MIRCHI PASTE
INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons onions, chopped and fried
4 tablespoons red chilli powder
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
Juice of 2 limes
Salt to taste
METHOD
Heat the oil in a pan and add ginger-garlic paste. Sauté until fragrant and add in the fried onions. Keep stirring to make sure the onions and the paste amalgamate. Pour in the lime juice and add salt. Mix well again.
Add the red chilli powder and sauté for a few more minutes to let the flavours mix well. Serve in a small bowl as an accompaniment with any meal. In our home this is always on the table.
GAJAR KA ACHAAR
This is a very special recipe for me because it was my grandmother’s and it tastes of my childhood.
INGREDIENTS
3 kg carrots
¼ kg sugar
200 gm salt, to soak carrots in
100 gm salt, to cook with
100 gm mustard seeds
100 gm dry chillies, ground in vinegar
1 ½ litres vinegar
1 litre oil
6 teaspoons ginger paste
3 teaspoons garlic paste
3 teaspoons ginger, finely chopped
2 teaspoons turmeric powder
METHOD
Cut the carrots into thin strips or small cubes, as you prefer. Soak these in 200 gram of salt for 3-4 hours. Wash off the salt and let the carrots dry thoroughly.
In a large vessel, heat oil. Add mustard seeds and when these splutter, toss in the carrots.
Mix well and add the pastes, ground chillies, chopped ginger, turmeric, sugar and vinegar. Keep the vessel on the stove until the carrots are cooked.
Let cool, and bottle.
Gajar Ka Achaar
HARI MIRCH ACHAAR
INGREDIENTS
½ litre vinegar
¼ litre oil
500 gm thick green chillies, washed and wiped dry
100 gm ginger
50 gm garlic
6 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves
Salt to taste
METHOD
Cut the clean, dry chillies into ½" pieces. Rub them with a teaspoon of salt. Set aside.
Grind ginger, garlic and cumin seeds with vinegar. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. As soon as these crackle, take the pan off the stove and put in the ground masala and turmeric powder. Return to the stove and let the spices cook for a few minutes. Add in the chillies, tamarind paste, sugar and salt. Mix well, and throw in the curry leaves. Cook on slow fire for 15 minutes. Allow to cool and then store in a bottle.
SABZI KA ACHAAR
INGREDIENTS
1 kg mixed vegetables, such as carrots, small onions, radishes, peas, cauliflower florets
2 cups oil
1 cup sugar
A handful of curry leaves for the baghar
Salt to taste
Grind the following into a paste
¼ cup vinegar
20 Kashmiri chillies
2 garlic cloves
½" piece dried turmeric
4 teaspoons mustard seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
METHOD
Clean all the vegetables and cut into medium-sized pieces. Sprinkle with salt and dry in the sun for a day. Discard the water that is drawn out. In a pan, heat oil until it smokes and add curry leaves and the ground masala. Fry well
Add the sugar. The flavour needs to be slightly tart but not too sharp. You may add more vinegar to achieve this. Then mix in the vegetables and cook on a slow flame for 20 minutes. Let it cool and then bottle.
Sabzi ka Achaar
BAINGAN KA ACHAAR
INGREDIENTS
1 litre vinegar
½ kg oil
750 gm eggplants
150 gm sugar
30 gm green chillies
30 gm dried red chillies, ground in vinegar
2 sprigs curry leaves
2 tablespoons salt
½ tablespoon cumin seeds
3 teaspoons ginger, chopped
2 teaspoons garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons turmeric powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
METHOD
Wash, dry and cube the eggplants. Soak the cubes in salted water for 3-4 hours. Grind the green and red chillies, turmeric powder, black pepper and fenugreek, mustard and cumin seeds to a fine paste, using as much vinegar as you need.
Bring the oil to a boil in a large pan. Add this ground masala and fry until fragrant. Then, add the ginger, garlic and curry leaves. Mix well. Lastly, mix in the eggplants and sugar. Add in the remaining vinegar and leave on a slow fire until the eggplants are cooked and the gravy thickens. Cool and bottle.
GOSHT KI CHUTNEY
You will need a good-quality mortar and pestle to get the desired consistency – it is impossible to achieve it using a blender.
