Friday 23 March 2012

Stuffed Red Chilli Pickle

Stuffed red chilli is a popular pickle eaten widely all through Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar region. My father was very fond of all sorts of pickles and he worked hard to prepare a colossus batch of 4-5 different varieties of pickles every year. This recipe is straight from his personal collection of valuable pickle recipes.

Nowadays, this delicious pickle can be easily purchased ready made in most grocery shops in North India.


Ingredients:

250 gms big red chilli

Spices ( He loved to prepare all the spices at home which means roasting, crushing and mixing!)
1. Methi powder - 6 small tbsp
2. Rye/mustard powder - 10 small tbsp
3. Saunf powder - 8 small tbsp
4. Black pepper powder - 2/3 small tbsp
5. Cloves powder - crush 3/4 cloves only into powder
6. Jaifal /nutmeg powder -  ( 1/4 nutmeg only)
7. Jeera powder - 6 small tbsp
8. Javitri powder - Only a small piece
9. Hing - 1 tbsp
10. Salt - 4 big tbsp for mixing in spices
11. Salt - 4 big tbsp for oiling the red chillies
12. Mustard oil - 1 cup
13. Lemon juice - 4-5 big tbsp

Method: 

Wipe hard all the red chillies with a clean dry cotton cloth to clean their surface (Any desire to wash them can leave the pickle exposed to the dangers of developing fungus) and keep the red chillies in the sun to further dry them out. Any moisture just invites fungus.

The next day cut off their tops and empty their seeds in a separate container. The tops are the useless part and can be thrown whereas the seeds are to be mixed with the spices. Another procedure however states that you need not cut off the chilli top; instead just slit open the chilli length wise for stuffing the spices. Both methods produce the same taste.

In a large basin mix together all the spices mentioned in the list including oil which helps bind the powdery form. If you have emptied the chilli seeds, mix them too in this mixture now.
It is advisable to taste this mixture. It is important for it to taste a bit extra salty; the extra salt disappears after 4-5 days and becomes normal.

Now stuff this spice mixture into the chillies to the fullest capacity using a small spoon. This is by far the most difficult part of making a red chilli pickle and requires a lot of time and effort.

Keep all the stuffed chillies in a glass jar, pour in the mustard oil ( some also use a slightly heated mustard oil for rapid ripening and preservation of the pickle) and keep it in the sun for ripening.

The pickle is usually ready to eat after 2 weeks.

It tastes extremely tasty with parathas, puris, with plain rice-toor dal, while mashed in toor dal, or using it as a separate ingredient in lemon rice/fried rice.

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