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Pickling with Sarsons new speciality blend vinegar

October 23, 2016 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

When life gives you lemons, make a jar of – yes you guessed right – Lemon Pickle! No proper Indian meal is complete without a bit of pickle on the side. Growing up my mum pickled every possible vegetable and fruit that she would get her hands on , whatever was seasonal and also many times what took her fancy. That is why I was curious to experience how pickles are made using Sarsons vinegar, which now I know is a a very different and easy way to create great tasting pickles.

I cannot resist a good mango or lemon pickle – both of which are firm favourites in our family. But pickled chillies, garlic and even fish come a close second and third. As a preservation technique pickling is almost 4000 years old and am proud to say it started in India with cucumbers.

Fresh ingredients are always the best for pickles

U.K’s leading vinegar brand has launched a new speciality blend this year and I spent a happy evening pickling bright coloured peppers . The condiments which lend any pickle their distinctive flavour are already a part of these unique Sarson Vinegar and are a must try for anyone who is remotely interested in making pickles. Not only do Sarsons speciality vinegars have the added benefit of coriander seeds, black peppercorns and pink peppercorns, they also help extend the life of your pickles. For recipe inspiration, hints and tips have a browse through the Sarsons website here.

Sarsons speciality vinegar for pickling
 Sarsons speicality pickling  Vinegar

The beauty of this process of pickling is that all you need to do is chop what vegetable you would like to pickle and add in the beautiful speciality blend. Ensuring that the Kilner jars used are sterilised properly to prevent any illness and also ensuring that only the most fresh produce is used at all times.

Sarsons speciality vinegar for pickling

At the event, Denise Tollyfield was at hand to provide her top tips and guide us through the process of making pickles. My friends Nayna and Heidi bottled cucumber while Vaishali and me worked on the peppers. Must say we were quite the team.

Pickling peppers with Sarsons

Denise recommends boiling the lids of the Kilner Jars separately as they have a rubber ring to ensure the jar shuts tight and prevents leakage – this shouldn’t be oven dried whereas the jars should be sterilised in a pre-heated oven for at least ten minutes. The most important tip she shared is that when pouring the prepared pickle into the sterilised jar – both the glass jar and the pickled mixture should be equally hot. Before sealing the filled jars its best to add enough vingear to cover all the vegetables in the pickle.

Top pickling tips from Denise

I was quite tempted to amp up the heat in our pickled peppers so we added a naughty red chilli sliced into or jars. The garlic pickle looked so good that I was really craving to try some but alas, once the jars were sealed we would have to wait for a a few hours to allow the flavours to mature before enjoying the fruits of our labour. Just remember to label and date each pickle and store them in a cool and ideally dark place,

Garlic pickle with Sarsns Vinegar and Kilner

No better way to spend a chilly winter evening than with friends like Nayna and Heidi doing something we love, working with food and even better when it turns into a chance meeting with another passionate foodie like Vaishali.

Pickling with Sarsons Vinegar

There is a definite joy in working with the best possible ingredients especially fresh produce as it guarantees great results each time.  I cannot wait to create more fun pickles and add mini jars to share with my friends and family in their Diwali and Christmas gift Hampers.

Fresh produce gives great results each time when pickling with Sarsons
Sarsons Pickles in Kilner Jars

Disclaimer:  With thanks to Sarsons for the invite. As always, all opinions expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review and was not compensated monetarily for this post.

Filed Under: Events, Food Tagged With: black peppercorns and pink peppercorns, coriander seeds, Sarsons speicality pickling Vinegar

Homemade Spice Rub

June 16, 2016 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

Spice rub for everything from Vegetables to meat and seafood

Elevate the taste profile of your grilled or roast vegetables ( or seafood or meat) with this delicious homemade spice rub.

Now I have tried this spice mix on broccoli, kale, and roast potatoes and it always works wonders. But we have loved it most with fish. Grilled, BBQ’ed, fried, steamed, or baked – we love eating fish in our house and I have created my own recipe for an Indian spice rub. I used this on haddock fillets on the BBQ this Sunday and the result was very satisfying. Even with frozen fish fillets straight out of the freezer onto the hot grill, the spice mix hit all the right notes.

Spices - fragrant, warm and fresh

It was incredibly easy to create this spice rub at home using my Optimum G.21 Platinum blender, the panel has six pre-programmed functions which are a real no brainer and one of those functions is ‘Grind’. I try and use my Froothie blender as much as possible and not just for my morning smoothies, it has just made my life that much simpler!

