Chilli Tamarind Pickle

When I was a little girl, making achaar or pickle was one of those things which all the women in the house participated in – grandma, mom, aunts etc — someone would be grinding the spices, while others would cut the vegetables or fruits and so on. Our ancestral house in Silchar had a little room where there was a wooden rack with lots of shelves full of jars of pickles. They were stacked side by side and you could see the pickled fruits immersed in aromatic oils and spices. Just looking at them made my mouth water and I found the whole process very fascinating. The room would get plenty of sunlight in the day to aid the pickling process and it is not a wonder that some of these pickles were decades old. In fact, one of my colleagues once gave me a bit of lemon pickle which was first set by her grandma’s mother-in-law! Almost as revered as jewellery, these pickles are passed on from generation to generation, where the next person keeps adding the fruits to the concoction and the humble pickle even gains medicinal properties to ward off common colds, allergies or to build immunity.

As we grew up and joint families in India started to cease to a considerable extent, making pickles was no longer such a grand tradition. It was just one of the things that you made in your kitchen and became a quick-fix thing in the fast-paced life. We no longer have the time or patience to make the pickle and let it rest in the sun for days and look at it longingly. But quick-fix pickles are no less delicious. The first memory of  such a pickle is buying pickled olives from the street vendor near schools or markets, who would also sell dry fruits, nuts, pickled berries, pop corn etc, all for 50 paise or Re 1 each. The big green olives would be soaked in mustard oil, turmeric, chilli powder and salt and sold in a plastic packet containing three to four olives. Biting into those tart olives and then clicking your tongue as the sour tang hit your palate was the highlight of eating pickles.

My mom used to make pickles at home too, my favourite being olive and Indian jujube (boroi, bogori) pickle. My Marwari friends used to bring green mango pickles but I developed a taste for that later in life as I always preferred those with a mildly sweeter taste than a very sour one. Another quick-fix pickle which I accidentally made one day was a green chilli pickle. We were having Chinese that day and my mom told me to put some soy sauce and vinegar with chillies in two small bowls — condiments used while eating ‘Indian’ Chinese food. I put some small red chillies in the vinegar along with the green ones, added some salt and shook it in a covered container. It tasted really good and whenever we want to have instant pickles I still make it. It’s tart, spicy, juicy and full of flavours.

Today I will be making my version of chilli pickle. There are many ways of making it but my mom used a lot of tamarind in any pickle recipe so I tend to do that too. You can reduce the amount of tamarind or skip it if you want and increase the amount of oil by 3-4 tbsp.

Prep time: 2 days Cooking time: 10 min Serves: 1 cup

Ingredients:

Dried chillies: 1 cup
Vinegar: 1/2 cup
Mustard oil: 1/2 cup
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp

Sauf/fennel seeds: 1 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Sugar: 2 tsp
Tamarind paste: 2 tbsp

Method:

1) Soak the dried chillies in the vinegar, mustard oil, salt and turmeric for at least 2 days and keep it in the sun.
2) When the chillies become soft and the flavours are infused in them, start with the cooking process. Dry roast sauf and mustard seeds and grind them. Remove from heat as they turn black very quickly.
(Since it was such a small amount, I just used the back of a spoon to crush them; my mom used to put them inside a newspaper sheet and roll a rolling pin on top of it to coarsely grind the spices.)
3) Add a few drops of mustard oil in a pan and temper it with the ground spices. Put all the red chillies along with the oil and vinegar mixture it was soaked in into the pan. Add sugar and tamarind paste and mix it will. Check for salt and adjust the amount of sugar and tamarind according to your taste.
4) Let it simmer for 6-7 minutes till all the liquid almost dries up and the pickle gets a sticky consistency.
5) Let it cool down for a few minutes and transfer to a glass jar or good quality plastic container.
6) You can still keep it in the sun for a few days everyday to get more flavours or eat it just like that. Serve as a condiment with rice, roti, paratha for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.

Note: I used tamarind and sugar because a) I like the taste and consistency b) It balances the heat of the chillies with a tart and slightly sweet flavour. As the chillies get filled with the spicy tamarind mixture, one bite will lead to an explosion of contrasting yummy flavours in your mouth!