Non Veg Thokku Varieties ( Tamilnadu's spicy paste)

1001 Non Veg Thokku (Tamilnadu’s Sour, spicy paste )
This table lists 1000 Thokku varieties from 000 to 999. The three digits denote the base, flavouring & additives. Master Recipe :: Heat two spoons of oil. Add flavouring from column 2. Add a base from column 1. Add a spoon of tamarind paste, three pinches each of mustard powder and salt. Mix in additives from column 3. Stir & cook for a minute or two. Let cool and refrigerate.
Base	Flavouring		Additives
0.: Fish Heat a spoon of oil. Add a handful of fish cubes. Stir and cook for three minutes. Flake fish and remove bones..	0.: None		0.: None
1.: Chicken Take two handfuls of chopped chicken. Add to a pressure cooker and cook for two whistles. Let cool, Remove bone and mash flesh.	1.: Mustard Take two pinches of mustard seeds.		1.: Lemon Take a dash of lemon juice.
2.: Dried fish / Shrimp Take a handful of sun dried dried fish / shrimp.. Pound to a coarse powder. Add to a pan and dry roast for a minute.	2.: Ginger Take half a spoon of ginger paste		2.: Vinegar Take a spoon of vinegar.
3.: Crab / Prawns Heat a spoon of oil. Add a handful of cleaned crab/ prawn meat. Stir and cook for two minutes. Mash.	3.: Garlic Take half a spoon of garlic paste		3.: Colouring Take two pinches of Kashmiri chili powder ( for a fiery red colour)
4.: Eggs Take a hardboiled egg and mash to a coarse powder.	4.: Fenugreek Take a pinch of fenugreek.		4.: Lemon zest Take two pinches of lemon zest.
5.: Beef/ Pork/ Mutton Take two handfuls of chopped beef / pork. Add to a pressure cooker with half a cup of water. Pressure cook for 4 whistles. Let cool, remove bone and mash flesh.	5.: Fennel Take a pinch of fennel.		5.: Amchoor Take two pinches of mango powder.
6.: Minced meat Heat a spoon of oil. Add a handful of minced meat. Stir and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat.	6.: Coriander Powder Take two pinches of coriander powder		6.: Oil Take a spoon of sesame / mustard oil.
7.: Dried meat Take a handful of sun dried, boneless meat. Roast over naked flame Pound to a coarse powder.	7.: Cumin Powder Take two pinches of cumin powder		7.: Chili Flakes Take two pinches of chili flakes
8.: Sausage Take a handful of chopped / grated ready to eat meats ( sausage / salami etc)	8.: Asafetida Heat a spoon of oil. Add a pinch of mustard, two curry leaves and a pinch of asafetida.		8.: Preservative Take a tiny bit of sodium benzoate or citric acid..
9.: Fusion Use your favourite cooked and flaked meat or use any combination of the above.	9.: Fusion Use your favourite flavouring or use any combination of the above.		9.: Fusion Use your fav additives or use any combination of the above.
Sample Recipes : Fish Thokku 013 ::Mutton thokku 216:: CrabThokku 332 :: Egg Thokku 434 ::
Non veg Thokku logic : Take cooked and mashed meat. Stir fry with tamarind, salt and chili powders to a thick paste. Thokku is halfway between a thogayal and a pickle. Like a thogayal, goodies are mashed to a paste with tamarind, but like a pickle, no water is added and the water content of ingredients used is reduced by slow cooking. The reduced water content and the acidic environment inhibit spoilage. Most thokku last for a week un refrigerated and a month or more refrigerated. Follow a few simple rules to make your thokku last long. 1. Ensure that the meats are completely cooked. 2. Wash and completely dry bottles and spoons. 3. Never use a wet spoon or your bare hands to touch the thokku. Even a tiny bit of water can spoil it. 4. Aluminum, plastic or brass vessels react with the acid in thokku and should be avoided. Use glass / stainless steel / porcelain jars. 5. Salt always has moisture in it. So dry roast it / dry it in sun before using it. 6. Refrigerate thokku to make them last much longer. 7. Have a layer of oil over thokku to seal the surface		Thokku, like a thogayal can be used as a dip, spread, curry or a pickle. You can eat it with flatbreads, with Idli / dosa /upma, curd rice , spread it over bread or eat it mixed with hot rice and ghee. Almost all edible meats can be turned into Thokkus. Experiment with exotic meats / sea food as long as you remain true to the spirit of the recipe. Chopped up onion / tomato can be stir fried along with the meat, but due to the water content in onion / tomato, the thokku will not keep for long It is the acidic environment and the absence of water that preserves a thokku. The meats get slowly cooked by the acid over days and slowly transforms into delicious thokku. Follow all rules of pickle making and you’ll be turning out delicious, long lasting thokku.

