Persian pickled mixed vegetables
Ingredients [1 Litre mason jar]
Vegetables and fresh herbs:
1 aubergine
1 large carrot
1/2 small cauliflower
1/4 white cabbage
4 garlic cloves
10g fresh mint
20g fresh coriander
20g fresh parsley
1t dried tarragon (or 15g fresh*)
1t dill (or 15g fresh*)
1t dried mint
Seasoning and spices:
2t salt
2t ground pepper
1t Nigella seeds
1t coriander seeds
1t pink peppercorns (optional)
1/2t red chilli (optional)
1t of freshly ground 'Golpar' (Angelica seeds)
1T of ground turmeric
500ml red wine vinegar/apple cider vinegar
- if you have other ingredients you want to try and swap out, and are a little unsure, feel free to get in touch! For e.g. I lately added the stem of one broccoli, which adds another colour and bite to the dish
Instructions
The idea here is to chop the vegetables to an ideal bite size of your own desire. This is totally subjective, but to pack a mason jar of 1 litre, I chose to chop my vegetables fairly small; no bigger than 1cm.
Chop the aubergine into small cubes, salt it slightly and put it into a pot on medium heat with about 100ml of vinegar. Cook for about 10 minutes until the cubes are soft but not mushy! Once cooked, drain into a colander but keep the vinegar for later, if needed.
You can choose to use a food processor to chop the rest of your vegetables (each separately) but since this recipe is for a small household and requires chopping only 1 or half a vegetable, I recommend meditating over the experience by hand!
Finely chop the the rest of the vegetables and herbs; smaller than the aubergine cubes. Finely chop the carrots, the stem of the cauliflower and keep the perfect shape of the small florets. Then, the cabbage. Be sure to put each vegetable batch aside.
Finely chop the parsley, coriander and tear the fresh mint into small pieces by hand. Add 1 teaspoon of tarragon and dill (if using dried; if fresh*, chop the herbs along with the others). As you make your way through each vegetable, put them on a tray lined with kitchen paper/towel to dry out any moisture over a few hours (or until the next day). Any moisture going into the pickle jar will shorten its life span and spoil the entire dish. The beauty of these pickles is they can last years, so don't skip this effort!
Over the next few hours, run your hands along and air out the tray of vegetables. Once they are rid of any moisture and feel dry to the touch, gradually start adding the seasoning/dried ingredients: sprinkle 2 teaspoons of salt and freshly ground pepper. 1 teaspoon of: Nigella seeds; coriander seeds; pink peppercorn; and golpar.
If you are adding any chilli, you can either throw one small piece in whole, or finally chop one half. Have a taste as you go along and if you feel you want a particular level of saltiness/heat, do add some more of anything you desire - this is the time to make alterations before you close your jar to rest!
Lastly, add 1 generous tablespoon of ground turmeric. You want to be sure the colour of the cauliflower catches the bright yellow colour.
Once you are happy with the the colour and feel of the tray of vegetables, that's when you throw it all in a bowl, finally topping the entire thing with about 300ml of vinegar (reserving the rest to top up as you go).
Pour the entire contents of your torshi into the sterilised mason jar. As you do this, carefully press down each scoop of vegetable mix.
Before closing the lid, sprinkle some more salt on the top and around the edges for good measure!
Finally, leave this beauty to hibernate in the dark for two weeks before you think to start nibbling! This is a mere recommendation as it takes time for all the ingredients to marry well, however you are more than welcome to start eating it sooner!
Tips:
* if using fresh herbs, note the quantity above in the ingredients list.
Experiment with different vegetables. Ideally you want to use vegetables that do not release too much moister or lose their composition while fermenting. The list of vegetables above is a particular type of torshi; you can, of course, select your favourite and make a torshi with the same sort of technique.
These pickles go best with most savoury dishes; in particular fish, cheese, chicken sandwiches, rice dishes with dill or tomato. Just experiment and see how it lifts up the tastebuds and squeezes the glands with every bite!
Nooshe jaan!
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