Lime and Chilli Pickle (South Indian style)

Any house in U.S will have peanut butter in the pantry. Unless there is someone with peanut allergy in the house. I can say the same about South Indian Homes with regard to pickle. If not anything, one can eat rice mixed with yogurt topped with pickle. It is that common and an essential pantry item.
For some reason, I never developed interest in pickles. But, my relatives (actually my husband's side of the family) are too much into pickles. Even when I am not fond of them, I have been making pickles for a few years now. This one is a recipe from my father-in-law. He can give you recipe for any South Indian food. Problem is he talks about one ingredient in number, the other in kilograms the other in some kind of measure which I don't have available here. I just asked him what the ingredients are and came up with the recipe. When you talk about 20 limes, people are not paying attention to how big they are. I have seen limes twice the size of limes we get in India. To make it easy, I converted everything into cups. You can increase the chillies if you like the pickle with more heat.

One year back - Mango Milk Shake

Ingredients:
Limes - Quartered or cut into eighths if big and measured  8 cups
Limes - 4 - 6 for juicing
Salt - 1 1/2 cups (Go easy on it in the beginning - start with 1 cup)
Green chillies - stalks removed and measured 4 cups
Ginger - Peeled and diced small and then measured 2 cups
Fenugreek seeds / Methi - 1/4 cup
Asafoetida / Hing - size of a pea
Oil - 1 cup (I used mustard oil but you can use any flavorless oil)
Mustard seeds - 1 TBSP
Turmeric - 2 heaping tsp

Method:
Wash limes well and pat them dry. Cut them into 8th if big or quarter them if small. Place them in a clean, dry glass jar or a porcelain  dish which has a lid. Place a layer of limes, sprinkle salt, another layer of limes, salt and keep repeating this till all are used up.

Remove the stalks from green chillies. Wash and dry on a paper towel. Measure and after measuring, chop them  into thirds or halves. Add it to the lime and salt mixture. Squeeze the remaining limes reserved for juicing into the pot. Mix the chopped ginger and mix well. Cover with the lid and let it sit for 2 weeks. Every other day, stir with a clean and dry spatula.

At the end of 2 weeks, stir and taste a piece. If it has become soft and has absorbed the salt, it is ready to be seasoned. Some limes have thicker skin and they might take a little longer. You should be able to bite into the lime easily.

Roast the fenugreek/methi seeds till golden. Powder it along with asafoetida when cool. Add this powder to the lime, chilli mixture. Stir well. In a pan, take the oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, turn off the heat. After couple of minutes, add the turmeric into the hot oil. When the oil has cooled down a bit but still warm, add it to the lime and chilli mixture. Mix it all up. Cover and let it sit for a day or two at room temperature. Usually pickle stays fine at room temperature for a year if not contaminated by any moisture. I prefer to refrigerate mine since it doesn't get used up fast in my house.

Tip:
Don't leave a stainless steel or metal spoon in the container. Salt will affect the metal. Do not store the pickle in any metal container either. Glass or ceramic or plastic containers are the best to store pickles.

Enjoy. Pin It

Cranberry Thokku / Cranberry Pickle

If you have been reading food blogs, it is kind of a norm to make something sweet as a New Year post or the first post in the year. I am deviating a bit and posting a savory dish as my first post. But, even when it is savory, I wish you all loads of sweet things in your life this year and in future years.

This is the first cranberry preparation I ever tasted. We were invited to a dinner by a nice lady and she had made this. From that time onwards, I have been making it at least once every cranberry season. You could use frozen berries when these berries are not in season.

One Year Back - Thengol
Ingredients:
Fresh Cranberries - 3 cups rinsed and picked
Oil - 3 TBSP (Any oil except olive oil)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - generous 2-3 pinches
Turmeric - a big pinch
Dried Red chillies - 14 divided use (Alter per taste)
Fenugreek seeds/ methi seeds / menthya - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:
Heat a skillet. Dry roast 12 red chillies with fenugreek seeds. Keep moving the contents in the pan as fenugreek burns easily and gives a bitter taste. When the seeds start popping and are golden, remove from heat and set aside. In the same skillet, heat oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the remaining two chillies (broken) and hing. Now, add the cleaned cranberries. Stir. Add salt, turmeric. Keep stirring often so that all the berries pop. When most of the berries have popped and made a mush, reduce the heat. Take the roasted red chillies and fenugreek and powder them in a blender/spice grinder. Add it to the pan. Mix well. Adjust the salt if necessary. Leave on low heat for a minute or two and then turn off the heat. When cool, store in an air tight container in the refrigerator. This stays good for about 1 month in the refrigerator. About 3 - 4 days at room temperature. Goes well with idli, dosa, rice.

