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Meet Mirsang - Salt and Chilli Paste

Family is one of our most priced possessions. It surprises me how unknowingly we absorb all our traditions and practices even without our knowledge and today years later we practice them on an auto mode. You may think what has that to do with meet mirsang, well here goes the tale ( and I love telling stories), so if you are a food enthusiast you will have to listen to my stories as well because every recipe has a story attached to it.

Growing up in a small coastal village of Mangalore in a family with really old grandparents who were so rich with their experiences with life and every bit of the traditions. I really enjoyed my childhood to the fullest. Though I do not have any memories of my grandmother as she left for eternal abode a little ahead my grandfather. But having a grandfather around in our growing years was one of the biggest treasures I could ask the universe for. He was fit as a fiddle and he would teach us life the way it should be.

As I am writing this my eyes get blurred as tears fill my eyes and I miss my childhood, my home and my village. Every day was a celebration, getting up in the morning and going to our coconut farm was the first thing we did to pick up the coconuts fallen from palms, then we would get ready to school and eat the most healthy Peje jevan and then head to school, life was beautiful. Life is still beautiful as they say change is the only constant thing in life.

So as I mentioned earlier I grew up in a coastal village with abundance of fish and seafood. Fish was our staple meal just like a lot of you reading this, but we were not allowed to eat other seafood like prawns, crabs and mussels regularly, though they were available in abundance and the reason for that I assume is health factor. But there was no restriction on fish. Therefore I can say that with great confidence that our forefathers knew whats good for us and what's not.

So let me come straight to the meet mirsang story because as I write I cant stop as memories come gushing left right and center and I am losing focus.

Every summer we had this ceremony called 'pausachi tayari' ( prepping for the monsoons), I have so many vivid memories of this that I will write an article entirely dedicated to 'pausachi tayari'. Therefore during 'pausachi tayari' one of the things to be done was meet mirsang as red chillies and fresh spices were not available during the monsoons and meet mirsang  serves as a preservative and if we receive a letter or a phone call from any our our relatives that they would visit, we made sure that we have a reservoir of meet mirsang. 

So coming to me, we received a call from one of our relatives that they would visit us soon and would spend a good 5 days at our place and we are super exited about their visit. I sat with my notepad planning the menu for the guests and being a fish lovers there would be a lot of fish to be fried and curried, when I reached to my mason jar of meet mirsang, found that there is only half a jar left. So I needed to refill and start prepping for it and also a lot of you are asking for my recipes and I thought this would be an auspicious occasion to begin :-)

MEET MIRSANG RECIPE

Ingredients

1. Dry Red Chillies - 100 gms
2. Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
3. Turmeric Powder - 2 tsp
4. Garlic - 6 to 7 cloves (double the quantity if you are using big clove garlic/ Chinese garlic)
5. Peppercorns - 15
5. Salt ( preferably sea salt) -  1 fistfull
6. Vinegar - 1/2 cup
7. Water to grind - Boiled and cooled completely



Method

Grind all the ingredients together until they form a fine paste.

But there are some precautions to be followed - 

*I prefer grinding in a wet grinder or in a traditional grinding stone (wan) but I know its not possible for everyone to do that, so to get better results soak your red chillies in the boiled and cooled water for about an hour before your grind.

*Always taste test the salt and vinegar before you bottle the meet mirsang.

* Store the meet mirsang in glass jars only that are clean and dry ( you could use empty jam or pickle jars)

* Store in the refrigerator or even in your pantry shelf.











Hope this age old recipe was of help to you.

Kindly share your thoughts and feedback.

Also let me know what you would like to see next, eagerly waiting for your responses.

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