This achaar is famous with the entire
family. From the shores of the Malabar coast, where only my sister Zeenath can make it to
perfection, we all carry precious jars of chemmeen achaar, carefully wrapped in newspaper and taped over with duct tape, just like our dad used to package them when our mother was the pickle maker, to our homes in sunny Dubai, UK, Toronto, and down to San Francisco, in the United States. The prep work
involved in making this achaar is long and hard and tedious, especially when you
consider the large quantities that Zeenath has to prepare, to give it to so
many eager recipients across the globe. In recent years, out of
consideration for her, most of us no longer ask for it, but will gratefully
and happily accept if a jar is offered when we visit. In the interests of
not losing this recipe, and also to encourage the family to start making their
own, I have used the instructions from Zeenath, and am making an attempt to put
it down here.
Ingredients
Shrimps (chemmeen) - 1 kg
Salt,
chilli powder, turmeric powder - to taste, for marinating the shrimps
Oil - for frying the shrimps
Garlic - 2 cloves, to be ground
to a paste
Ginger - 1/2", to be
ground to a paste
Oil - 1/2 cup
Garlic
- 1 full head, cut into slivers
Ginger
root - 2” piece, cut into sticks
Green
chillies - 6, cut into thin slices
Curry
leaves - chopped, to taste
Chilli
powder - 4 tbsps, made to a paste in vinegar
Vinegar
- 1/2 to 1 cup
For garnish
Fenugreek seeds (uluva) - ¼ tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera the thin brown seeds) - ¼ tsp
Mustard seeds - ¼ tsp
All
these to be roasted separately (taking care that each roasts well, but none
must burn or brown unduly)
Grind
to a powder and keep aside
Marinate
the chemmeen in salt, chili powder (just a little bit for colour) and turmeric
powder. Deep fry these and keep aside. If pan frying with less oil,
make sure that you fry on a low heat for some time, in order to dry out the
chemmeen.
Crush
the two cloves of garlic and the 1/2" piece ginger in a mortar and pestle,
to a fine paste. In half a cup of oil, fry this paste, the garlic
slivers, ginger sticks, curry leaves and green chillies. Add the
chilli-vinegar paste to this. Be careful to cook this on slow heat as the
chili powder must not brown. However, the paste must cook till it does not
smell raw any longer. Add ½ to 1 cup of vinegar to this. (TIP – if
vinegar is inadequate, one can add later to prepared pickle. Any vinegar
added at that point must be heated and added to the pickle. If this is
done, some warmed oil must be poured over it as well). Let vinegar
come to a boil, add chemmeen and take off the flame. Add salt to taste.
Leave the achaar to cool.
Then stir in the prepared garnish powder.
Store
in glass jars. Mason jars are ideal. If storing in plastic jars,
wait until the achaar is well cooled, before transferring to the jars.
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