Mirchi,Mirchi & more Mirchi

"If life throws you a lemon - make lemonade"

--Joan Collins

But what if DH gets you almost 1 and a 1/2 pound of hot green peppers(Thai chilli peppers) ?? Of course, you make aachar(pickle) and get your daily dose of vitamin C, B, Potassium, Magnesium & Iron from it(Note : this is totally my idea of getting these vitamins thru pepper pickle, do not take this thing into regular practise, heat of peppers may trouble your whole body system in various ways).To get info about medicinal value, culinary & other usages of chili peppers click here.

So, it's raining Mirchi achar(chille/pepper pickle) in my house, I have made 3 different kind still I have enough supply of mirchis(pepper) for another week or so. The kind of pickles I made are quick & instant kind.

Mirchi Achar #1 : Tiranga Achar

This first one is really easy one, no oil needed. Also you can increase or decrease any of the main ingredient as per your taste or availability of ingredients.

Ingredients :

• half cup each green chilli peppers, fresh ginger, fresh turmeric
• juice of 1 lime (or more if it's not very juicy or if they are small variety
• salt as per taste( I used approximately 1&1/4 tsp. for above quantity)

Method :

Peel ginger & turmeric, wash everything & dry it thoroughly, spread it on kitchen towel or paper towel & let it air dry for sometime or just pat dry it. Now, julienne ginger & turmeric & cut peppers length wise. Put it in a clean glass/steel bowl, sprinkle salt & squeeze lime juice on it using a clean dry spoon mix everything & transfer it to clean dry glass jar. It's ready to eat kind of aachar, I usually keep it in the fridge after a day b'coz we r using limited salt & no oil. Give it a shake once in a while. And if ginger is really fresh & young, it'll turn to very pretty pink color after couple of hours or so. As this pickle taste & stays good when it's fresh, say for a week or so, so don't make big batch of this. Here's a picture of fresh turmeric.

As all the ingredients in this pickle chillis, ginger & turmeric are cosidered as health food, I would like to send it to Yasmeen's Health Nut Challenge 3 - Healing foods. And as one of the main ingredient is turmeric so it also goes to "Think Spice : Think Turmeric" event hosted by sudeshna and brainchild of Sunita from sunita's world.

As for the benefits:

Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory, anti-septic & anti-bacterial agent helps in disinfecting cuts & burns.Natural lever detoxifier, natural pain-killer,used in the treatment of arthritis, may prevent & slow the process of Alzheimer's disease. These are only few of it's benefits for more click here.

Ginger helps in morning sickness, cold & flu prevention & treatment, heart burn, menstrual cramps & also believe to have anti-cancer properties.For more info click here.

Note : While working with fresh turmeric you might want to use disposable gloves(food safe variety) as it will turn your hands & work surface yellow, when you work with it.

Also if your hands are sensitive to pepper heat, it's advisable to use gloves while cutting them.

If you decide to leave peppers out of the recipe, you can add 1 tsp. of red chilli powder.

Mirchi ka Aachar(Chilli Pepper Pickle) # 2This is hot one. What you need is wash & dry 1 cup of green chillies & slit them lengthwise & then chop them into 1/2 inch pieces. We don't want big pieces as we are not filling the spice mixture into the chillies. Keep them aside.

Now in a pan heat 1 tblsp. of mustard or vegetable or canola oil. Turn the gas off & add chopped chillies, salt(as per taste, I used around 1& 1/4 tsp.) & coarsely ground 2 tsp. of achar masala(spice mix). Mix everything so the chillies get coating of spice mix. Once it's cool transfer it to clean dry glass jar, shake it once in a while. It's ready to eat but better if you let it sit for a day or so.

For acharMasala(Pickle spice mix) : take equal quantities of mustard seeds, fennel seeds(saunf), fenugreek seeds(methidana), cumin(jeera) & half quantity of onion seeds(kalonji). Dry roast them for a min. or so let them cool add little bit of turmeric(haldi). Grind it & keep it in air tight jar for later use. We are not using any chilli powder as the chilli peppers are really hot.

Note : These are instant kind of pickles not meant to keep for long time, as we are not using excessive salt or sugar or oil or vinegar or lime juices, these things works as preservative for pickles. So I suggest to keep these pickles in the fridge after a day or so of making.

Also never use wet spoon in the jar to take the pickle & always keep pickles in non-reactive utensil(like steel or glass) with the lid closed tightly.

I didn't took the picture of third kind, so whenever I make the next batch I'm gonna post that.