Mirchi achaar - Green Chili Pepper Pickle

An easy and delicious way to preserve some of summer.

Materials:

- Fresh hot chili peppers: use any kind you like - store bought jalapenos; Thai green peppers if available (the Asian stores in many big cities keep these in their fresh veges section); and it's probably most fun to go pick these on a farm especially as you can get a variety of peppers and then experiment with them. Wash and pat dry. Slice down the middle or dice into smaller pieces.
- Oil: Mustard oil results in the most flavorful and sharp achaar; you can also use other oils like olive, peanut, corn or canola.
- Salt
- Mustard seeds - Grind. I use a coffee mill that I've reserved for spices. I like to get a coarse rather than a superfine mustard powder. 

Preparation:

Prepare jars for the pickle by cleaning well with soap and water. You can also pasteurize them as for jams (see this site for example). Add a 1/2 inch layer of the peppers followed by salt and mustard powder. Then pour oil to cover this layer. Repeat until you're at about 1 inch form the top of the jar. Add oil to ensure that it completely covers the chili peppers, salt and mustard.

Cover with cheesecloth to allow it to breathe and leave at room temperature for about two weeks. Check every two or three days to ensure that the oil level is above the solids and also stir well.

Enjoy with any savory dish - I like to add it to dal (lentils), prepared vegges, sandwiches, eggs, pizza... in short, it spices and flavors most dishes superbly.

Options: Adding chopped garlic or peanuts provides further dimensionality to this pickle. Combining different chili pepper types also gets you great new flavors - such as jalapenos with Thai greens.