Junglee achaar

In the West you'd typically associate the off-cuts of meat with pickling. The Polish have their Pickled Pigs' Feet - actually the Polish like to pickle everything from herring to cabbage to beetroot -, the Brits, pickled Ox tongue. I have also seen recipes for pickled pig livers and lamb hearts. All this sounds damn good to me, but in India we pickle the best cuts. Why would you want to slow cook a shoulder, sear a loin or braise a shank when you could just as well chop it all up and pickle the whole lot in litres of fat and assure yourself an early grave!

Pickled game, mainly deer and wild boar, was the maharajas' staple. Not that I was around at that time, but go through the recipes from stately recipe books and you can tell. And they didn't count calories. They didn't need to.  Hunting wild game in India is illegal now, but as with most things here, where there is a will there is a way. And some times the way precedes the will. The other day, funny story, some meat found it's way to my place. It would be a waste to turn it away, so I took it in. I asked a friend what I should do with it, and as expected, he generously bestowed upon me Jesus-esque advice.

"Looks like a healthy portion! Make a pie - just chuck it in a pot with
some cheap pastry on top - then chuck it all away, after scalding yourself
in the eyes with it first."

If I were a tad bit sillier, I would. But pickling the meat seemed the right thing to do to make it last a while. A little while.

So, I washed the kilo and a half of whatever it was (guesses?) and cut 1 inch pieces. Keep at hand:

1. 7 tbs of red chili powder
2. 7 tbs of mustard seeds
3. 3 tbs of fenugreek seeds
4. 2 tsps turmeric
5. 7 tbs fennel seeds
6. 7 tbs cumin
7. 25 cloves of garlic, slit lengthwise
8. 4 inches of ginger, grated
9. 6 whole dried red chilies, 3 chopped green chilies and how much ever more you want for heat.
10. salt to taste

In about 400ml of vegetable oil, when it comes to temperature, put in all the about ingredients and give it a quick stir. Then put in the meat and simmer of about an hour. The cooking time will depend on how big you keep the meat pieces. It should look like you are cooking a curry in a deep fat fryer.

When the meat is tender - you don't want it too tender. Pickled meat is better with some bite - balance the seasoning. I added a bit of jaggery to make it darker and to round off the copious amounts of chili.

Let the pickle cool before you bottle it. Add about half a cup of vinegar to the jar and shake it like there's no tomorrow. I'd give it at least a day or two before eating. The stuff should keep for a couple of weeks, if not more.