Eggplant Pickle

If anyone want to  make any type of  sweet and sour pickle with a veggie, then you must use tamarind paste to neutralize the taste of  the veggie or else you will feel  like  eating  a veggie other than a pickle.Following these rules you can make any type of pickle with any kind of veggie like potato,pumpkin,sweet potato etc etc.

Eggplant is really a delicious food  and it was fun to make a pickle with eggplant.For this you have to choose small, tight and smooth surfaced eggplant.

Prep Time:15 Minutes
Cook time: 45 Minutes

Ingredients: (Base)

1. 1 medium size eggplant (cut into bite size pieces)

2. 1 cup tamarind paste (Soak the tamarind in water and use the thick paste)

3. 1 tsp salt

4. 1 cup brown sugar  or jaggery. You can put more or less based on your liking of sugar

5. 1 cup vinegar as preservative.

6. 1 cup mustard or extra virgin olive oil.You can use any other oil too.

Optional :

1. 6 or 7 garlic cloves or 1 tbsp garlic powder

2. 2 Bay leaf

3. 1 tsp ginger powder

4. 1 tsp cumin powder

5. 1 pinch of black seeds (roasted)

6. 1 tbsp dark mustard seeds (roasted and slightly smashed)

7. 1 cinnamon stick

8. 2 tsp chat masala powder

9. 2 pinch of  green cardamom powder or 4 whole cardamom

10. 1 tsp red chili powder if you want hot and spicy.

11. 1 tbsp fennel seeds (roasted)

Instead of using  number 5,6 and 11 ,you can use Patch puran whole spices (Roasted).

Preparation:

Step 1:

Cook the eggplant in the microwave for about 10 min. until it get cooked thoroughly.

Step 2:

Heat a  nonstick cooking pan with oil (do not use any  silver colored steel pan)

then add all the ingredients including cooked eggplant.Cook it for 45 min. in a medium to low heat

until everything turns out into dark brown to black.

Step 3:

Stir the gravy occasionally so that it does not get burned or get sticked in the pan  while cooking for 45 to 50 minutes.

Step 4:

After it gets dark brown and smell is all around , let it cool down for 2 hours and pour it in a glass or plastic jar.After cooking you can discard bay leaf and cinnamon stick .

Enjoy and have fun.

P.S The reason why I  put the optional ingredients is that many people don't like the smell of  various spices.If you want ,you can skip any of the optional  ingredients.But if you put all the spices in the pickle , the pickle will turn out really good.