Scrumptious Achar

Achar is a popular condiment commonly found in southeast Asian cuisine. There are many varieties and methods of preparing achar, and the best way is one that produces the quickest, freshest and delicious achar for you ! For me that means only 3 types of veggies and a fruit, pineapple and using previously-made rempah in a jar.

Ingredients:
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1. 5 medium sized cucumber, cut into strip about 1.5-inch long, skin on
2. A handful of shallots, peeled and quartered or halved, depending on size
3. 1 red round carrot or 1 normal carrot, cut into 1.5-inch strip
4. 2-3 ts roasted sesame seeds
5. 2-3 ts ground peanuts, ready-bought
6. 1 can of pineapple in syrup, cut into bite-sized chunks

Put all the above cut veggies into a basin and add 3 tbl kosher salt. Mix thoroughly and leave for 2 hours. By then a lot of liquid would have been extracted from the veggies through osmosis. Rinse 3-4 times in clean water to wash away the excess salt. I then used a spinner to drain away the excess water from the veggies, though if you don't have a spinner you may simply shake off the excess water.

Roast the white sesame seeds in the mw in a cup covered with a saucer. To avoid over-roasted seeds, check the seeds in the cup regularly each minute after the first 4 min. In my case I roasted 1/2 cup of sesame seeds for a total time of 5 minutes.

Slow-fry 3 tbl rempah in hot oil in a wok, test for taste, then add 4 tbl sugar and 4 tbl white rice vinegar (or more to taste, balanced against the sugar) to the rempah and mix well.

When you are happy with the spice mixture taste, add the veggies, sesame seeds, and ground peanut into the spice mix and stir-fry for 30 sec on high flame. The idea is to scald, not cook the veggies.

Allow to cool and spoon into a container for fridge storage.

You may wish to add more sesame seeds and ground peanut onto the achar before serving.

NOTE: The rempah recipe came from the wonderful The Little Teochew blog.