillies

Curry patta,

5 gm maithra,

150-200 gm vinegar

5 gm turmeric,

250 gm til oil,

5 gm red chillies,

50 gm salt,

gur or jaggery (optional)

Heat till oil and fry ground ginger and garlic till brown.

Add finely cut tomato pieces and cook slightly. Add ground rai, maithra and finely-cut green chillies Add all the masalas and cook. Add sirka, gur and salt last.

Cook till it leaves the sides of the pan.

½ kg bamboo shoots (to be minced and mixed with salts and kept aside).

2 pods of garlic,

1 inch-piece of ginger,

15 long, dry red chillies.

1 tsp cuminseeds,

1 small piece turmeric,

¼ kg oil,

bay leaves,

2 tbsp sugar,

Put the bamboo shoots aside for a day, with some weight on them. Next day, squeeze them nicely and remove the liquid. Keep aside.

Heat the oil and fry the bay leaves. Then, add the masala and fry well. Add some water to it. When it boils, put the bamboo shoots in it and cook for some time. Add the sugar and remove it from fire, cool and bottle. The pickle can also be stored in a refrigerator.

½ kg small new potatoes

350 gm sem

12 whole green chillies

½ tsp red chillies powder

¾ tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

3 level tsp rai (small mustard seeds)

2½ tsp salt

3 tbsp mustard oil.

Wash the beans and cut into 1 inch pieces. Boil the beans and whole green chillies in one third-cup of water until almost tender.

Wash and boil the potatoes thoroughly till nearly tender, peel and cut into halves. Grind the rai and mix with the salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder and add to the potatoes and beans.

Heat the mustard oil till it smokes. Cool it and add to the vegetables. Put the pickle in a clean jar and cover it. Keep it in the sun for a few hour for a day or two and it will be ready.

This pickle is almost like a cooked vegetable and will last about three to four weeks.

1 kg kachaloo,

1 kg brinjals cut thin and long-sized,

2 tsp ground black pepper.

200 gm salt.

60 gm ground mustard seeds.

2 cups mustard oil.

Wash and wipe the brinjals. Cut into four portions, but do not separate.

Mix turmeric powder in 3 cups water and boil it along with brinjals till they are half done. Remove brinjals from water and cool. Keep the water for further use. Boil and peel the kachaloos and cut them into round pieces. Heat mustard oil. Add ground mustard seeds, black pepper and salt to it. Dip brinjal and kachaloo in the oil mixture and fill in a jar. Pour the remaining masala on it. Also add boiled water, in which brinjals were boiled. Keep this pickle in the sunlight for 2-3 days.

1 kg green chillies

1½ bottles vinegar,

½ kg sugar.

½ kg mustard oil

2 tbsp fenugreek seeds

2 tbsp cuminseeds

1 pod garlic

2" piece ginger

350 gm tamarind, salt and turmeric to taste.

Soak tamarind in vinegar for a few hours and sieve it through a sieve. Wash green chillies and keep in sunlight to dry. Cut into large-sized pieces. Peel and grind ginger and garlic together. Then grind fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds finely. Heat mustard oil and fry ginger and garlic to a golden brown colour. Now add powdered cuminseeds and fenugreek seeds and fry for two to three minutes. Add turmeric, salt, tamarind pulp and sugar and cook for five to ten minutes.

Finally add green chillies, cook them for two to three minutes and remove them from five. Cool and fill in sterilised bottles.

10 small-sized cucumbers

16 cup water

1 cup salt,

4 cups vinegar,

1 cup sugar,

1" piece cinnamon

12 cloves.

Peel cucumbers. Mix salt in water and soak peeled cucumbers in it for 2 days. Drain and discard the liquid.

Mix cucumbers, vinegar, sugar, ground cinnamon and cloves and boil for about five minutes. Fill in a bottle along with the liquid.

250 gm garlic

1 cup mustard oil

3 tsp ground mustard seeds

3 tsp salt

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

½ cup vinegar.

Clean and peel and garlic flakes and fry for four to five minutes in hot mustard oil. Add ground mustard seeds, salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder in the oil and fry for some time.

Add vinegar and cook the mixture for two to three minutes and store it in sterilised bottle.