American home logs.. A Pickled story.

Oorgai is the catchphrase for South Indian pickles. It is a perfect combination of spices, tartness, and sweetness. 

Oorgai is a must accompaniment for a South Indian meal. It adds the necessary zing. Oorgai (pickle) is not just an accompaniment but an emotion for most South Indians. A simple lime pickle (elamachangai oorgai) finishes one's meal with curd rice. Even today, it is a simple but tasty add-on to the curd rice dish, which has become quite popular with restaurants. 

Traditionally, pickles were made at home. I remember my mother making these delicious pickles. She would wash the lemons, and our duty as kids was to wipe them dry. There should not be a drop of water in them, would be her instructions. She patiently sliced them and kept them in an earthen vessel called Jaadi. Every morning, I would see her peering inside the Jaari, shaking it vigorously, and giving it one whisk before the jaadi was shut. This would happen for a couple of days. Beyond that, I would lose interest. After a week, at the dinner table, we would be tantalized by the fresh smell of lemon pickles. My mother would always have two varieties of lemon pickles. One would be plain salted with no spice, and the other would be spiced. Each could compete with the other for their place on the plate.

I have watched my mother making these pickles every season for as long as I can remember. I moved to the Gulf after the kids were born. Getting the juicy variety of lemon suitable for pickles was not easy. Whenever I spot some, I would buy and try my hand at pickle making. There would be phone calls to my mother for the proportions, and through trial and error, I mastered the art, although not to the level of my mothers.

My daughter Shruthi's idea of cooking is to spend little time in the kitchen. She prepares well in advance and cooks up a delicious meal when the occasion demands. I knew she had it in her to live up to our family standards of great cooks. However, I never insisted that she experiment in the kitchen because of her work life.

Kitchen harmony of three generations.

One fine morning, I woke up to Shruthi's call from Boston. Wondering why she would call me in the morning hours, I answered the phone. Her question completely took me aback. Amma, how to make lemon oorgai? My initial reaction was that maybe she was on a quiz and needed to know an ingredient. She mentioned she saw lovely juicy lemons at the Indian store and bought some to make pickles at home. 

That was the start of our back-and-forth video calls on the pickle-making process. At the end of the week, Shruthi had a bottle of homemade pickles stored for the next six months.

We started the process

Guiding over calls

I am still awestruck by the genetic coding connection or mere observation and triggering of memory tucked away in the deep recesses of the brain or a faint smell somewhere far away that catalyzed into action upon seeing a connection? 

What is it that motivates a youngster to reach out and seek details for a seemingly forgotten act? And succeed in making the dish impeccably merely over phone instructions? Are these skills embedded merely as genetic codes or anything else? In any case, I was thrilled, as was my mother. Regarding my daughter, she is simply enjoying the tangy taste of the pickle that might eventually remove her taste buds to differentiate between various textures of wine?? All for a good cause, I thought :)