Smell, Salivate, Savour!
Dear Reader,
I wish you
could somehow eat this blog, or at least smell it. For the present you’ll have
to make do with a visual, but even that may tickle your salivary glands!
Your blogger
cooks stories, and delectable dishes, too. He can cook Sambalpuri pakhal,
ambil, khada-bhaji-nalita-munga saag, and a soupy mutton curry low on spices
and a perfect accompaniment for rice. If Michelin stars were awarded for
kitchens in Sambalpuri homes, this blogger could win a star or two.
Alas, his
culinary talents are hugely underutilised, since spouse permits only occasional
entry to the kitchen where she rules. If guests are coming home for a meal, she
imposes prohibitory orders, and the kitchen is out of bounds for me. For good
reason, since she is an accomplished cook.
But when she
goes to town for shopping, I enter the kitchen to do what I want before her
return, and our cook watches with unconcealed amusement as to what I hope to
achieve during my brief rule.
Four days
ago, while buying vegetables from Kripa Barve’s road-side stall a hop away from
our home, I noticed big raw mangoes, and asked, what’s that for? For pickles,
she said. Forty rupees a kilo, and fifty if you want me to cut it to perfect
pieces and deliver it to your home by the evening. She sent her husband, the
courier, to deliver a kilo of nicely diced green mangoes.
For achari
masala, Chandrakanti’s You Tube video is my favourite. Last year, I had tried
it for moringa sweet pickle, and I was happy with the result. Refreshed my
memory by once again playing her video. Alas, most of you can’t benefit from it
since it is in Sambalpuri; maybe someday I’ll translate her recipe into
English, after obtaining her permission.
To make
sweet mango pickle, I watched a video or two, but decided to do it on my own.
Took me about 30 minutes including preparation of the masala. Then I put it in
a glass bowl, borrowed from spouse with promise not to break it and return it clean
and sparkling, and put it in the sun with mouth covered with a white cloth.
After three days, the diced pieces have released the moisture, and soaked in
the spices and jaggery, and the aroma wafting up when I stir the bowl to turn
over the pieces is mouth-watering. Ready to eat, here is how it looks now:
I wish my
readers could sample the sweet mango pickle I have made. I got in my family
four marketing professionals but they have better things to do than package and
courier pickles made by papa.
Don’t feel
dejected, for I am keeping a small bottle apart for you in case you come
visiting, and upon proof that you have read all my blogs, I promise to serve you
a piece from this limited-edition pickle made with lots of love.
Keep
salivating till then!
***
