I made this pickle for the first time last year and subsequently told everyone I know how good it was. One friend even started to worry about my obsession with heat. He figured steam would come from my ears, but the worst that happened was chili pepper heat exuded from my pores. I was an anti-oxidant queen.
I ate this pickle with everything, from gluten-free naan bread, potatoes, noodles, rice, stews, spicy curries, rice, raita and Indian meals, to roasted squash, soups, fennel, eggplant, and basically just replaced all salt, oil, and condiments with it. Crazy? Maybe. Was I happy, though? Yes.
I even brought some to a friend’s house once as a gift and was noticeably upset the next time I went there to see that it hadn’t been used at all. What a waste of an amazing pickle! What a waste of a friend! No, I forgave him in a few weeks. It’s only a bunch of chili peppers after all, right?
So when Lufa Farms offered up its remaining green cayenne peppers to any subscriber who wanted them, I jumped at the opportunity to make my pickle again. You can do this in small batches or larger ones, and even one jar of this fiery condiment last a long time. It has a 1/2 cup of oil in it, a ton of vinegar and a bunch of salt, but the real flavour comes from those tongue-numbing peppers, and Lufa Farms’ peppers are the best.
Removing seeds and membranes from green chili peppers (optional)
Spicy Indian Chili Pepper Pickle
1 lb fresh green chilies (you can use green or red and any type or size you want, but the heat and flavour of the pickle will vary greatly
1 tbsp salt (1! Not 2! Geez…)
1/2 tbsp ground turmeric
1/4 cup vinegar (I’ve used rice vinegar with the best results, but regular white distilled vinegar or even apple cider vinegar are fine)
1 tbsp black mustard seeds (a little extra if you don’t use mustard oil. It doesn’t really make up for it at all, but it can’t hurt)
1 tbsp garlic, chopped roughly (it gets blended)
250 ml mustard oil (about 1 cup. I used sunflower oil, but mustard oil will be better and more deliciously bitter)
1/2 tbsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds (black cumin seeds)
1 tsp crushed asafoetida (I’ve only ever seen it in chunks at Indian or specialty spice stores, and then you need to grate it. It smells like onion and garlic together, so don’t make this and then plan to hold hands with someone you like all night. If you don’t like ’em, grate away)
Directions: This is a 2-3 day process. I’m sorry, but just do it once, and then yell at me if you still want to.
Wash and dry the chilies.
Cut off stalks and slice chillies across into 1 cm (1/2 inch) slices. Give yourself a good hour to to do this. Invite a friend over to help, one who doesn’t plan to put in his or her contacts later that night. Done that a few too many times. Wasted a lot of contacts that way…hurt a lot of eyes that way…well, two.
Green peppers cut without seeds removed
You don’t have to remove all the seeds from the chilies, but you can if you want to reduce the fire without reducing the flavour. It will take a lot more time, but it may be worth it. I did one batch with seeds and one batch without.
Chili peppers chopped with seeds removed
Sprinkle with salt and turmeric, toss to mix evenly, place in a strainer over a a tray or dish into which the excess water can drip, cover and leave for 2 days in the sun or place in a very low oven for 2 hours each day (I put it at the lowest possible temperature with the door slightly ajar) and transfer to the fridge between baking. You’ll need a strainer
Chili peppers in a strainer with turmeric and salt. Place a dish under the strainer so the excess liquid doesn’t drip onto your counter and stain it orange
On day 2, soak the mustard seeds in the vinegar overnight, then grind in an electric blender with the garlic when you’re ready to start cooking.
Sterilize three 250mL jars and lids (it’s better to do six 125mL jars if you have them, because this pickle is precious and you may want to give some as gifts, but suddenly you won’t have any more for yourself). So wash the jars, lids and rims in hot soapy water. Then stick the jars and rims in the oven for 20 minutes at 220 Fahrenheit. Then turn the oven off and just leave them in the oven until you’re ready for them. You can also just put this in clean jars of any kind since you’re not actually canning it afterwards. Recycled lids are fine. Old tomato sauce glass jars are fine, for example, as long as they’re thoroughly cleaned, and you might as well sterilize them in the oven. It will take you more than 20 minutes to chop the chilies anyway.
Get all the other ingredients measured and ready. No time to prep while you fry.
Heat oil in a large pan and add the fenugreek and nigella seeds. Stir until the fenugreek is golden brown (about 10-20 seconds. Careful not to burn yourself!), then add the asafoetida, stir, and add the blended mustard seeds and the chilies together with any liquid that is there. The salt will have sucked the water out of the chilies but for some reason you want to pour it all in. I think it makes the chilies a little more crunchy so they don’t wilt in the cooking and get soggy in the pickle.
Cook, stirring now and then, until the oil rises to the top and the chillies are cooked but soft.The oil seemed to rise right away, but I think I cooked about 8 minutes??
Bring a small pot of water to a simmer, reduce the temperature, and add the lids for 5 minutes to soften the wax. Put the hot pickle into the sterilized jars, avoiding touching the rims with your fingers (tongs are wonderful things. So are pickles. Oh God, so are pickles…), wipe the rims with a damp paper towel, put the lids on top, and tighten the rings (not too tight). If you are using a tomato sauce jar or other jar with only one lid piece (as opposed to a canning jar with a lid and a ring seal), just place it on top while the pickle cools. Don’t tighten it or you’ll never get it off. When cool place in the fridge for a few days to let it develop. You can also eat it right away, but it’ll get better over time.
I waited about a week before eating this and the first things that hit me was the salt, then the other savoury spices, then the heat, and it was the heat that lulled me into submission. I would have done whatever it wanted. Fortunately it can’t talk, so I assumed all it wanted was for me to keep eating it…which I did.
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