Monday, April 13, 2009
Hot Seville Sour Orange Pickle
Pickles are one of the unsung delicacies of Indian cuisine, a taste for which is often lost on many Westerners. When I make a pickle, and people tell me it is "delicious", I know that they are lying because though words like interesting, fascinating, unusual and overwhelming seem to be appropriate synonyms for the salted, spicy sour concoctions known as Indian pickles, I don't know that delicious is a word that aptly describes them.
In Ayurvedic cooking, there are four flavor groups -- sweet, salty, sour and spicy. What I love about Indian pickles is that they usually encompass all four, something that is hard to find in a single dish. As such, they are kind of the elixir of Ayurveda.
I was recently at the Monterey Market, and saw that they were selling Seville Sour Oranges with the recommendation of making them into marmalade. Having recently tried to make Hot Lemon Pickle from a recipe out of Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking, I decided that sour oranges might work very nicely in the same recipe.
I have yet to use all of the salt and chili powder recommended by Julie, since 6 tablespoons of salt seems pretty ridiculous -- but in making this recipe twice, I must admit that the more salt and chili powder seems to be better. I learned from my mother that the spice/oil combination used below is actually the traditional North Indian version, with lime juice instead of oil and the omission of mustard seeds a comon practice in other pickle versions.
Got another pickle recipe?? Please add it as a comment.
Hot Seville Sour Orange Pickle
(adapted from Classic Indian Cooking)
In Ayurvedic cooking, there are four flavor groups -- sweet, salty, sour and spicy. What I love about Indian pickles is that they usually encompass all four, something that is hard to find in a single dish. As such, they are kind of the elixir of Ayurveda.
I was recently at the Monterey Market, and saw that they were selling Seville Sour Oranges with the recommendation of making them into marmalade. Having recently tried to make Hot Lemon Pickle from a recipe out of Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking, I decided that sour oranges might work very nicely in the same recipe.
I have yet to use all of the salt and chili powder recommended by Julie, since 6 tablespoons of salt seems pretty ridiculous -- but in making this recipe twice, I must admit that the more salt and chili powder seems to be better. I learned from my mother that the spice/oil combination used below is actually the traditional North Indian version, with lime juice instead of oil and the omission of mustard seeds a comon practice in other pickle versions.
Got another pickle recipe?? Please add it as a comment.
Hot Seville Sour Orange Pickle
(adapted from Classic Indian Cooking)
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