Sunday, November 09, 2008

Chilli Pickling for Dummies

Here's a nice easy way to update your blog....woops, did I say update your blog? I meant a nice easy way to make chilli pickle :D

At this time of year, we have lots of these red hot little chillies called vai-hmarchate here, literally translated into birds' eye-view chilli. Get loads of these, make sure you break off all the stems and discard any that are even partially squishy. Then get a fork and pierce little holes into them. This can get pretty tedious but it's to make sure the the oil and masala gets properly marinated into the chilli innards.


Next you get a packet of pickle masala. Told you this is a recipe for dummies!


You then liberally sprinkle it all over the pre-fork-pierced chillies, like so....


Then you heat a liberal amount of oil in a pan and pour your spicy concoction into it. Make sure the heat's not turned up too high, and keep cooking till the chillies are tender...


Wait for it to cool down and then pour into a jar. You can put it out in the sun for a couple of days or you can eat it right away if you want to. And hey presto, you're all set for a red hot chilli winter!

24 comments:

  1. Va tui hmel shi ve!! Ka rawn haw hun chu ka siam ve ang, a pickle masala khi kan khawlam chhuak a ni bawk a, ka hnehsawh viau ang. Purun var sawhthing eng ilo te? Mahse kut a thak duh awm fork a chhut keuh keuh a ngaih chuan. Did you take the chilli one by one and pierce them, or bung them on a plate and stab it randomly?

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  2. Piercing small holes must be quite be quite a job...you know Ka Nu also makes chilli pickles somewhat like what u said,but she grinds the chillies in a grinder first,as well as some garlic and ginger too..then the rest is as u said...i think u got it from her !!!

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  3. ambs, it helps a lot if you have the patience to pierce well. The more holes the better :P No garlic, no ginger, just the masala mix. The smell is divine.

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  4. Nini, nahi, I never knew your mum made chilli pickles - just kawlthei jam :D J i ron inti hi keimah emo te ka inti hman vel. Ehe when did I post this te ka ti mole hihi

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  5. Mizoram hian hmarcha kan thar chhuak hnem a, tin a tha duh hle. Preservation method kan neihloh avang te, industry awmloh vang te hian kan hralhchhuak nasa lo mai mai a ni ang em?
    j tih ang deuh hian inzirtir tha ta ila..

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  6. damn! that looks chilly as hellll. i can't eat spicy food to save my life. one small bite and i'll be sweating profusely, tongue burning, eyes watering, well you get the idea. but that pickle looks so good! how spicy is it?

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  7. Hehe vana, i duh thak vak nange? Hmar nupui chu i nei lo mai don mi oo :D Nia, kan vaihmarchate hi export atan a zahpuiawm lo a asin mole. Meghalaya lam te khu chuan tunhnai hian ei tur lam state pawn lamah an export nasat tehreng nen.

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  8. anna, think of Jughead with fire coming outta his ears and you get the idea how hot :D

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  9. Poking fork holes into a hundred or more tiny little chillies, ha ha! No, thanks, me no such dummy to spend hours on that while your nostrils burn and tickle with the fume.I won't mind eating the fruit of someone else's labour, though.

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  10. Cmon mesjay, you can always delegate the "holing" part to DadJay :D

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  11. Yum! Just looking at these pics makes me want to go out there and buy myself some pickle masala and a jar. But can we do this with normal green chillies, because I don't know if vai-hmarchate would be available in Bangalore markets.
    Whenever my Mizo friends used to go home, I would ask them to bring back a particular kind of chilli flakes with them - the kind that is hotter than Mount Vesuvius in full spate (at least for my sensitive tastebuds). Wonder if it's the same...

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  12. *mouth wateringggggggg*

    My sis and I shop at this super market in mumbai and if we are lucky we get vai hmarcha! And my sis always say, "In Mizo we call it Vai hmarcha but in non-Mizo languages we call it Mizo chilly! Thats so funny!" :)

    yummmmy the chillies look so fricking goodddddd!!!

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  13. Hmarcha ka ei ngam lo. Ka irhfiak nghal a ni mai. Thil thlum lampang jelabi etc lo post teh

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  14. Z, did you take that recipe straight out of the torture manual from Abu Garib Prison? It looks hellishly delicious! My mouth waters!!

    Lunch or dinner there is always a variety of chilli pickles on the table in our household. In addition to the usual ubiquitous green chilli of course. Here is something you should try.........I do and much to the amusement of the rest of the family. Eat fresh and super hot green chilli using hot chilli pickle(s) as a dip. Even Lucifer's lacrimal glands will produce copious amounts of saline solution on that. Mon Dieu!

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  15. ehe, someone's been industrious, and I don't mean just online...but in the kitchen too. Despite my usual reticence to do anything that involves slaving over a hot stove, I think this pickle I can manage. Will try it out, come holiday-time. I don't know what my gastritis will say to it though.

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  16. Yep porcheblues, not sure if this'd work with normal chillies. My sister was the one to teach me this easy recipe. And yep, these are the very same chillies which get dried into those super delish, super hot flakes. Yum, aren't they?

    Kim, way I read it once in a Mizoram Today issue decades ago, the vai in vaihmarchate doesn't refer to vai as in vai ram but tiny or minuscule pepper - thusly, birds' eyeview pepper. Like vaihmite, I guess which are teeny tiny mites.

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  17. kan thianpa pakhat chuan hmarcha anih hrim hrim chuan a ei ngam miah lo mawle! a ei ngam lo mai pawh a ni lo, a ei ve chuan a hmai zawng zawng a sen vek zel, chuvangin hmarcha pickle siam thiam hi a ngaina vak lo mai thei te ka lo tia:)) kei erawh chuan vaihmarcha te hi ka ei chak!

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  18. duls, rosgulla trin tui ka ron post don nia :D

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  19. Haha Loch, most Mizos always have a little dish of mashed or dried chilli for every meal with rice. My pickle above smells super yummy :D

    DDB, if I can make this, so can you, it's easy. Confession - I'm not as great a cook as I make myself out to be :D

    azassk, i thianpa chu a va chan ropui ve awwww tiang thil tui te han ei theih loh. Lo zirtir roh

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  20. I'll definitely keep that in mind! Thanx!

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  21. They are super-yum. So much so that tears well up in my eyes everytime I think of them :P

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  22. i blog hi a va thak rei ta ve. Thakngam lo tan chuan i hluam hluam chunga en a ngai reng mai :)

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  23. duls, khaw vawh hi chuan thil sen lam hian min ti lum deuh alom. Nangpoh hmarcha lem khi lo chep thla la, lo ai thin roh :)

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