Tiruchi’s artisanal pickles that have helped enliven meals in many homes now cater to a loyal customer base online
Chicken pickle is bubbling away on the stove at Sabeena Sa’s home in KK Nagar, lling the air with the promise of a piquant relish for customers. Sabeena’s homegrown Pickle World brand is a favourite with lovers of non-vegetarian condiments, thanks to its vibrant Instagram presence, handled by
her daughter. It is a huge change for the home chef, who originally ran a thriving henna and beauty parlour in Palakkarai area for over two decades. “When business folded up during the lockdown, my son suggested I try my hand at making and selling non-vegetarian pickles because they are not
commonly sold in Tiruchi,” she says. Most of her recipes are from her mother, whose Kerala roots bring an exotic touch to the pickles, made with beef, chicken, mutton, sh, and most recently, dried and salted prawn. Pickle World also sells regular vegetarian condiments, but Sabeena
nds it tougher to work with the meats. “Most vegetable pickles can be assembled easily because they are ready for tempering and storage
after the initial marinating process. But pickling meat or sh needs cooking at every step, and zero
addition of water. I use only vinegar for the marinade and rice bran oil for cooking,” she says. Once done, the cooked pickle mix is covered with a clean muslin cloth and left out in the sunlight for curing. “It takes 24 hours for the avours to develop, and then the pickle is ready to be packed,” she says.
Priced upwards of ₹300, Pickle World has developed a loyal fanbase online, with many orders
also shipped to clients in the US and the UK. “Without refrigeration, the pickles can last for three months, but usually customers say that they don’t need to wait that long; they get over within a few days of buying,” Sabeena laughs.
More information: www.instagram.com/pickleworld_homemade;
Mob: 9842298461 s the searing summer becomes the new normal, one old friend promises to make mealtimes tastier — the traditional Indian pickle.
Pickling was a way to preserve food
Aand seasonal produce, especially in nomadic or trader communities.
Today, pickles are culinary pick-me-ups; spicy companions. that elevate the taste of the humblest of food. We meet some of Tiruchi’s artisanal pickle makers, whose products are wooing a new generation of consumers with their wares.
Staying slow and steady has helped Srirangam-based V Vaidyanathan and his wife Revathi make the family-run enterprise Vembu Iyer Pickles score high with their customers, enticing them with a spoonful of nostalgia in each of their preparations.
“Customers say that our condiments remind them of their grandmothers’ cooking, from the days when summers used to be a time to make pickles and ‘vadagams’ in the hot sun,” says Revathi.
The pickle business was the brainchild of Vaidyanathan’s father Vembu Iyer, a Municipal ocer in Tiruchi Corporation, who liked to gift the lime and kidarangai (wild lemon) pickles made by his wife Tirupurasundari, to his colleagues and friends.
“After retirement, appa realised that these pickles were good enough to sell, especially when friends started placing orders in large quantities,” says Vaidyanathan. “My parents began with just lime and kidarangai pickles, and 35 years later, we have diversied to over 15 items
With an estimated 7,000 hectares of land devoted to banana cultivation in Tiruchi district, there is clearly no shortage of raw material for Shri Poorna Foods, which has made the crop a mainstay for its menu.
Led by R Sasirekha, a former lecturer, Shri Poorna Foods is known for its spicy vazhaipoo (banana ower) thokku and vazhaithandu (banana stem) pickle. “Every part of the banana plant has value; we use the stem and ower which are often neglected by home chefs due to the laborious preparation for cooking,” says including mango ginger, maavadu (baby mango) and mint thokku, among others,” he says. Most of the pickles are priced in the range of ₹140.
Now a retiree, Vaidyanathan helps his wife prepare the pickles at their apartment in Srirangam.
Since Srirangam attracts many devotees to the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple and nearby shrines, some recipes do well during certain festivals.
“Our pulikachal [a cooked tamarind paste] is very popular during the Aadi Perukku festival, especially among those travelling abroad. We prepare extra measures ahead of Vaikunta Ekadasi, Deepavali and Pongal,” says Revathi.
They also maintain a Facebook page for orders.
The couple relies on their shared memories of cooking with senior members of the family for the recipes.
“We do not have any recipe books, but we know the exact proportion of spices and oil that go into each pickle,” says Revathi.
More information: www.facebook.com/VembuFoods;
Mob: 8015224131
R. Sasirekha (left) with team members at Shri Poorna Foods.
Sasirekha. The condiments are sold upwards of ₹90.
At the company’s Ponnagar unit, Sasirekha oversees a team of women employees who process the banana blossoms manually, removing the inner pistil and calyx from each oret, and steaming them ahead of marination and spicing.
Visitors can also see banana stems being cut into discs and smaller pieces ahead of pickling.
“These are not easy materials to work with. Fibres keep peeling o¢ from the stem each time it is cut, and banana owers take a long time to be cleaned. Machines cannot achieve what an expert pair of human hands can,” says Sasirekha.
The products are packed for dispatch at another unit in Mannarpuram. Shri Poorna has also diversied into banana chocolate and health food mixes.
More information: www.shripoorna.com;
Mob: 9488324996