Kumquat Achar
Hot and sour condiment
This recipe came about from receiving a glut of round kumquats and having not finished the last two years worth of marmalade. Kumquat marmalade, or any bitter citrus marmalade is a wonderful thing, but a little goes a long way.
The difference between round and long kumquat is very apparent once you try and eat one raw. Both are eye waveringly sour, no surprise there, but the longer once have less juice and a lot more bitterness. The round once are not bitter at all and I would describe more as a cross between a mandarin and a lime.
Wether I had stumbled on a hybrid or all the kumquat trees in my neighbourhood are round I needed to find a use for the glut of fruit. Pickled cumquats are wonderful, great for charcuterie or richer meat like duck or pork. Getting through kg of pickles in a year seemed difficult, and a lot of sugar, so in the interest of trying to reduce sugar and make something a little more user friendly it made sense to try and focus on a chutney or relish, one without sugar. Chutneys without sugar usually leads toward needing umami and salt to replace the richness needed to balance high acid needed to preserve the products. Also the use of spices and oil to inhibit mould growing in the jar.
So introducing a condiment from from the spicy Indian subcontinent, the Achar. Its not really from India specifically, its most famous example known in the western world is lime pickle the salty, acidic relish served in Indian restaurants next to the ramekin of raw shaved onions, yoghurt and sweet mango sauce with popadom across the UK. I first came across achars working with Malaysian chefs, from what I could understand at the time it referred to a spicy pickled relish which seemed to have a lot less sugar than western relishes and pickles.
The Achar the Malaysian cooks would make were a wonderful mixture of lacto fermented carrots (or any vegetable to hand) mixed with shaved onions, sautéed courgettes, dried chilli, some warming spices like coriander, turmeric, sometimes tamarind, sometimes dried coconut. Other times raw sour fruits like unripe mango or plums tossed with cumin and chilli, some fish sauce or lime juice.
They could be raw or stewed, pickled or fresh. Made to be kept for weeks under oil or intended to use on the day.
I suppose that is why I am struggling to define what I think an achar is. its a spiced sour condiment. It can be a lot of different things.
All I know is I still haven’t come across one that doesn’t marry perfectly with chicken liver parfait. Keep your onion marmalade. I will take the jar with the hot stuff.
As time has gone by I make less of the Malaysian/Indonesian pickles and focus more of the preserving aspects of the chutneys and their wonderful contribution to preserving citrus. I adore lime pickle. I cannot get enough of it mixed through yoghurt or mayonnaise, the stronger the better. I use them unadulterated whenever I have pulled meat as leftovers. I grab some lettuce leaves, some herbs, sour cream and the jar of archer from the cupboard and have a left overs meal of spicy lettuce cup tacos. The flavour is so rich and intense it replaces the need for hot sauce, salsas, shaved onions, lime wedges. Its a great all rounder, and it doesn’t need to live in the fridge.
If you cannot find round kumquats, long ones will still be great. And if its summer and you want to give this recipe a go, just substitute in lemons or limes.
The main principles for this to be a preserve is acid and salt. The same theory applies as for salt pickling/ lacto fermenting, while there are spices available like turmeric and chilli to retard bacterial growth. Acid and the salts ability to lower the ph is what makes it safe to keep under oil at room temperature. Remember temperature in the places this preserve were invented are much higher than the rest of the world.
The main bacteria to be aware of when preserving under oil away from oxygen is botulism and it needs to be something you are aware of. The odds of getting it are low, but if you do get it it is serious problem. By understanding the limits to how it can grow you can know about how to stop it being a concern.
Botulism hates acidity and high salt. As do most bacteria. Acid is your main ally here. It is the same reason any canned product needs to be below ph 4.6.
Citrus and vinegar will have a low ph already, but by adding the salt the ph will ferment lowering the ph further and increasing the umami which will in time contribute to balancing out the achar without the use of sugar.
This archer is made in two main steps.
Mixing the chopped citrus with salt, dried spices and vinegar and allowing these ingredients to cure together over night.
Then covering with a hot aromatic oil containing fried fresh ingredients garlic, fresh chilli and curry leaves. Frying pasteurises the aromatics which in turn stops any chance of spoilage to the chutney. With the added bonus of sealing the condiment from oxygen, yeasts or moulds which could contaminate the chutney over time.
Kumquat Achar
Ingredients
1.5 kg cold water
5g bicarb soda
1.5kg round kumquat
5 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbs cumin seeds
4 tbs fenugreek seeds
200g cider vinegar
1 tbs cracked pepper
15g deseeded heaven facing chilli
357ml vegetable oil
3 tbs yellow mustard
8 thai green chilli, thinly sliced
10 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3 loose cups fresh curry leaf
Mix together the water and bicarb soda, add your kumquats and leave for 3 hours. This will help to clean any excess dirt from the pores of the citrus.
In a dry pan toast cumin seeds, fenugreek, cracked pepper and dried heaven facing chilli.
Slice the kumquats into approx 1.5cm pieces. Mix together with toasted spices, turmeric, salt and vinegar. Cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours to cure stirring periodically.
Heat veg oil to 160 degrees C, add sliced garlic and fry until softened, add chilli, mustard seeds, fry for 1 minute then add the curry leaves. (Be careful putting the curry leaves to the oil as it will spit as it is initially added.)
Fry the leaves until crispy (approx 30 seconds) then pour the oil and all the aromatics over the citrus mix. . mix though the oil mix and decant into a jar pressing down solids so the top half cm of the jar is oil.
The achar is good to eat, however it will improve rapidly over the following days and start to develop the umami richness over the next months.
Always use a clean spoon when taking the relish out of the jar or contamination can occur, if you keep it clean and is covered in oil it will last for years and continue to develop and become richer as the years go by.
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