Red Chilli Pickle

I have never made red chilli pickle in my life – in fact, come to think of it, I haven’t even eaten it ever before.  When I got a bag of mild red chillies from Ermioni Bilimis – I searched frantically for an easy recipe with ingredients I already had in my pantry.

I found this gem on the internet and it was easy to make it.  Thank you https://www.facebook.com/VegetariansDelight for this wonderfully fresh and vibrant recipe that is definitely not going to last long!  This recipe is one that I know I am going to be making over and over again – it has become so popular in such a short time. 

Ingredients:

Red chili peppers – 500 grams

Yellow Mustard seeds– 5 tablespoons

Fennel seeds– 3 tablespoons

Nigella Sativa seeds– 1 tablespoon

Fenugreek seeds – 2 tablespoons

Turmeric powder – 2 tablespoons

Salt – As per taste

Dry mango powder – 2 tablespoons

Rice Bran Oil – Around 2 cups (The original recipe calls for Mustard oil which is readily available at an Indian Grocer.  Do not use olive oil for this recipe - please see note at the bottom of this recipe.)

Method:

Wash the red chili peppers thoroughly in water.  Place them in a dry towel and thoroughly wipe each of them.  Spread them on a dry cotton cloth and keep them in direct sunlight for 3-4 hours (or more, depending upon the intensity of sunlight) till all the moisture in chillies is gone.  Since Melbourne weather is so unreliable, I merely put them in a fan forced oven at 20 degrees C for about an hour.  The chillies have to be absolutely dry for your pickle to last long.

  Chop chillies  and keep aside.  In a heated pan on a low flame, dry roast fenugreek, fennel, yellow mustard and nigella seeds until you can smell the spices.

   Switch of the heat and transfer the spice mixture into a grinder. Coarsely grind the spice mixture and put in a bowl with salt and turmeric powder.

   Mix all the spices together.  Out of 2 cups rice bran (or mustard) oil, put 1/3 into the spice mixture.   Mix it well to form a little moist textured spice mix for the pickle. Add cleaned, dried and chopped thick red chilli peppers slices into the pickle mix. 

  Mix well without breaking the chillies. Keep aside for about 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, heat the remaining rice bran (mustard) oil on a high flame till it reaches smoking point.  Switch off the heat and let the oil cool for 15-20 minutes.  

 When the oil cools down, put 1/4 cup of oil in a clean, dry and sterilized jar.  Now add prepared pickle in the glass jar.

  Lastly, pour all the remaining cooled oil slowly till all the chillies are submerged in oil. Do it slowly and make sure the oil goes down to the bottom by passing through and submerging all the chilies and come to the top of the jar.

  Once the jar cools down completely, place the lid on the jar and forget about it for 3 weeks. In three weeks you will feel delighted with your work – and so will your family and friends!

  Note:  Please do not use olive oil for this recipe.  Olive oil is not meant to be heated to smoking point and is therefore unsuitable for this recipe.