Stuffed Red Chili Pickle ~ Bharwa Mirchi Ka Achar

2 years of my post-graduate education was in the East of India. I love Bihari, Bengali and Odiya cuisines as much as I love Mysuru cuisine. I made great friends during my stay there, learnt to eat and cook few Bihari type food. Few pickles I loved were stuffed Red Chili pickle, Aam ka kuccha, Green Chili Pickle. Sesame oil (sarson ka tel) is every where in their food. It was not easy to get adjusted to the type of food but now it is not easy to stay away from it either! Love their fresh tamatar ki chutney with hot roti. Roti is not chapathi that we used to make at home, neither their parantha was equivalent or came close to our chapathi. This particular red chili pickle goes very well with chapathi / Prantha/Roti etc. Try it. We all need variety to survive.

This recipe was shared by Ms Hani Gupta on FB. Thanks to her and Chef at Large community.

PICKLING INSTRUCTION : All vessels including knife used to make pickle should be washed, and dried thoroughly. Please do not forget your own hands! Clean and dry hands are a must for pickle making.

Ingredients:
250 g Red Chili (these red chilies are thick skinned plump variety)
Wash, wipe and dry them.

1/4 cup Fennel Seeds
2 tsp fenugreek seeds
2 tsp onion seeds (nigella seeds)
2.5 Tbsp black mustard
2.5 Tbsp yellow mustard
2 Tbsp Hot Chili Powder (Read Guntur Chili)
2 Tbsp Kashmiri Chili Powder (Read Byadgi Chili)
2 Tbsp Dry Mango Powder
1 Tbsp Haldi or Turmeric
Salt to taste
3/4 cup Sesame Oil (I used Rice Bran Oil since I did not have SO)
Dry container to pickle

Method:

1. Wash, wipe and dry red chilies. When perfectly dry, use dry hands, knife and chopping board to chop off the tip of the chilies :

2. Cut the remove the veins of seeds inside the chili. Let this de-seeded chili dry for an hour.

I was so bored to death while the chilies dried, I did this :P They kind of looked cute to me...!

3. Measure all the dry ingredients. Roast Fennel (Sompu), Methi (menthe) and Kalonji separately. Roast them till they change color to pink and start giving out aroma. Switch off and transfer the ingredients to different containers. Once they cool down, grind Fennel, Methi, black and yellow mustard to coarse powder. Even the mixer grinder should be dry before you grind the ingredients.

4. Transfer the powders to a dry bowl or plate with side. Add remaining ingredients. Mix them well. Now, heat sesame oil till smoky. Let the oil cool down to room temperature. Add half of the oil and mix the powders well.

5. Take a spoonful of this powder and fill it inside red chili. Finish doing this with remaining chili. Line them or tower them up in the container as you stuff the chili.

6. Add remaining oil and to immerse the chili. If oil is not enough, take more and repeat the process of heating it untill smoky hot and cooling it down till luke warm. Cover and keep the chili. It takes 2 days or 5 days for the pickle to get sour. You get lip smacking pickle to eat with chapathis.

The oil can be used to make Achari Paneer or Achari Bhindi. I shall post the recipes soon. Till then, try making these red-hot pickles!