Wednesday 13 March 2013

Kitchen Gifts

Two recent additions to our kitchen from my last trip to India ‒ both gifts from my grandparents.


The pickle is home-made by my grandmother. She makes various kinds, and stores them in Horlicks jars lined up on windowsills. The stuffed chilli pickle (in picture) is my favourite, though it's not for the faint of heart.

My grandfather bought me the mortar and pestle; he went to the store with a magnet in his pocket so that he wouldn't be cheated. We used to grind spices with the underside of an empty coffee jar, so the mortar and pestle is a definite step up. Some day we may go so far as to get an electronic food processor.

6 comments:

Tommy said...

Nice M+P. I'm curious if you know what the desired metal was and what the potential substitute(s) would have been. Some stainless steel alloys are magnetic and some not.

Sroyon said...

I think he wanted stainless steel, and probably assumed it would be non-magnetic or weakly magnetic. He wanted to avoid buying an iron mortar because (according to him) some mortars sold in Calcutta are made of low-quality porous iron and food particles get stuck in the pores, plus the iron mortars are sometimes sprayed with harmful silver paint to make them look shiny.

The Reluctant Rebel said...

When do I get a taste of this deadly pickle? Why have you been hiding it from me? You know I can throw a lasso from my place to yours and get it if I want.

Shrabasti Banerjee said...

Naaice. However did you manage to travel with pickle, though?!

relativelytruthful said...

"She makes various kinds, and stores them in Horlicks jars lined up on windowsills."

oxford comma? living dangerously.

what are the chillies stuffed with? is this your grandmother's invention or a thing that may be procured by chatting up the Hangla's fellow in Bandra?

Sroyon said...

@Saha: Anytime you come over. It tastes awesome with dal-bhaat.

@Shrabasti: Tupperware!

@relativelytruthful: I don't think that's an Oxford comma? Wikipedia says it has to be a series of three or more terms. The chilli stuffing is my grandmother's invention -- I don't know what's in it!