Kumbakonam Oorgai from Chettinad
It’s been a few weeks of non-Indian dishes and I can just picture Ayah shuddering and saying enough is enough! Bring on the thayir saadam (yoghurt rice) and pickles. I look in my fridge and we have a tonne of fresh vegetables since we’ve just finished one of our many grocery runs, and so, this week we bring to you Ayah’s easy Kumbakonam Oorgai. Why a mixed vegetable pickle from Chettinad is called Kumbakonam Oorgai beats me, but any pickle that’s as simple as chop, toss, temper and ready to go is a winner in my book! The only problem though is the amount of chopping involved, so make this when you have the energy to chop as many vegetables as you can...
Talking of Chettinad and pickles, I’m reminded of wedding season in Chettinad. Weddings in Chettinad, at least in our day, were rather grand but bland affairs – no mehendi, no sangeet, no pre-wedding cocktails... But, oh, the saris and the jewellery and the FOOD – nothing could beat that! And, of course the gossip sessions too... Today, of course, things have changed and mehendi ceremonies, sangeets and other fun things are the order of the week - the actual marriage ceremony is only incidental.
My earliest memory of Chettinad weddings, my cousins’, was the food – four meals a day, each one a sumptuous spread of carefully curated dishes that had to be presented in odd numbers to satisfy the numerology experts in the family... You lived from one meal to the next for three to four days and beware the hosts’ wrath if you dared miss a meal – food coma was inevitable, I daresay!
My favourite part of the experience, and Ayah’s, was not the 9 delicious palaharams for breakfast or the variety of rice and 11 different vegetables and curries for lunch, not the 5 delectable sweets and snacks for tea time nor the scrumptious tiffin for dinner. The best was saved for the last – when the thayir saadam was served with vatha kuzhambu (dried vegetable curry) and a mouth-watering array of pickles that the servers brought around in little mangu jaadis (traditional enamelware from Chettinad) set in wooden carriers. The options ranged from Poondu oorgai (garlic pickle), Maangai thokku (grated mango pickle) and Vendhaya Maangai Oorgai (mangoes pickled with fenugreek), that some kind pickle expert had been roped in to make months in advance, to the freshly made, almost instant, Kumbakonam Oorgai and Mooku Maangai Oorgai (fresh mango pickle made with parrot beak mango, a variety commonly found in South India) that the settu samayakkarars (the head cook and his entourage who were in greater demand than the bride and groom) had spend hours toiling over to cut to perfection. “Annan, innum konjam oorgai vaiyunga (brother, serve me some more pickle)…” Ah, what I would give to be back for a wedding in Chettinad soon!
While the demands for Ayah’s specialties were many when she visited the darling daughters, the last few days of her visit was reserved for pickle making – enough poondu oorgai to last us till the next visit and enough Kumbakonam oorgai for at least a couple of weeks, that is if you don’t indulge as I usually do... Not great for the blood pressure, but hey, a girl’s gotta live! And, so here is the almost instant Kumbakonam Oorgai from Chettinad – as I write this, my tester batch which was meant to last me a couple of weeks is but a distant memory!
Have the apprentice’s knife skills progressed enough to attempt this recipe, you ask... Well, whatever genes he inherited did not include the pickle loving gene, so he has added this to his collection of too much effort to be tested recipes and politely declines the making of it. The kitchen master is considering stepping in and promises to post some pictures when she does...
Note:
1. Ayah usually made this recipe with fresh carrot, cauliflower, cluster beans (kothavarangai / guar beans), baby peas. Sundakkai (turkey berry / pea eggplant) was also a favourite when in season. Both the Kothavarangai and Sundakkai are to be used only if they are young and tender else they will be rather bitter. You can substitute with any low moisture vegetable that's in your fridge.
2. The measures for the spices given here are for 2 cups of vegetables - you can experiment with the assortment of vegetables as long as they add up to two cups.
3. This recipe is for a fresh pickle and so does not have a long shelf life, a couple of weeks at the most, stored in an airtight container in a refrigerator.
Ingredients:
2 cups of vegetables:
¾ cup carrots, chopped fine
¾ cup cauliflower, chopped fine
¼ cup tender cluster beans (kothavarangai / guar), chopped fine
¼ cup baby peas, fresh boiled or frozen defrosted
5-6 pods garlic, sliced lengthwise
¼ cup lemon / lime juice
2 tablespoons chilli powder
½ teaspoon roasted fenugreek (methi / vendhayam) powder
Salt to taste (~1 teaspoon)
Tempering:
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon asafoetida / hing / perungayam
Note:
1. Use the cluster beans only if tender else substitute with another vegetable. You can use any relatively dense, moisture free vegetable, as long as they add up to 2 cups - if you want to make more than 2 cups, proportion of spices will need to be adjusted.
2. Options for other vegetables are baby beans, potatoes, broccoli are options if you would like to experiment.
3. I used freshly roasted and powdered fenugreek, however, if you are short of time, you can use packaged fenugreek powder. To make fenugreek powder, dry roast fenugreek seeds until golden, cool and powder. I usually make a batch of about 4-5 tablespoons and store, as I use it in other recipes.
Method:
1. Prepare the vegetables as mentioned above.
2 cups of vegetables:
¾ cup carrots, chopped fine
¾ cup cauliflower, chopped fine
¼ cup tender cluster beans (kothavarangai / guar), chopped fine
¼ cup baby peas, fresh boiled or frozen defrosted
5-6 pods garlic, sliced lengthwise
2. Wash the cauliflower in boiling hot water – this is not to cook it, but to get rid of pesky worms if any – and dry it on a paper towel till most off the moisture is dried off
3. Dry off the peas to get rid of any moisture.
4. In a pan, boil the lemon / lime juice. Once it is bubbling, add the sliced garlic and scald for about 30 seconds. Turn off the flame.
¼ cup lemon / lime juice
5. In a completely moisture free bowl, add the vegetables and spice powders and salt. Pour in the lemon juice and garlic. Mix well.
2 tablespoons chilli powder
½ teaspoon roasted fenugreek (methi / vendhayam) powder
Salt to taste (~1 teaspoon)
6. In a separate pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds pop, add the asafoetida and turn off the flame.
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon asafoetida / hing / perungayam
7. Pour the tempering mix on the prepared vegetable pickle and mix well. Adjust salt / chilli powder / lemon juice as required to taste. Don’t worry if it’s slightly dry - the vegetables will let out moisture once they marinate for a bit.
8. Let the pickle marinate for at least an hour before serving, but it tastes better the next day. Goes well not just with yoghurt and rice (thayir saadam) but also with rasam / sambhar and rice.
Apprentice Rating: Nil. I’d rate it Medium, purely because of the amount of fine chopping involved.
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