easy cucumber and pineapple achar

***************************THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED********************

Hi all! This is it! The Mum's Not Cooking Book Giveaway starts today 25 May 2012 and ends at midnight Singapore Time (GMT +8) on 4 June 2012 or noon EST ( GMT-4) on 3 June 2012.

All you have to do to win one of 3 copies, is to leave a comment after this post, telling me your favourite Singapore dish, if you have one. If you don't have a favourite dish or don't know any Singapore dishes, just say hello! If you like Singapore Shiok, please go to my Facebook page and gimme me some looove ;)

Only entries submitted between the given dates and times will be included in the draw to determine the winners, who will be chosen completely randomly.

Before you know it, you'll have this little red beauty in your hands. How easy is that?! Remember this is OPEN TO ALL MY READERS, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! May the best um, reader win!!!Yaaaaaaay!



In my last post, I told you all about my new book and shared the recipe for Easy Peasy Biryani from it. At the end of the post, I mentioned Easy Cucucmber and Pineapple Achar as an accompaniment to the biryani, so today, I will share the recipe for it with you. Before I go on though, I have another Mum's Not Cooking review by another kitchen newbie, Siau Rui, a Singaporean in Boston, who tried her best to wreck my recipe (kidding!) but still got a decent meal out of it. And, now, on with today's recipe.

The word achar which means pickle, is generally thought to have originated from Persia. However, modern day pickles, at least in our part of the world, are almost certainly derived from Indian achar. We love our pickles and what we've learned from the Indians, has been tweaked myriad ways, into hybrids, some of which bear almost no resemblance to their antecedent.

attempt 1 in toaster oven - burnt ombre sesame seeds

attempt 2 in toaster oven - spanish roast sesame seeds 

attempt 3 in a frying pan. moral of this story - toaster ovens are for toast, not sesame seeds

Each community in Singapore has its own version of achar and it's little surprise that pickles are popular here. The soaring heat, engulfing humidity and in the past, the absence of refrigeration resulted in the popularity of preserved food in many forms from salted and dried fish (ikan asin and ikan kering or kiam hu) and eggs (telur asin or kiam neng) to fermented shrimp sauce (cincalok) and tapai (fermented tapioca or glutinous rice) as these foods lasted much longer without refrigeration than they would have in their fresh, unaltered states.

Pickles are arguably the tastiest and most approachable of the brined or dried brigade and can be eaten without preamble unlike many preserved foods which often need rehydration and cooking, hence their widespread popularity. Their ability to add punch and pizzazz to a lacklustre meal and awaken jaded appetites or bored palates has preserved (sorry) their popularity even to this day.

discarding the cores stops the cucumber from weeping and diluting your acar 'gravy'

Malay and Kristang (Portuguese Eurasian) achars tend to stay close to the Indian model and include spices like turmeric, ginger, garlic, cumin and mustard seeds, with the typical southeast Asian addition of belacan (fermented shrimp paste). Examples are Achar Ikan (Malay Fish Pickle) and Eurasian Salt Fish Pickle.

Nyonya achars are very aromatic, seldom use powdered spices and tend to be sweeter, often including lemongrass and galangal in addition to the basic combination of turmeric, ginger and garlic.  Examples are Achar Awak (Mixed Vegetable Pickle) and Achar Huan Cheo (Shredded Papaya Stuffed Chilli Pickle). Vinegar and turmeric are common to almost all versions and used in generous amounts as they aid in preserving and preventing spoilage.

You will find different versions of achar being served alongside dishes like biryani, Hainanese chicken rice, nasi padang, nasi goreng, nasi lemak, Eurasian pot roasted chicken and pot roasted beef. In our home, plates of fried ham and eggs and buttered bread are eaten with piles and piles of this pungent acar, deeply stained with turmeric and almost strident with vinegar, each Boxing Day morning.

There are achars that take an hour to make and those that take the better part of a day or even week. Some last 3 days and some, six months without refrigeration. If the vegetables or fruits are salted, squeezed or sun dried before being added to the pickling spices, they will last longer. Simple achars that don't involve pre preparation of the vegetables usually last up to a week and require refrigeration.

The achar recipe I will be sharing with you today is a very simple version of the achar commonly served with biryani or at nasi padang stalls and restaurants here in Singapore. It takes all of 10 minutes to throw together and makes a tasty and zippy companion to biryani, chicken rice, nasi lemak or white rice and other spicy Malay, Indian or Nyonya dishes. Because it's from Mum's Not Cooking, you know it's going to be painlessly easy but absolutely lip smackingly good!

Be sure to get a very punchy sweet and sour, chunky sauce with lots of garlic and chilli bits floating around in it and a nice sour tang like a good Thai style chilli sauce. If the sauce is tasty enough, you won't need to add anything more apart from the sesame seeds. If the sauce lacks flavour, add salt, sugar and vinegar to taste. If you're feeling edgy and need to work out a bit of aggression, lightly re-toast a large handful of salted peanuts and bash the living daylights out of them before scattering over the prepared achar. Stir the peanuts in only when ready to eat.

I hope you try out this recipe, and see and taste for yourself how easy and delicious it is. Lesson over, let the fun begin! Thank you everyone, for your support and participation, and THE VERY BEST OF LUCK TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!