Notes:
Not everyone likes the tang /tartness of cranberries. If you are one of those who do not like it, this dish might not appeal you since there is no sugar involved in this to mellow down the tang. On a side note, you could add some brown sugar or jaggery to it to mellow down the tartness.

Enjoy. Pin It

Tomato Thokku/Pickle from another Blog

When I posted about this new venture I want to start, I received few comments saying how they liked the idea of recreating one of the other blogger's recipe and posting it. But it was Jayashree of 'My Experiments with Food' who sent me an email giving me the links to couple of her recipes that she would like me to try. That email couldn't have come at a better time since I had some left over side dish for chapathis but not enough and I had to make something along with that. We have been snowed in and we are tired from clearing the snow. I wanted to fix something quick and when I read one of the links she had sent me, I thought why not try her Tomato Thokku. You can find the original recipe posted by Jayashree here.

This is very similar to what I am used to in Karnataka called Gojju. I make tomato gojju all the time. There are some differences between my Gojju and this recipe. I followed her recipe almost entirely except for a minor detail. Here it is for your ease of reading..

Ingredients:

1. Juicy, ripe red tomatoes - 12, medium sized - pureed (I used two cans of organic no additive added chopped tomatoes of 14.5 Oz since I didn't have this many fresh tomatoes)
2. peanut oil or vegetable oil - 5 TBSP
3. Mustard seeds - 3/4 tsp
4. Urad dal - 3/4 tsp
5. Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Green chilli - 5 minced fine
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Red chilli powder - to taste
9. Hing - a big pinch
10. Salt - to taste

Method:
Puree the tomatoes in a blender till smooth. Heat oil in a pan. (Original recipe uses gingely oil which I don't use) Add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add both the dals and let them get golden brown. Now add minced green chillies, hing and saute for a minute. Add pureed tomatoes, turmeric, salt to taste, red chilli powder and simmer for 2 - 3 minutes. I did all these in a corningware dish which can be used on stove top and in a microwave. Here is the fun part. Jayashree has said in her recipe that it takes about 1 hour for all the moisture to be removed and I didn't have that kind of time today. Microwave dries up food faster than stove top. So, after mixing all the spices up, I kept the dish in the microwave and started microwaving in the intervals of 5 minutes stirring every 5 minutes or so. In the meantime, dry roast the fenugreek seeds and powder it. Add it to the thokku in the microwave and stir. It took me exactly 15 minutes to evaporate all the water content from the thokku. Check for the seasoning and adjust if necessary. Serve with roti, rice, bread. I served with chapathis and I mixed some with rice too and it tastes great. Thanks to Jayashree for sharing such a wonderful recipe with everyone.

Suggested Variation:
Omit hing and saute garlic and some finely chopped onion. When Onions are completely cooked add tomato puree and proceed as per the recipe. You get Onion - Tomato pickle/Thokku. If you like cumin, you can roast cumin with fenugreek seeds and use. Or you could just use cumin to season and leave out fenugreek.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It

Apple Dhideer Uppinakayi / Pickle

My sister made this kind of dhideer (instant) pickle with raw mango. I have always loved this in many weddings in Karnataka. I actually had this sometime back here in U.S at a party where they had added couple of apples to it. I loved the sweet, sour taste of it. Two days back, when I was grocery shopping, I saw Granny smith apples and suddenly it was a 'light bulb' moment. I bought them for making pickle and the result was finger licking pickle which was ready almost instantly.

Here is the recipe for it..

Ingredients:
Tart Granny Smith apples - 2 big washed, cored and diced.
salt to taste
Chilli powder to taste - I used about 2 tsp.
Oil - 2 TBSP.
Fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) - 1/2 tsp.
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Hing - a big pinch
Turmeric - a big pinch.

Method:
Place chopped apples in a bowl. Sprinkle salt and mix. Add the chilli powder and turmeric on the top. Heat the pan and dry roast the methi seeds till golden. Keep aside. Heat oil in the same pan and when hot, add mustard seeds and hing. When they splutter, add this hot oil to the apples in the bowl pouring it on the top of chilli powder and turmeric. Mix well. Adjust the salt if needed. Powder the roasted methi seeds and mix with the apples. Cover and let it stand for 20 minutes and the pickle is ready. Goes well with south indian meal or just like a snack if you wish.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It