Pickle Simple

Let me tell you about the process of cooking and types of cooks that I have seen so far. I feel cooking is something like SCM (Supply Chain Management) in management jargon. It starts right from getting right stuff in right quantities at right price and at right time for the production. Few of my friends are extremely good at it, but some fail in the raw material storage. Some stuff will get into fridge (not everything needs to be kept in the fridge) and will be forgotten till next “Operation Clean” (I call it as safai abhiyan) and something that needs to be kept in fridge will stay out to directly rest in garbage can. The FIFO (first in first out) will be missed resulting in stuff getting stale and resultant unfortunate wastage. Some individuals are great in production but not in upward and downward activities. There is another lot who is unable to properly store the finished product similar to those few who mess up with raw material storage. The final stage is of reaching it to customer and most of them are good in this. I tend to compare this with typical Kandepohe occasion in Maharashtra society. (Kandepohe is a synonym for a marriageable girl’s interview with the family of prospective groom. The girl is supposed to serve the Kandepohe dish to the ‘viewers’). So it’s not necessary that all these areas of activity are to be mastered. What is most important and desirable is the ‘production’, but presentation takes the front seat.

Simplest Pickle

There is one more category that I must mention and that is of consultant cooks. These characters just sit in one corner and keep shooting instructions for every activity right from buying the stuff. They will instruct from what to buy, where to buy, when to buy, how much to buy and what price to buy. Similar instructions will be at every stage. Reduce the heat, cover the pot, stir gently and so on till the presentation. Finally if the stuff is good they take the credit and if it’s not up to the mark they blame for not following the instructions. Like management consultant it is not mandatory to have for any practical experience nor their age is any bar for these consultants.

There are few more categories. One category likes food and also cooking but is too lazy to cook. The priorities are FB, WhatsApp and similar. After they are relatively free from these hectic activities they realize that they are too tired and it’s too late to cook. So the best way to satisfy hunger is to order from next door home delivery joint. Once the order is placed they have a bonus time to be on the FB or on online games or chat. These good cooks get spoiled by wrong priorities. Another category is of occasional cooks. They are good cooks but the only motivation to cook is appreciation by others. Category of these species will indulge in cooking and may do a good job only when some friends are invited for dinner. They will take extra efforts to ensure everything is right so that that they get drowned in ocean of flattery. By the time they return to surface couple of days have passed and during this period the neighbourhood food vendors have gain additional business. Apart from these two derailed cooks there few more categories but let me keep it for some other day.

At a very young age I started cooking. There were certain family circumstances that took me to the kitchen, not just the kitchen but to the subjimandi, to the grocer, to coal depot (Wakhar in Marathi) to choose and buy selected items. At home we had a full time cook, Mutsaddilal Maharaj and I always felt I could do a better job than him for few dishes. He did a great job with Bagar Ghoti Dal and Pakoda Kadhi. The dough he would make for Urad Papad was fabulous. Very often I would steal the same from his safe custody. Routinely in the kitchen, we would generate lot of heat from our arguments apart from the heat from stoves.

I experimented and learned. Six females have influenced my cooking. Two of them in advisory role my mother, we called her Akka and my wife Vandana. Another two females as critic and admirer, my daughters in law Anuja and Mitali. And another two Aanya and Keva my grand-daughters who force me experiment to ensure that their generation also gets benefit of my cooking skills. I didn’t had much of chance to learn from my sisters, Kamal, Pramila and Kunda, as they were married when I entered the kitchen. Yet I did pick up few skills from them.

During my childhood, one of the accompaniments that often substituted cooked lentils (dal) or cooked vegetables (subji) was a homemade pickle. To make good pickles that would be tasty and yet last for entire year or even more without any chemicals or preservative was a real skill. In the present era there are many options in the market to buy pickles, right from branded packaged ones to unbranded loose ones that are sold in many supermarkets. Many times dal or subji may not be available with roti or cooked rice, in such times pickles are handy. Most of the families in the past would have enough stock of pickles stored in large porcelain jars, with the lids covered by clean cloth stored in cool dry place. Pickles were usually made in summer season and these were mostly pickles of raw mangoes. In winter season lemon, chilies were preferred to make the pickles. In winter the other pickles that would not last long but were delicious and tasty were made from carrots, cauliflower, turnips and seasonal vegetables. Now there is no seasonality for vegetables. The technology and transportation has made most of the vegetables and fruits available round the year in any part of the world. So it has become easy to make pickles anywhere and anytime. One of the pickles that is my favourite, very easy to make, extremely tasty and lasts for a week if not kept in the fridge or for a month if refrigerated, is raw mango onion pickle. I make it very often in the peak of winter with Mexican raw mangoes in USA. Let me tell you how this pickle, which can be a substitute for subji is made.  We call it Kanda Kairi Lonache.

Ingredients for Pickle Simple

Take one raw mango, the outwardly looking raw mango may not be really raw but that will also serve our purpose, even though raw is preferred. Chop it in small cubes of about half centimeter (about one fourth inch). Chop onions, white preferred, else any other, in similar size and quantity. Depending upon size of onion, you may need two onions for each raw mango. Mix the chopped raw mango and chopped onion in a heat resistant bowl. Add salt as per your taste. This will depend upon sourness of mango. Mix well. Heat two tablespoonful of oil in a small yoke or frying pan. Once heated add half teaspoonful of mustard seeds. Let seeds splatter. Turn off the heat. To this hot oil, add one teaspoon of turmeric (haldi) powder followed by one and half teaspoon or more of red chili powder. Now add half teaspoon of asafetida (hing) powder. Pour this hot oil mixture over mangoes and onions mix kept in the bowl. Mix well with a spoon. Be careful as the oil is hot. Let stand for a while and you can start enjoying the pickle. By evening you will notice the pickle has become juicier. The salt that you added made the trick. So if you are patient then wait for few hours before you start enjoying the pickle, but it doesn’t really matter this pickle taste great anytime. Enjoy.