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This book couldn’t have landed on my desk at a more opportune time. For it is during the four-month-long monsoon season here in Mumbai, that I find myself reaching out for that jar of homemade nimbu ka achar (lime pickle) or occasionally that vinegar-y Goan prawn balchao.
All in an attempt to jazz up my clichéd “rainy day” meal of simple, ghee-tempered arhar dal (pigeon peas) along with hot, white rice.
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Even though it was almost the end of the season when I started on this book, I relished reading every one of its 100 recipes—and trying out a handful—with manic gusto.
And while all of us will most certainly have our favourite well-guarded family pickle recipe, it’s so fascinating to learn about pickling and fermentation techniques around the world. Something that forms the core of this cookbook.
Base notes
Bringing a certain gravitas to the subject of pickling and preservation is this book’s author Monish Gujral. Though not a chef, he has an impressive pedigree in the history of Indian cuisine. One that makes him the perfect chronicler of such a topic as pickles. And he does it with honesty and simplicity.
Letting his main subject tickle our collective taste buds with a plethora of easy, yet effective recipes from around the world.
As the scion of the famous Gujral clan who gave us the legendary Moti Mahal chain of restaurants, the author is the grandson of the illustrious Kundan Lal Gujral. Yes, the same person who is said to have not just invented the iconic dish of butter chicken, but also one of Indian cuisine’s greatest “side acts”.
I’m waxing eloquent of the ubiquitous sirka pyaaz (pink pearl onions in vinegar, pg 48) that every self-respecting Indian cuisine restaurant from Bengaluru to Birmingham will have on their condiment tray.
But not one to rest on the laurels of the past, the author is an authority on Indian food in his own right as a fellow food writer and commentator.
In fact, his earlier book ‘On The Butter Chicken Trail’ was chosen as the best cookbook in the world in 2008 in the ‘easy recipe’ category and, thereafter, best in the world in 2015 at the Frankfurt World Cookbook fair by Gourmand.
International flair
While in Germany, did you know that the iconic German sauerkraut (pg 26) was invented by the Chinese? I sure didn’t! According to Gujral, the Chinese first did so by pickling cabbage in rice wine. This apparently gives the pickle as many probiotics as one would find in a bowl of Greek yogurt.
One of my favourite pickles of all time—and dead simple to rustle up—is the Italian giardiniera (pg 11) which is incidentally the first recipe in the book.
This follows the very helpful sections on getting started with pickling. From choosing the appropriate spice blends to learning how to sterilise the pickle bottles before use.
Taking the reader around the world on a pickle tour are recipes for everything from an Alaskan salmon pickle (pg 50) and pickled eggs from the UK (pg 38) to an entire section on Japanese pickles like the blushing pink gari (sushi ginger, pg 33), tsukemono (pickled mixed vegetables, pg 42) and kyuri asa-zuke (pickled cucumber, pg 17).
Sour taste
But speaking of cucumbers, I did feel that the author focuses a bit too much on the many iterations of pickled cucumbers that exist in the world. Make that over a dozen recipes for versions from Indonesia and Poland to Armenia and Russia. And then some more...
The same with turnips. We have at least six recipes for turnip pickles ranging from the Israeli torshi left (pg 19) and something very confusingly and similarly called Israeli pickled turnips (pg 70) to Persian turshi left (pg 80) and Lebanese fermented pickled turnips (pg 78)!
This is to the total detriment of several iconic pickles that he could have easily included. Take for example Goan pickle superstars like the aforementioned balchao, torra shiro (mango water pickle) and the zingy mackerel parra. Or perhaps, a few of the many preserved pork and fish pickles of the North East?
Surprises galore!
The author, however, more than makes up for these aberrations by giving us a whole lot of interesting pickle recipes made with ingredients one would least expect to find. Take for example the yum-sounding trio of Californian quick orange pickle (pg 125), the achari angoor (pg 127) and the Maldivian fish pickle (pg 98).
Towards the very end of the book is an entire section devoted to one of my favourite kinds of a pickle. Sweet pickles, preserves, and murabbas. Here, one finds examples like the famous amla murabba (pg 213), date pickle (pg 219), and the mouth-puckeringly-good wood apple pickle (pg 223).
“Pickling has been a source of food preservation for since centuries and the artisanal techniques of pickling and fermentation are the essence of this book,” says Monish Gujral, summing it all up succinctly.
And after having gone through this book with a fine tooth comb, I couldn’t agree more.
Check the book on Amazon.
(A wearer of many hats in the food and travel space, Mumbai-based Raul Dias is a food-travel writer, a restaurant reviewer, and food consultant)
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