Pickles, Jams and other Chutneys -I

I am not at all a great pickle fan at least by Indian standards. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that neither of my parents were over keen on pickles but the truth remains that I could never join in the hasty scramble at the end of the tiffin break at school when all girls (why are pickles mostly associated with females in North India?) would jump for the last bit of the pickled mango guthli or stone as if it was manna straight from heaven. I have never really liked Mango Pickle that staple of tiffin boxes, to be eaten with puris, parathas or (the red-with-chillies South Indian version) with curd-rice. But I love the sweet-sour crunchy gajar-gobi-shalgam (carrot-cauliflower-turnip) pickle that only the punjabis can make really, really well (and my aunt made the best ever, and for many years would have a jar-full ready whenever I visited her. Now, she is no more).
I am also not a great fan of jams, especially the nondescript sickly sweet mass-produced jams that go by the name of "mixed fruit" and again are a staple of Indian tiffin boxes. I love marmalades though, the sweet and sour tinged with the and great thick chunks of bitter citrus peel or plum jam with the plum stone still in it or strawberry jam which still has the grainy, minute seeds from the surface of the berries. And again they taste best when made by indulgent aunts.
Chutneys I love, and we have a wide variety of them from all parts of India that go with a whole lot of yummy food: mint chutney and cheese sandwiches, hot samosas with coriander chutney, puris and paranthas with sweet mango chutney, yoghurt with saunth (sweet tamarind chutney), hot dosas with coconut chutney. The Bengalis (whom I have married into) end all meals with some fruit based sweet chutney, it may be some simple tomato or a more decadent pineapple chutney. The Andhra people are famous for their hot and spicy chutneys, in fact they are reputed to turn any vegetable peel destined for the bin (or compost heap) into some delicious mess. They are rightly famous for their tomato chutney (which they call tomato pickle) and I love the Gongura pickle/chutney too. Of course, the mostfamous Andhra pickle is the aavakaayaa that all good andhra-wadus eat with curd-rice at the end of every meal. But then, as I mentioned earlier, mango pickle and me don't go well together (and this is a pickle not a chutney disguised as a pickle) Check this out for more info on Indian pickles.Quite sometime back I had got strawberries for V which were very sour ( strawberries are rarely as sweet and juicy in India as they are in England, for instance) and though I had been blitzing them into his milk-shakes one at a time, I needed to come to more permanent solution for them if they were not to end up in the bin. So, I put the strawberries and a little bit of apple and a stick of cinnamon into the pressure cooker , covered them with water and cooked them for 4-5 whisteles. Opened the cooker, took out the cinnamon and then pureed the lot with a hand blender. Then added about half its volume in sugar and cooked it gently till it had thickened into slightly syrupy consistency and then poured it into a sterlised glass jar. I was thinking I would get something like the pomegranate molasses, some strawberry syrup which I could pour over custard or put in milkshakes for V but when the thing cooled, I hadsome quite nice tasting strawberry JAM, grainy seeds et al. I must have accidentaly got the sugar-fruit consistency right.
Today's find is this Armenian Pickle called Turshi.

Turshi

Method:
This recipe is based on one liter of liquid. You will need about 3 large carrots, a medium head of cauliflower, 2 large red peppers, 2 or 3 celery stalks, a large onion, 5 cloves of garlic, a bunch of herbs like dill and parsley, kosher salt, sugar, bay leaves, hot chili peppers, peppercorns and maybe some vinegar. Slice carrots and celery into matchsticks, separate the cauliflower into florets, peel and cut the onion into rounds, cut peppers into strips, and mince the garlic. You could also add zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers, sliced into rounds.

Bring a pan of water to a boil and blanch the carrots and cauliflower for about two minutes. Drain, then layer the vegetables in a large glass jar with garlic, chili peppers and herbs.

For the marinade, bring a liter of water to a boil and add 6 teaspoons of kosher salt, 8 teaspoons of sugar, a couple of bay leaves and a small handful of peppercorns. Let the marinade simmer a little until the sugar and salt dissolve. Victoria suggests adding a tablespoon of white vinegar at this point if you want a tangier flavor, which I did. Cool the marinade for five minutes, then pour it over the vegetables and seal the jar. Keep turshi in the fridge; it should be done in about two weeks (mine took two and a half). Start tasting after a week or so.

I checked on the web and apparantly Turshi is a general name for pickled/marinated veggies from Turkey to Afghanistan and all of the middle-east in between; there seem to be many recipes for Turshi Bonjan or pickled aubergine from websites on turkish/afghani/persian/arabic cuisines.