Sunday, August 29, 2010

Winter drawing




Last winter was especially cold. Sundays were for baking biscuits for the kids and drawing around the fire in the meeting room.

Achar (pickle) with Amma




Amma has a way of doing things as they have been done in Rajpur for generations- with process, grace, rhythm and timing.

Pickles are made by season.
It's best to start in the morning so whatever fruit or vegetable you are using has time to dry out.

Here we've used large green chili, carrot, starfruit and radish to make two different types of pickle. One of green chili stuffed with crushed coriander and fennel seeds, salt and mustard oil, creating an interesting mix of flavours to munch on with Dal and rice. The second pickle was the same spice mix (masala) with carrots, star fruit and radish.

The pickles can be eaten straight away, and if you're a chili-head like me you won't be able to wait, but they are best a week or so after sitting in oil when their full flavours have been released.