Homemade Spice Rub

Manjiri Chitnis
Homemade spice rub – Versatilespice mix works perfectly well for vegetables like cauliflower, mushrooms,potatoes. Great with chicken chicken , lamb and seafood especially for fishsteaks and prawns
Print Recipe
Prep Time 2 mins
Total Time 2 mins
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Indian
Servings 2 people

Equipment

  • High-speed blender

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 tsp Peppercorns
  • 2 Cloves
  • 1 Dry Kashmiri Red Chilli
  • 1 Badi Elaichi or black cardamom
  • 3 Green cardamom – without the outer green pod
  • 2 cloves Garlic peeled
  • Cinnamon stick – roughly the length of the tip of your thumb
  • 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
  • 2 tsp Cumin/ jeera
  • 1 tsp Amchoor powder / dried mango powder
  • 1 tbsp Kasoori methi
  • 1 Heaped tbsp fried onion
  • 1 tbsp Coriander seeds lightly roasted on a pan
  • 1 Whole round Red Chilli
  • 1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt
  • a tiny pinch of Asafoetida

Instructions
 

  • Add all ingredients into a grinder and blend till you get a grainy consistency
  • Do not grind to a very smooth paste because the texture this consistency will lend to the fish, will hit the right spot on your palate. A finer texture I think would work better for meat
  • Though this spice rub is suitable for freezing, since it contains garlic and fried onion, I would not advise keeping in the freezer for over 10-15 days
  • If you make a small batch and little remains, try adding into your curry for a lift in flavour
  • If you do not deal well with spicy red chilli flavours, then rule out the whole round red chilli completely and instead add a small pinch of paprika just for a hint of flavour
Keyword Spice mix

Homemade spice rub for grilling vegetables, meat, and seafood

These quantities yield enough spice mix for 2 medium-sized fillets with a little leftover. If you want to use it for 4 or 6 fillets simply double the quantities.

Fresh spices

Why not try my recipes for Tandoori spiced grilled Lobster tails and Haddock fillets with this spice rub?

Homemade spice rub

*This post has affiliate links.

Filed Under: Featured Food and Drink, Food, Indian, Recipe Index, seafood Tagged With: cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, cumin, dried red kashmir chillies, fried onion, garlic, Homemade Spice Rub, kasoori methi, recipe development, red chilli, special spice rub for sea food, travels for taste recipe development

Chai Concentrate

January 5, 2014 by manjirichitnis 7 Comments

Its been a very hectic year and I was really looking forward to a festive break. In the run up to Christmas I was gifted some really tempting edible gifts. I then took to Pintrest to find something that called out to me and ask me to make go make it ! I found a beautiful photograph of Chai Concentrate here . It was an easy to prepare recipe and so I started to get all the ingredients together and wasn’t able to get my hands on orange pekoe tea bags so I decided to make a few modifications of my own.

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups water
  • 5 English breakfast tea – tea bags
  • 5 mulled wine spice  bags
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 12 whole cloves
  • 9 cardamom pods split open and the seeds powdered
  • 8 coriander seeds or 1/4th tbsp of ground coriander powder
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 star anise pods
  • 1 vanilla bean sliced in half
  • 1.5 tbsp orange zest
  • 1 inch piece of ginger,skinned n cut into thin strips
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/2 tsp black peppercorns

IMG_6242 (Copy)

Method:

  • In a large sauce pan bring the water to boil and reduce the heat to a minimum
  • Add the spices, tea bags,orange zest and ginger and cover with lid and let it simmer for 25 minutes.
  • After 25 minutes take the saucepan off the flame and let it stand for 10 -15 minutes.
  • Then add the honey and stir it in along with all the beautiful spices which have steeped in well into the mixture.
  • Let this cool completely , the  strain the chai concentrate through a large sieve lined with a fresh cheesecloth. The spices are to be discarded.
  • Add the strained chai concentrate into clean glass bottles.
  • Decorate the glass bottles with pretty tape and add a small name tag with a bit of coil.
  • This mixture stays for 2 weeks in the fridge and can be had as hot winter drink with 1/3rd parts concentrate and top it off with hot milk, it also is good with a glass of cold milk and ice with a dollop of honey stirred in!
  • I loved the idea that the chai concentrate can be added into cookie dough for an extra zing – I am going to try that soon!

After making this gift I feel so good inside that I have taken an extra effort to actually create something unique, I think am going to make a habit out it and make delicious little treats for birthdays and anniversaries too! 

IMG_6274 (Copy)

Filed Under: Food, Indian, Recipe Index Tagged With: allspice, boil, brithday and anniversary edible gift ideas, brown sugar, cardamom, Chai Concentrate, cheesecloth, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, decorative tape, delicious, edible gifts, hot drinks, mulled wine spice bag, orange pekoe, recipe, strain, zest of orange

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