Garlic Pickle/Vellaipoondu Urukai-South Indian Style

Garlic pickles are tasty and spicy sides for curd rice. I am not a pickle person but I like garlic pickle especially because of the herby garlic flavors. This recipe is an authentic one from our family and it may seem a little different from the regular south Indian pickle preps.
Also they do not have much of the pickle sauce as they are dry version. I do have another version which I will be posting later. This pickle keeps well for 3-6 months if stored properly.

Ingredients:

Garlic-2 cups (small variety, peeled)

Tamarind-1 lemon sized

Long Dried Red chilies-15-20

Mustard seeds-2 tsp

Gingelly oil/Sesame oil-1/2 cup

Salt-as needed

How It Happened:

1. Peel the garlic and pat dry them to remove moisture. Remove seeds in the tamarind and cut them into small pieces.

2. In a dry blender jar add the dried red chilies and tamarind pieces and grind them to a fine powder and set aside.

3. Heat ½ cup gingelly oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and when they pop, add the garlic and fry them in medium flame until they have shrunken to half the volume. The garlic will turn all blistery on the outside and will become soft.

4. Add salt and ground tamarind powder and mix well. Let it cook for 10 minutes and keep stirring now and then.

5. When the oil oozes on the sides and when the mixture comes together Switch off the flame and let it rest.

Notes:

* Use small variety garlic else chop the garlic into tiny pieces.

* This is a dry version so do not add any water to the tamarind while grinding. The ground powder will be little sticky because of tamarind so do not panic.

* The garlic when squished between two spoons should be mushy. Thatz when the tamarind powder should be added.

* Do not reduce the oil else they get spoilt soon.

* You can also add cleaned and dried curry leaves while tempering but if the leaves are not dry they may spoil the pickle.