INGREDIENTS
½ kg boneless mutton, with no fat
1 tablespoon unroasted coriander powder
2 teaspoons chilli powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Lightly roast and grind
2½ tablespoons patthar ka phool
2½ tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
1½ tablespoons peanuts
1½ tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
For the tadka
6 dried red chillies
3 garlic cloves
2 sprigs curry leaves
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
A pinch of asafoetida
METHOD
Clean the meat and cut into small cubes. Wash with salt and set aside in a plastic container.
Heat oil in a deep pan and then lower the flame, and add a pinch of cumin seeds, a few curry leaves and a garlic clove. Mix in the masala you have roasted and ground; sauté until fragrant.
Add in the meat, cover immediately and let cook in its own juices. When it softens, uncover the pan and allow the liquid to form a thick gravy.
Wash the mortar and pestle, and make sure it’s clean and dry.
When the meat is cool enough to work with – but not cold – start grinding it, a cupful at a time, to a fine paste. Let this paste cool completely in a deep bowl.
To add the tadka, heat the oil in a frying pan and add all the ingredients. Allow the chillies to fry well, until nearly charred. Pour this baghar over the ground meat and cover the bowl immediately. Set aside for 2 to 3 hours to allow the flavours to combine.
Store in the refrigerator. Take each serving out just before you’d like to eat it, and warm it either on a low flame or in the microwave.
KHATTA MEETHA AAM CHUTNEY
INGREDIENTS
1 kg semi-ripe mangoes
100 gm jaggery
2 tablespoons tamarind juice
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons chilli powder
Salt to taste
METHOD
Peel the mangoes and cube them.
Heat oil in a pan and add the mangoes and chilli powder. Let the mixture cook for 5 minutes before adding in jaggery, tamarind juice and salt. Mix well to combine all the flavours and let the chutney come to a boil. Lower the flame and let it cook for five more minutes. Take the pan off the flame and let the chutney cool before you serve it.
Khatta Meetha Aam Chutney
DHOOP NIMBU
For a pickle that takes so little effort and time to make, it’s much more delicious than you might think it will be. If you store it in the fridge, it will keep for a year. Please note that you need 60 limes in total because you use the whole limes in the pickle.
INGREDIENTS
30 limes, cleaned and left whole
30 limes, to juice
20 whole green chillies
Salt to taste
METHOD
Make sure the 30 whole limes are dry, and prick holes over them.
Juice the other 30 limes.
Put the whole limes and green chillies into a jar and pour the lime juice and salt over.
Shake well and keep in the sun for at least a week. The limes should swell up and change colour. Store in the fridge.
To serve, remove one or two limes, as you need, and as many green chillies as you would like. Cut the limes into pieces and leave the chillies whole.
Allow to cool and then store in a bottle.
ANDE KA ACHAAR
A delicious way to use eggs, this pickle keeps for two weeks in the fridge.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups vinegar
12 hard boiled eggs, shelled
12 cloves
12 peppercorns
6 dried red chillies
4 garlic cloves
1" cinnamon stick
1" piece ginger
1 tablespoon mustard seeds, coarsely ground
½ teaspoon sugar
Salt to taste
METHOD
Grind ginger and garlic together. In a pan, combine this paste with all the ingredients, except the eggs. Bring the mixture to the boil and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Strain it and let cool.
Put all the eggs in a large jar with a tight lid. Pour the strained vinegar into the jar, shut tight and leave it be for a week in a cool, dry place.
Ande ka Achaar
TAAZA JHINGA KE ACHAAR
INGREDIENTS
¼ kg prawns, cleaned and minced
250 ml tomato puree
¾ cup vinegar
3 onions, minced
3 to 4 green chillies
5 teaspoons sugar
3 teaspoons chilli powder
3 teaspoons cumin powder
3 teaspoons mustard seeds, ground
3 teaspoons ginger-garlic paste
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
METHOD
Wash and dry prawns. Heat oil in a pan and add salt and turmeric, mixed together. Fry for a minute or two before adding in the onions, and let these brown.
In the meantime, mix the ginger-garlic paste, ground mustard seeds and chilli and cumin powders with the vinegar. Then, add curry leaves into the pan with the masala and vinegar paste. Fry for a few minutes, and pour in the tomato puree. When all the ingredients in the pan are well amalgamated, add prawns, sugar and green chillies. Cook until the prawns are soft. Let it cool before decanting into a bottle.