Shallots Pickle

I have never really made pickles by myself – both my amma and mother in law make pickles for us while they are here or package all the way from Bangalore. But we finish these batches of pickles so fast that there are a few  days when there’s not much in the house and if like me you’ve grown up eating pickle rice, food just doesn’t feel the same.  A couple of days back when we ran out of our favourite shallot pickle, I decided to make some on my own. 

The flavour of this pickle comes from the mild sweetness of the shallots, combined with the sourness of tamarind and the fierceness of red chillies.  It smells so gorgeous and tastes so delicious that I have atleast a couple of spoons of rice mixed with this pickle almost everyday. 

Makes: enough to fit in a 750 ml container

Preparation time: 30 minutes, Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• Shallots – 3 cups (peeled, washed and patted dry)
• Tamarind – 1 cup 
• Red Chillies – 1 1/2 cups (increase or decrease to taste)
• Turmeric – 1 tsp
• Hing – 1/4 tsp  
• Fenugreek seeds (dry) – 3 tsp 
• Salt – 2 tbsp (adjust to taste) 
• Sesame Oil/ Olive Oil – 6 tbsp

Method

1. Soak the tamarind in hot water for 10 minutes. You will need water just enough to immerse the tamarind. Depending on whether you soak the tamarind in a flat broad vessel or a deeper vessel, you will need about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water.  
2. On a medium flame, heat 1 tbsp of oil and saute the shallots until they turn pink.  Set aside to cool. 
3. On a medium flame, dry roast the fenugreek seeds, cool for somtime and grind to a fine powder. 
4. Drain the tamarind and reserve the water. 
5. Grind shallots, tamarind, red chillies, salt and turmeric together to a paste of spoonable consistency adding the reserved water as required to aid in grinding. 
6. Heat the remaining oil in a pan. Add the paste and cook uncovered on a low flame stirring frequently in between until the paste is well cooked and loses all its water content. Keep only on a low flame, do not increase flame at all. This should take about 30 minutes or more depending on the water content of your paste. The pickle is cooked when it turns a deeper shade of brown.  Take off flame, add the powdered fenugreek and mix well. 

Refrigerate in a air tight container. Keeps well for several months. 

 

Shallots Pickle – for the Recipe Marathon

Fellow recipe marathoners:

DK, Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii
Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Raaga, Lakshmi Venkatesh, Sripriya, Viji, , Kamalika,Pavani, Roochi, Karuna

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