Usha’s Pickle Digest for Lessons in Living through a Pandemic
Vaishnavi Behl finds unexpected lessons for living through the COVID crisis in a cookbook published in 1998. Usha’s Pickle Digest, an encyclopaedic volume with over 1000 unique recipes, captures the art of paying attention to ingredients, a fundamental medium that connects people with their cuisine.
The idea of running out of food was unthinkable, until about a month ago. Then all of a sudden, our supply chains began to crumble; in the midst of a nationwide lockdown, uncertainties and disruptions became a daily reality.
We braced ourselves for what we knew was coming — a steep rise in prices, lack of food supply, or worse, ill-health. In this strange and unprecedented time, when a steady supply of fresh fruits and vegetables is implausible, I like many others, transformed my relationship with food and cooking. Spending time with food, celebrating slowness and the gradual work of cooking helped me feel like I still held a semblance of control. Navigating the convoluted relationship between nourishing myself, while being paying close attention to how this nourishment was taking place (educating myself on flavours and regional traditions), brought me to learning that fine art of preservation, fermentation and pickling.
In 1998, long before fermentation took over the internet and social media, Usha R Prabhakaran, a retired lawyer in Chennai, self-published Usha’s Pickle Digest. An encyclopaedic work, with a glossary of over 1000 unique recipes that speaks to the author’s laser sharp focus and attention to detail, the book captures the often-overlooked art of paying attention to ingredients — the fundamental medium that connects people with their cuisine.
The reason this book hit home bang in the middle of a pandemic is because I found myself with an abundance of free time, and instead of giving in to the all-consuming need to stay informed, connected and productive, I found myself questioning what productivity meant in times of crises.
Pickling became an activity that allowed me to spend time with food. Prepping each ingredient individually, grinding fresh spices and air-drying vegetables peels filled my house with pleasant aromas and my day with activity. Time was slowing down, and pickling became a way to celebrate that slowness. I was paying enough attention to experience steady change. I was not optimising; I was trying to preserve and maintain. I was doing what women in traditional households have been doing for generations, without receiving credit for their contributions to the food industry or being recognised for their roles in preserving and protecting traditions. Traditions which, without women like Usha, would be lost to history.
The book begins with meticulously detailed instructions on the best way to buy, prepare, and store food, to preserve maximum nutrient value; knowledge that was commonplace just a few decades ago, but is now fast-disappearing. Pickling is an activity many of us grew up with at home. It is indeed time-consuming and lengthy, and requires deep awareness of a variety of ingredients, and how well they blend together to form complex flavours. My 88-year-old grandmother may not always remember what she ate for dinner last night, but ask her about pickling and you’re in for an hour-long discourse. She can list her favourite recipes by the season, and according to medicinal value. Our generation, however, relates to food in a very different way. We favour convenience over nutrition, and a lot of us are lucky enough to still have someone cook for us. We eat without giving the act of eating much thought; without asking where our food comes from, how it’s prepared, or how the people who produce our food live. Practicing the art of pickling as a hobby is my small, but persistent way of fighting this discord.
Usha’s Pickle Digest was a book ahead of its time. It has an entire section dedicated to microwave oven cooking. There is also a section on zero-waste cooking, using skins, peels, rind and seeds to fashion delicacies from this most humble of produce. What sets it apart is how Usha ends the book — with a multilingual ingredient chart of common Indian ingredients, translated into 10 different languages. This alone makes the book worthy of rigorous study!
Usha’s Pickle Digest doesn’t feel like a regular cookbook. It is personal and earnest, and stands out amongst new-age cookbooks with its minimal formatting and basic layout. Its singular aim is to keep the tradition alive; to provide comfort and nostalgia through food. I’ve attempted several recipes from Usha’s Pickle Digest, and two have stayed with me. I return to them again and again: a sweet and sour Orange Peel Pickle, and Toasted Cucumber in Tamarind Sauce, perfect accompaniments that perk up any meal.
Our communities are experiencing change at a pace and scale we have never experienced before. With limited opportunity for grocery runs, we are relying on shelf stable food to get us through quarantine. Pickling provides the perfect opportunity to eat well, and to utilise food waste, while paying tribute to knowledge that came before. A lot of us have taken to cooking to keep busy, so while we’re at it, here is a chance to passionately engage, or rather, disengage from the looming crisis and embrace a renewed pace.
For those of us who can afford it, and who find ourselves grappling with a loss of perspective, perhaps now is the time to step back and acknowledge the work being done behind the scenes; to allow abrupt shifts in actions that we took for granted; to be catalysts of change, in the smallest of ways, starting with food.
Usha’s Recipe for Toasted Cucumber in Tamarind Sauce
Ingredients
500 g cucumber, scrubbed
40 g chilies, chopped
70 g cleaned tamarind, obtain thick extract using water
20 g jaggery powder
10 cloves garlic
5 g cumin seeds, for seasoning
5 g chili powder
3 g turmeric powder until the mixture
60 g salt
200 ml oil
Method
Brush the cucumber with a little oil and toast over the fire till done. Peel and crumble.
Heat the remaining oil, add the cumin seeds, green chilies and fry for a few minutes.
Stir in the tamarind extract, jaggery, turmeric powder, salt and bring to boil.
Add in the crumbled cucumber, chopped garlic and chili powder.
Continue cooking over low heat until the mixture becomes jam like and the oil separates.
The pickle is ready for use. It lasts for two months.
Usha’s Recipe for Orange Peel Pickle
Ingredients
500 g orange peel, scrape slightly, remove strings and chop fine
20 g mustard seeds
A few sprigs curry leaves
25 g dried red chilies, break into bits
25 g green chilies, chop
170 g cleaned tamarind, obtain thick extract using water
70 g jaggery powder
15 g chili powder
10 g turmeric powder
5 g fenugreek seeds, roasted and ground
5 g asafoetida, roasted and ground
60 g salt
250 ml oil
Method
Stir-fry the chopped orange peel, green chilies, red chilies in a little oil and set aside.
In the same pan, heat some oil, add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and allow to crackle.
Follow with the tamarind extract, jaggery, salt and bring to a boil. Allow to thicken over a high flame.
Lower the heat, stir in the chili, turmeric, fenugreek, asafoetida powders and the fried ingredients.
Continue cooking for about 20 minutes, adding the remaining oil, little by little.
Remove when the mixture becomes jam-like and the oil separates.
The pickle is ready for use. It lasts for 2 months and is best refrigerated.
Usha’s Pickle Digest is currently not available in print. The eBook can be purchased here.
Vaishnavi Behl is a young Sciences Po, Paris graduate exploring the politics of gastronomy. She writes about food and culture by day and by night, pursues her passion for analog photography and whips up experimental cocktail bitters. Vaishnavi has previously worked at Condé Nast Traveller India and Art&Found. Follow her work @okaychalo.
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