Brinjal Pickle

I love pickles. Sour, salty and full of umami goodness they just fill out a meal.
I got a surprise present of eggplants from a work collegue so I decided to make an eggplant pickle.
For those who don't know me I'm a little bit obsessive, not about anything consistantly, but I go through these phases where all I think about are certain things.

My current thing is fermentation, In the near future I will be investigating home-made miso, shoyu and a whole variety of tsukemono (Japanese pickles), so if the obsession lasts long enough you can look forward to some interesting posts.

Anyway, while not actually a fermentation, this pickle (actually an oil pickle) has a nice and salty, tangy umami-ness to it that makes it a great accompaniament to rice dishes.

Sour-eggplant pickle

Ingredients:
- oil
- cumin seeds
- fenugreek
- eggplant (cut into 1 cm slices)
- cashmere chilli
- mustard powder
- tumeric
- asafoetida
- white vinegar
- lime juice

Method:

1) heat (moderate heat) enough oil in pot to cover eggplant, and cook off cumin ang fenugreek until seeds pop.
2)  add eggplant and cook until it starts to break apart.
3) add chilli, mustard, and tumeric and cook until fragrant (and the eggplant has broken down more.
4) add acids and asafoetida and cook for a further 5 minutes.
5) season to taste, and store in the fridge.

The finished pickle.

This recipe would work well with brown sugar also.














if you want a video example of this recipe look at ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV_aSGtoMSY

Be warned, the presenters are speaking hindi it is more of a visual aid.