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CeylonCookingAuthentic • Sri Lankan • Recipes

Pickles, Sambols and Preserves

Garlic Pickle

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Whole garlic cloves pickled soft and dark, sweeter and rounder than either lime or mango.

  • Whole cloves, cooked soft rather than left raw
  • Jaggery rounds off the vinegar
  • Deep and mellow, with none of the raw garlic burn
  • The most approachable of the three pickles
  • Thick enough to spread
$10

Available to pre-orderSKU: CC-PIK-GAR

Size: 200g

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Description

Whole peeled garlic cloves cooked down slowly with chilli, vinegar and a little jaggery until they turn soft, dark and mellow. Cooking takes the raw bite out of the garlic completely, so what is left is deep and slightly sweet rather than sharp.

People expect garlic pickle to be aggressive and it is the opposite. Long slow cooking in vinegar turns raw garlic into something soft and dark, closer to a caramelised onion than to a fresh clove.

A little jaggery goes in near the end, which rounds off the acid and gives the jar its almost sticky texture. That is the Sri Lankan touch. Elsewhere the same pickle is drier and hotter.

It is the easiest of the three pickles to like, and the one that disappears fastest in most households.

How to Use

  • Beside rice and curry as the sweet sharp note
  • On toast with butter, which sounds odd and works
  • Stirred into a plain dhal at the table
  • With cold meat or a hard cheese

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Frequently Asked

No, and that surprises most people. Slow cooking in vinegar strips out the raw pungency entirely and leaves something soft, dark and almost sweet, more like a caramelised onion than a clove of garlic.

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