Summers can never be the same without this childhood nostalgic recipes.In many households,traditional Sindhi onion pickle is mandatory at lunches and dinners, to beat the heat.In olden days, when there were no market packed pickles, ladies of the household gathered together for hours to make these spicy tangy sweet and salty pickles.These pickles were multi-purpose recipes,as they would help you beat the heat as onions and salt are a good preventive and still not taste like medicine.
Also it meant enjoying the simplicity of food without spending hours in heat of the kitchen as you could getaway with simple lentil,yogurt and rice meal or (‘daal-chawal, dahi’) without cooking dry veggie curry to go along with it.
Basar means Onion in sindhi and khatairn means pickle
Scroll below to read the recipe of Sindhi Onion Pickle(Basar ji khatairn)
- 200 gms baby onions
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
- 4 tbsp coarsely powdered yellow mustard seeds
- Salt to taste
- 2 tbsp.oil
- 1/2 cup Water(Optional)
- Peel onions and rinse well.
- Slit onions (criss-cross) from the larger side half way through.
- Mix all spices with salt.
- Apply spice mix to the onions and let it rest in sun for 2-3 hours.
- Take a sterilized glass jar and mix the remaining spice with onions.
- Add oil ,water and keep the jar in sunlight or warm place for 2-3 days(in winters it might take around a week)
- Keep the jar in sunlight or warm place for 2-3 days.
- The pickle is ready to be consumed.
- Do not add water if you want the pickle to be consumed dry. Addition of water will make it bit watery
- Dry pickle can be stored for a long time at room temperature. If you add water then it needs to be stored in refrigerator.
himanshu
Bhavana, great recipes, very well illustrated and written.