Indian Sour Fruit Pickle Varieties

This cookbook lists variations of sour fruit pickles listed below. The technique is greatly simplified, so that a first time cook can easily prepare them. These are the simplest pickles of them all. Just mix in salt, turmeric powder with sour fruits, add flavouring, mix in additives and your pickle is ready in a few days! 

0.: Chopped raw mango pickle.
1.: Lemon pickle ( Elumichai Oorugai)
2.: Large Citron Pickle (Narthangai oorugai).  
3.: Small Gooseberry Pickle ( Aru nellikai Oorgai)
4.: Baby mango pickle ( vadu manga).
5.: Avakkai Pickle
6.: Grated mango pickle ( Manga Thokku)
7.: Large Gooseberry Pickle ( Peru nellikkai oorugai)
8.: Karanda Pickle (Kilakkai Oorguai)
9.: Fusion Pickles 

Core Logic: Salt sour fruits to draw out their natural acid. Mx in spice powders. Let soak and use. 

Pickling Basics: Pickles were invented as a way to preserve vegetables without refrigeration.  Enzymes within food / Microorganisms from outside spoil food.  So, the goal of all pickling is to retard the microbial/ enzyme actions.

Pickling in an acid (vinegar / wine) arose in the west. History records that these pickles were eaten by Roman soldiers and even by Cleopatra.

An interesting preservation technique is to let the food ferment, so that lactic acid bacteria can create an acid, which acts as a preservative. This process is similar to turning milk into yogurt, but a lot slower. Such pickling by fermentation arose in the east. Benign lactic acid bacteria digest plant sugar, produce lactic acid, carbon di oxide and alcohol. These inhibit the growth of other harmful bacteria. Unlike vinegar / wine, which just preserve food, fermentation can actually enrich foodstuffs by making them more digestible, more flavourful and packed with vitamins. Kimchi, Sauerkraut and a huge variety of Japanese pickles are all fermented pickles. Yogurt, cheese, wine, bread, sausages - are all products of fermentation by lactic acid bacteria. India never learnt fermentation because the tropical temperature was too high for proper fermentation. This is why none of fermented products - leavened breads, cheese, wine or sausages are native to Indian cuisine.

Indian pickles rely on salting and use lemon juice / vinegar or natural acids of sour fruits as a preservation medium. The foodstuff is salted (even sunned and salted), mixed with antibacterial spices and covered with oil to seal the surface against the entry of other microorganisms. In sour fruit pickles, the preservative medium is the naturally acidic juice. Salting the fruit draws out the natural juices, reducing enzyme action. The sour juice acts as a natural preservative, preventing the growth of micro organisms.  Thus, these pickles easily last for months. Other fruit / vegetables, which do not have acidic juices (garlic, chilies, ginger etc) can be pickled the same way, but need to have an acid (vinegar / lemon juice) mixed in. By following a few simple rules listed below, you can easily prepare fool-proof pickles

. 1. Use fresh, unblemished sour fruits. The sourer the fruit, the stronger the acid and better the pickle.
2. Wash and completely dry fruits, bottles and spoons.
3. Never use a wet spoon or your bare hands to touch the pickle.
4. Aluminum, plastic or brass vessels react with the acid in pickles and should be avoided. Use glass / stainless steel / porcelain jars.
5. Salt always has moisture in it. So dry roast it / dry it in sun for a day before adding it to the pickle.
6. Sterilize the bottles before filling them with pickles. ( See below)
7. Fill the bottles almost to the top to reduce the amount of air sealed in.
8. Once pickles are ready, cover them with a layer of oil and refrigerate them to make them last much longer.
9. Optionally, mix in a tiny pinch of sodium benzoate, a preservative.
10. Optionally mix in half a handful of dried chickpeas / a spoon of fenugreek seeds / 4-5 garlic cloves with these pickles. These taste delicious when pickled in the sour juice.
11. If the fruits are not sour enough, mix in a spoon or two of vinegar.

The more rules you break, the less time your pickles will last. Follow all of them and your pickle will easily last for a year or more. .

South Indian Pickling powder:  Take a handful of mustard seeds, half a handful of fenugreek, two handfuls of red chilies. (Optionally add in a spoon of dhania / cumin). Dry the mixture in the sun for a day.( Or microwave for a minute at the highest setting). Let cool and grind to a powder.

