Dates Pickle

My friend M’s mom is a very good cook.I like the ease at which she talks about cooking and the flair with which she does it.Sad,I can’t taste most of the dishes she cooks.Why,you may ask—because she cooks excellent non-veg dishes and I am a vegetarian.She feels satisfied when people happily gorge down the food she cooks and is very sad when I stick with salads and pickles.Ajay loved the lunch/dinner invites at their place and was always exhausted by the time he finished coz he just wouldn’t be able to choose which dish to eat!!

Whenever I’m there,she takes care to prepare a vegetarian main dish-pulao or fried rice.Once,she was especially happy and shoved towards me a plate full of pulao with something on the side.I wondered what it was and reconfirmed if it was vegetarian.She gave me the thumbs up and I tasted it.One spoon after the other,I was hooked.I forgot all about the pulao:).

I’ve always wanted to make the yummy Dates pickle that she made that day but never got around asking the recipe.Few months back when I met her,I hurriedly wrote down the recipe and wanted to make it ASAP.But since the recipe measures were for ½ a kg of dates,I was a bit apprehensive.Then comes Bharathy with her rocking dates pickle and would you believe that it is the exact recipe I had but with just 10 Dates,enough to satisfy my cravings..YAY!!


Dates Pickle
Recipe courtesy M’s mom—made easier by Bharathy

Ingredients

Dates – 10,deseeded

Green chillies finely minced-2

Ginger – a one inch piece- chopped

Garlic - 4 cloves- chopped

White vinegar-1-2 tbsps

Sugar – ½ tsp[I increased it to 1]

Chilly powder-1 tbsp

Asafoetida/Hing – ¼ tsp

Fenugreek/Methi-Roasted and powdered finely– 1/4 tsp[I didn’t add this]

Turmeric powder- a pinch

Salt - As needed

Ingredients for the seasoning

Oil – ½ cup[I reduced it to ¼ cup]

Curry leaves – a sprig

Mustard seeds- ½ tsp

Method

Cut each Dates into 4 pieces.
Heat oil in a pan.add green chillies, ginger, garlic bits and curry leaves.Saute for a few seconds.
Add dates.Keep the flame to minimum or just put off and add the all the powders. Ensure they are mixed up and heated well enough,rather than getting burnt.
Add vinegar(I added a little water, just enough to make the pickle a little saucy-as I love that way :)..though addition of water is strictly 'Not' recommended as in any pickles).Adjust the flame and bring the sauce to a boil.
Add salt and sugar.Mix well.
Store the dates pickle in a ceramic jar or glass bottle.