The rains are fleeting, but the sun is still out, and many homes in the South of the country are soaking plump green chillies in salt and sour curd, before setting them out to dry. After some hours in the sun, the chillies let out their distinctive aroma, redolent of sour buttermilk. By evening, the semi-dried chillies, partly shorn of their colour, are back in the curd, soaking in more flavour. After four or five such outings, the chillies are dried to a crisp, and stored, till the next summer. The almost-beige treats are fried till brown-black, and are said to be the perfect accompaniment to a bowl of curd rice.
The purple and orange fruits of manathakkali (black nightshade), lady’s finger, sundaikkai (Turkey berry) and tender guar (cluster beans) are similarly pickled. The best part? They don’t need much space to dry; you make as little or as much as you want to.
After a dunking in hot oil, they emerge dark and shiny, with a crisp exterior. The curd would have seeped in thoroughly, and the multiple rounds of soaking ensure the chillies are coated with a generous dose of sourness and creaminess. This also helps take off the sharp edge, and remind you of the goodness of summer.
Traditionally, South India and Maharashtra have always used curd as a pickling agent. Each state adds spices to the basic recipe of sour curd and salt. Mumbai-based food writer and consultant Saee Koranne-Khandekar speaks fondly of Kutachi mirchi and tender guar bursting with the flavours of fenugreek, cumin, carom or coriander seeds. Deeply flavourful, they add value to the simplest of meals.
In Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 68-year-old V Srinivasan, of Vasan Stores, has been pickling vegetables using curd since 1969, and supplying them to customers across the country, and sometimes even abroad. “I learnt to pickle from my parents. Curd adds sourness and also preserves vegetables well. You can use maagalikizhangu (sarasaparilla) for more than a year, provided you store it well,” he says. The root comes from the hills and is harvested after a bout of rain; it has a peculiar aroma and is an acquired taste.
Curd, he says, is also used to make koozh vadagams and perandai vadagams (fritters) and vathals (sun-dried vegetables) using sundaikkai, manathakkali and, occasionally, lotus stem.
Why is curd used as a preservative? Ask any old-timer, you’ll be told how curd turns sour, and then some more, but never spoils. Today, we know about its probiotic properties, but those days, they probably just went by common sense — something that did not spoil could also preserve.
Consultant dietician Dharini Krishnan says that curd was used as a pickling agent for choice vegetables and roots, with reason. “Sarasaparilla is a known preservative; when teamed with curd, the goodness is enhanced,” she adds. Sour curd is also curative. “A home remedy for diarrhoea used to be watered-down sour buttermilk, seasoned with salt and asafoetida,” she says.
Delhi-based nutritional consultant Sangeeta Khanna speaks of the Rajasthan desert berry ker, that is soaked in sour buttermilk before being washed and processed. “This aids in fermentation and preservation. Curd becomes sour and acidic, almost like vinegar. Once you add salt and mustard, it becomes a preservative. The probiotic benefits remain, but it helps break down the vegetables into absorbable nutrients.”
Back in Chennai, septuagenarian Chithra Viswanathan, a food writer and a repository of traditional recipes, says that traditionally all vathals have been soaked in curd before being sun-dried. As for pickles, many in the South will remember eating mor nellikkai, a pickle made using cooked amla and sour curd. “This was a seasonal thing and lasted a couple of months if you protected it from moisture,” says Viswanathan, who confesses her eternal favourite is sarasaparilla pickle.
Rupa Balaji, who works in the software industry and lives in Round Rock near Austin, Texas, sources sarasaparilla pickle and vathals from India. “It’s the taste of childhood. Luckily, some courier companies send it across. I’m holding on to the two bottles that I received this month. A dollop on curd rice brings back the taste of home.”