Lemon and Chili

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  I learned to make this pickle from my sister-in-law.  She is quite wary when it comes to Indian cooking but  excellent with her casseroles, cakes and cookies.  She is going to be aghast when she reads this post today, someone posting a recipe of hers is going to ball her over.  This one is for you Sy.  Thank you. I loved the pickle and V has been asking for more.

  My husband so loves this pickle he has started this new thing.  Collecting lime rind after making lemonade to pickle them. Now how this pans out is yet to be seen.  Will tell you all about it once my husband figures out a way to replicate the taste of this pickle with the lemon rind..  As for now please enjoy the real deal all the way from Texas.  Enjoy y'all!

Ingredients:
Lemon - 5
Chili - 10 nos
Garlic - 5 - 6 pods
Mustard - 1/4 tspn
Vinegar - 1/4 cup
Asafoetida - a pinch
Methi Powder - a pinch (optional)

Method:
1. Place the lemons in enough water and bring to a boil
2. Make sure they don't break but has changed color slightly like its blanched
3. Cool and cut them into 8 pieces
4. Heat sesame oil in a pan and splutter mustard.
5. Add garlic, curry leaves and saute
6. Switching the heat off season this further with a pinch of asafoetida and methi powder
7. When the tempering is cool add cut lemons and vinegar, mix well.  Make sure you have salted the pickle well
8. Over time the lime will absorb the salt so its imperative the pickle is a tad over salty when you bottle
9. Keep the pickle in an air tight glass bottle for at least 10-15 days for it to set and ingredients to blend well well
10. You can check for salt after 5 days of bottling to make sure it is enough

An easy preparation to help perk up an otherwise boring rice and curd meal

Contributor: Sunitha

Puli Inji

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Here is a little hot and sweet preserve for you.  The zesty ginger with hot paprika and sweet jaggery combine together to make this potent preserve.  It heightens the experience of a rice and lentil meal.  Served in all sadya (feast)  I hope you will enjoy this recipe.

Ingredients:

Ginger - thinly chopped - 1 cup

Coconut oil - 1/4 cup (could use less if you can deep fry the ginger in small quantities)

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Green chillies - 6 nos

Brown sugar - 3 tspn packed

Salt - 1 tspn (add gradually as per taste)

Turmeric - 1/4 tspn

Asafoetida - 1/4 tspn ( optional)

Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tspn

Chili powder - 1 tspn

Tamarind - a lemon size ball (I made a ball of some tamarind and kept it in a tbspn and I think its safe to say 1 1/2 - 2 tbspn of tamarind)

Water - 1 cup and 2 tbspn

Method:
1. Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of water
2. Deep fry the sliced ginger and chili and keep aside
3. In a little water as little as 1 tbspn or as much as 2 tbspn and mix the powders.  Turmeric, chili, asafoetida, fenugreek)
4. I drained the oil out and added the soaked powder mixture in and sautéed it for a few seconds
5. With your hands mix the tamarind well making taking only the juice
6. Add this to the sautéed powder and boil for 10-15 minutes on medium fire or until it thickens
7.  Add the fried ginger, chilies and curry leaves and let the mixture simmer
8. You could crush the fried ginger with your hands or in your blender to get a coarse powder or add it as is.
9. Take off the heat, cool and save in a bottle

Contributor: Sunitha

Cucumber in sweet vinegar

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     How are you?  I hope you are doing well.  The weather in these parts have been rather crazy see-saw between sunshine and snow.  Thankfully, yesterdays flurry din't last long on the ground and there is news that the weekend will be bright and sunny.  This is good.  It means a long walk in the woods for me.

The recipe today is a special one even though its the easiest concoction ever.  Most Chinese restaurants in India serve these on the table with pickled cabbage, soya bean sauce and ketchup.  I love it.   This is my own version of the recipe purely inspiried and concocted keeping the taste from the aforementioned restaurants in mind.  Please add more sugar or salt as needed since the strength of these, you know, depend on the brand and product. 

Ingredients:

Cucumber - 2
Sugar - 2 tspn
Salt - 1 1/2 tspn
Vinegar - 1/4 cup
Boiling Water - 1/4 cup
Green chillies - 2 to 4 nos

Method:
1. Add salt and sugar to the boiling water and once cool add vingegar
2. Slice cucumber and add to the mixture and keep overnight
Notes:

1. I don't make this to last a long time but just as a starter to a meal.
2. This way its tasty and you can do without the use of rich dips

   Great news also for me is this pretty post-it book that came in my mail the day before.  Oh! What joy!  Thank you Oraphan for this pretty lil book I adore.



We are participating in Pari's Combo Event .  Please find her announcement here

Our Entries:

Appam
Pav Bhajji
Poori Chole

Contributor:
Sunitha

Pavakka Achar/ Pickled Bitter Gourd

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   I have to employ an oxymoron like wonderfully bitter or so, when explaining the taste of pickled bitter gourd.  Also, one other opposite when it comes to this veggie is that my husband  does not like it and I love it.  That's probably why they say opposites attract.  Whatever!

   Like I said, since my husband is not a big fan of this vegetable, I generally pick one or two while at the Indian store and pickle them.  This way I enjoy it for over weeks or months without having to cook small portions for myself.  It's quite boring for me to cook for myself; but once in a while, when there are things that I totally enjoy, I don't mind going that extra mile to get it done.

