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Raj Pickles Too !!!


IT's not like I am crazy about pickles but I do love my dad's homemade ones. I'm so convinced by the product that I believe in it enough to want to market it and learn the making process to carry on with the heritage. You see, being referred to as the 'pickles girl' isn't cute but I love the recipes passed down to my father, Mr. Jayaraj (known as Raj, pic above)from his aunt, who got it from his grandmother. So it's been in the family for quite a while now. Only thing is that dad never introduced it to us because my brother and I were not fans of traditional Indian pickles. Personally I feel that most Indian pickles are either too sour OR salty, or just very spicy AND oily. How is that supposed to enhance food flavours I don't know. Pointless. So I avoided Indian pickles altogether till dad decided to make a batch one day. My dad is a great cook (mom is lucky because he does most of the cooking) but I didn't know then that Raj pickles too. Ever since, it's been unstoppable for me. I like my pickle in a perfectly harmonious blend of all flavours - sweet, sour and spicy. A little bit of pickle should be able to invoke your tastebuds in a way that you want more of it, and that's exactly what dad's homemade pickles does for me! 

One of his speciality and my most favourite pickle is the brinjal and green chili type. It is also the first pickle I tasted and ate all the time. Made using fresh brinjals and green chillies (pics below) together with herbs and spices, those who have discovered it (thanks to me), can't get enough of it.
 








Of course, with brinjals as vegetable, it's either you like it or not, but when pickled, I find that non-brinjal lovers take a liking to it too. I have many return customers who were non-believers initially. I guess it must be the pickle factor and it also helps that the vegetable isn't as squashy as one would think it'll be. What's also good about the pickle is it's easily likeable among first time eaters. There are many Chinese and Malay friends who love this stuff too. Acar, they call it, while the Indian friends know it as 'Urugai'. That's pickles in Tamil.

The bottled products
Right now, I am still my dad's earnest kitchen helper. Whenever I am back at my hometown, I help him cut fresh ingredients into desired sizes, watch him do his stuff at the wok, and take in all the little tips he gives while at it. I also drive to a few markets to source for the best ingredients for our pickles. It's actually quite a lot of work but I enjoy doing it and hopefully one day, I'll be the little chef alongside my dad, doing the cooking myself :)


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Comments

  1. nursemyra21 November, 2010

    looks and sounds delicious

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gorilla Bananas23 November, 2010

    Have you tasted Branston pickle? It's supposed to be sweet rather than hot.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JJ23 November, 2010

    nursemyra: i think so too :)

    bananas : i've heard of it but nvr tried, but sounds good :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ben Yeoh24 November, 2010

    did you bring any back to kl? would love to try them!

    ReplyDelete
  5. JJ24 November, 2010

    of course ! marketing manager here.
    i'll bring you some k :)it's vegetarian friendly

    ReplyDelete
  6. sundersartwork11 June, 2012

    I love some pickles, just today i had chilli pepper chips. Remember we call chips, what you call frys. Did you ever see those youtube challenges in which idiots try to eat those toxic, kill you in a sniff, peppers from some deep jungle?. Lol, anyway, i hope you dont mke those. It must be nice to be close to your dad and do all these traditions, there could be a big business in it.

    ReplyDelete

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