 

North Indian Pickling powder Take a handful of red chilies. Add two pinches each of onion seeds ( kalonji), fenugreek, cumin, peppercorns and  four pinches of mango powder.. Let dry in the sun for a day (or microwave at the highest setting for a minute). Let cool and grind to a coarse powder.

For south Indian pickles use sesame oil and for north Indian pickles use mustard oil. If you do not like the raw oil taste, heat the oil till it smokes, let it cool and then add to the pickle.

Sterilising bottles Fill a pan with cold water. Immerse the bottles and bring water to a boil. Boil for five minutes, remove bottles and keep them inverted in the sun till they are completely dry.

You can use this technique to pickle any sour fruit from across the world.  

Sour Fruit based South Indian Pickles 10

This cookbook lists 10 sour fruit pickles listed below. The technique is greatly simplified, so that a first time cook can easily prepare them. These are the simplest pickles of them all. Just mix in salt, turmeric powder with sour fruits and your pickle is ready in a few days! 

1.:Chopped raw mango pickle.

2.:Lemon pickle ( Elumichai Oorugai)

3.:Large Citron Pickle (Narthangai oorugai).  

4.:Baby mango pickle ( vadu manga).

5.:Small Citron pickle (Kidarangai Oorugai)

6.: Avakkai Pickle

7.: Grated mango pickle ( Manga Thokku)

8.:  Karanda Pickle (Kilakkai Oorguai)

9.: Small Gooseberry Pickle ( Aru nellikai Oorgai)

10.:Large Gooseberry Pickle ( Peru nellikkai oorugai)

Core Logic: Salt a sour fruit to draw out its juices, mix in spices.

 Pickling Basics: Pickles were invented as a way to preserve vegetables without refrigeration.  Enzymes within food / Microorganisms from outside spoil food.  So, the goal of all pickling is to retard the microbial/ enzyme actions. This is accomplished in sour fruit pickles by salting. Salt draws out the natural juices, reducing enzyme action. The sour juice acts as a natural preservative, preventing the growth of micro organisms.  Thus, these pickles easily last for months. Other fruit / vegetables, which do not have acidic juices (garlic, chilies, ginger etc) can be pickled the same way, but need to have an acid (vinegar / lemon juice) mixed in. By following a few simple rules listed below, you can easily prepare fool-proof pickles.

1. Use fresh, unblemished sour fruits. The sourer the fruit, the better the pickle.

2. Wash and completely dry fruits, bottles and spoons.
3. Never use a wet spoon or your bare hands to touch the pickle.
4. Aluminum, plastic or brass vessels react with the acid in pickles and should be avoided. Use glass / stainless steel / porcelain jars.
5. Salt always has moisture in it. So dry roast it / dry it in sun for a day before adding it to the pickle.
6. Sterilize the bottles before filling them with pickles. ( See below)
7. Fill the bottles almost to the top to reduce the amount of air sealed in.
8. Once pickles are ready, cover them with a layer of oil and refrigerate them to make them last much longer.
9. Optionally, mix in a tiny pinch of sodium benzoate, a preservative.
10. Optionally mix in half a handful of dried chickpeas / a spoon of fenugreek seeds / 4-5 garlic cloves with these pickles. These taste delicious when pickled in the sour juice.
11. If the fruits are not sour enough, mix in a spoon or two of vinegar.

 

The more rules you break, the less time your pickles will last. Follow all of them and your pickle will easily last for a year or more. .

South Indian Pickling powder:  Take a handful of mustard seeds, half a handful of fenugreek, two handfuls of red chilies. (Optionally add in a spoon of dhania / cumin). Dry the mixture in the sun for a day.( Or microwave for a minute at the highest setting). Let cool and grind to a powder.

 

North Indian Pickling powder Take a handful of red chilies. Add two pinches each of onion seeds ( kalonji), fenugreek, cumin, peppercorns and  four pinches of mango powder.. Let dry in the sun for a day (or microwave at the highest setting for a minute). Let cool and grind to a coarse powder.

For south Indian pickles use sesame oil and for north Indian pickles use mustard oil. If you do not like the raw oil taste, heat the oil till it smokes, let it cool and then add to the pickle.

Sterilising bottles Fill a pan with cold water. Immerse the bottles and bring water to a boil. Boil for five minutes, remove bottles and keep them inverted in the sun till they are completely dry.

You can use this technique to pickle any sour fruit from across the world.