Puli Inji

Inji is ginger in Tamil and puli is tamarind in Tamil. Puli inji is the easiest pickle that I know of as it does not take more than 10 minutes. My Grandma says that including the right amount of giner in the diet helps keep the skin young. There you go ladies. A damn good reason for you to try this :-).

Ingredients:

Ginger (Inji) - about two 3" x 1" sticks peeled and chopped into small pieces
Fresh tamarind - 1 inch piece soaked in little warm water to get the juice out
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Green chillies - 1 cut into small pieces

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, mix the soaked tamarind, the chopped ginger and salt by hand, breaking the tamarind in the process (the friction from the salt and ginger makes it easier).
2. In a small pan, heat some oil, pop some mustard seeds, add asafoetida and cut green chillies and transfer the contents to the ginger bowl from step 1. Mix everything well and the puli inji is ready.

This not only makes for a quick and instant pickle, but also serves as a great side for varuthha upma and moar kili (once again, those are whole new posts themselves :-)). Tastes great with curd rice as well.