    This is yet another eazy peezy recipe.   I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients:
Bitter Gourd - 1 Big
Sesame Oil  - 1 TBspn
Mustard      - 1/8th tspn
Garlic          - 1 pod or less as you like
Curry Leaves - 1 Spig
Green Chillies - 6 - 8 nos
Vinegar - 1/2 cup

Method:
1. Slice the gourd in thin rounds or small pieces (julienne style)
2. Sprinkle salt, maybe 1/4 tspn or so, and mix well and keep it aside for some time.  (30 minutes to an hour)
3. When you are ready to cook press the gourd between your palms to squeeze out some of the juice. (You can avoid this if you don't mind the bitterness.. this process just helps to tone down the strength of the bitterness)
4. Gather all the other ingredients peeled and cleaned as necessary
5. Heat oil in a pan and splutter the mustard
6. Add curry leaves, chillies, garlic and saute
7. Add the gaurds now and saute till half done or golden brown to your preference.
8. Once the veggie is tempered let it cool and check for saltiness. 
9. Add the vinegar and mix well.  Check if there is enough salt after adding the vinegar and bottle

Notes: 
1. You can add asafoetida and fenugreek powder ,a pinch each if you want more flavor. 
2. Always check if the pickles are well salted before bottling.  The salt should be slightly on the higher side so that once the vinegar marinates the veggies you pickle should not be only sour but get the tanginess of salt and sour together.

Contributor: Sunitha

Kaduku Manga Achar / Pickled Mango

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Kanji, payar and manga achar, (rice gruel, green grams sauteed and pickled mango) this used to be a traditional supper in most homes in Kerala. Thinking of mangoes make my mouth water and when its pickled even more.

Here is my attempt at making some pickle at home because the store bought ones are loaded with salt and whatever other preservatives you can think of. I hope you will enjoy this homemade pickle.



Ingredients:
Mango - 1 Large
Mustard - 1 Tspn
Ginger - 1 Tbspn chopped fine
Garlic - 1 Tbspn chopped fine
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Green Chili - 6 nos chopped
Fenugreek - 1/8 tspn
Asafoetida -1/4 tspn (add less if you don't like its flavor too much)
Salt - to taste
Turmeric Powder - 1/8 tspn
Chili Powder - 2 Tbspn
Gingely oil-2 Tbspn
Vinegar-1/2 cup



Method:

There are many ways to pickle. One is to salt the mango and leave it in the refrigerator over night and then pickle it the next day. This is to soften the mangoes. However, I like them crispy so, cut them quite small and then do a tempering of all the ingredients and mix.

1. Clean and dry the mango
2. Cut them into small pieces, hopefully the picture is helpful to guage
3. Add 2 Tbspn of oil into a hot pan and splutter mustard
4. Keep adding each ingredient in the order of curry leaves, ginger, chili, garlic and then the powders sauteing after each addition
5. Add 1/2 cup of vinegar and switch the fire off
6. Once this mixture cools add it to the mango and check for salt
7. Let the salt be slightly on the higher side, because when the mango marinates in the mixture the salt and sourness of the mango will blend to taste good



Contributor: Sunitha

Pickled Onions and Green Chilies/ Awards

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   This is an easy pickling process and the taste is so good its polished clean as easily too.    I especially like its color.  It's eye candy and I leave it on the kitchen counter or occasionally on the dinning table and enjoy looking at it everytime I pass by.  The recipe is passed on by my husband's grandmother.  She is a whiz in the kitchen.  It's amazing how she has all the recipes ingrained in her brain and does not consult notes (recipes) while cooking.  You say the word and she will just blurting out the entire recipe. Very fascinating lady indeed!  Fantastic at violin, cooking and sewing I would call her an all rounder.  She is quite old now and unfortunately not too well.  However, I am sure she would be glad to know I am sharing her recipe with you all.  Enjoy it!

This double shade of the onions in the picture below is as its getting marinated but after bottling in 4-5 days all of it gets evenly colored.


Ingredients:
1. Green Chilies
2. Shallots
3. 1 part Water
4. 1 part Vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
5. Salt


Method:
1. Wash the chilies and let the water dry off completely
2. Peel the shallots and wipe clean with a damp cloth and dry cloth respectively until cleaned dry.  This will make sure the onions will stay longer pickled and not get spoilt.
3.  Boil water and dissolve salt in it
4. Once the water cools down add equal part of vinegar and pour over the chilis and onions filled in a bottle.
5. Keep the bottle tighly closed and it will be marinated enough to eat in 4-5 days

Serving: Its a fun pickle.  You can serve it as it is or cut and add them to your salad.
Decoration: Let your imagination take flight.  Keep them in glass bottles of different shapes and size and they look wonderful enough that your guests will go Wow!
Contributor: Sunitha

We got this cute and sweet award from Bigarade of Bittersweet Bigarades Ramblings

Thank you so much and we really appreciate it :-) Now we would like to share with a few blogger friends

Sreelekha Sumesh of Sree's Recipes
Sadhana & Muskaan of A2Z vegetarian cuisine

Jeyashri Suresh of Jeyashri's kitchen

Ushnish Ghosh of Cooking and Recipes

Nandini of Usha Nandini's Recipes

Vrinda of Sankeerthanam

Sarah of Vazhayilla

Sangeetha of Kothiyavunnu