The joy of making pickles . . .

As was mentioned in one of my very earlier posts, a common aspect here is the cost of vegetables which go down to unbelievable extents. After a good monsoon the previous year and a not very cold winter, the vegetable production in this region has been quite good.

And to my horror, couple of weeks back, I found out that garlic was just 25 INR a kilogram. And the same time, I called up my friends in the south and found out that it cost 160 INR a kilo there. I just could not let the opportunity go waste.

So, out went a search for a good garlic pickle. And the results were great that already 3 kilograms of garlic has turned into pickle.

Well, for those interested, the recipe - - -

THE INGREDIENTS

1 kilogram of garlic cleaned . . . This is a painful job. Thanks to our maid, Malu, who baby sits Charis, we did not feel the pain.

10 gms each of Coriander seeds, Fenugreek seeds (methi/uluva), cumin seeds (jeera) and Asafoetida (hing/kayam). Fry them without any oil and grind it together into fine powder.

100 gms of brown sugar/jaggery

10 gms of mustard seeds

Juice of 20 lime. You can use the lemon rind to make lime pickle.

Salt to taste – Depends on how salty you want the pickle to be. I used about 8 teaspoons

Chilly powder – Again depends on how hot you want it to be. I used about 3 teaspoons

Tamarind paste – 4 teaspoons. I’ve always used dried tamarind dipped in water for about an hour to make the paste rather than the ready made tamarind paste.

200 ml of oil. Connoisseurs demand gingelly oil but I used refined soyabean oil for convenience sake.

PREPARATION

1. Heat the oil. Once well heated, put mustard seeds till they all burst and become darkish.

2. Add the garlic to the oil. Keep in low fire for about 10 minutes till the garlic is cooked. Ensure that you stir it every 2 minutes.

3. Mix the salt in the lime juice and add this mixture to the garlic.

4. Add the prepared masala powder mix to the garlic and cook for about 5 minutes.

5. Add the chilly powder followed by tamarind paste and last of all the jaggery. It is better to powder the jaggery before adding to the pickle.

6. Cook for another 10 minutes.

As I told earlier, the results were smashing. Three bottles disappeared in no time. We had to make more.

Well, couple of days back, we had one of our retired staff who brings vegetables for sale bringing cherry tomatoes.

I tried the same recipe substituting the garlic with the cherry tomatoes. Again, the resulting pickle was a grand success. Below are few snaps. 

Shalom admiring the cherry tomatoes

The tomatoes half cooked

We're almost there . . . 

The final product . . .