Red Chilli (Lal Mirch — Fresh)

Every winter in Banaras, the vegetable markets fill with bright red chillies — long, plump, and intensely coloured. For our mother, this was the signal to begin her annual batch of lal mirch achar — one of the most requested preparations she made.

Whole fresh red chillies are selected for their firmness and deep colour, then slit, partially seeded, and stuffed with a ground blend of mustard seeds, hing, ajwain, and amchur. Each stuffed chilli is packed tightly into jars and submerged in our cold-pressed mustard oil.

Over weeks in the sun, the chilli skin softens and wrinkles, the stuffing melds with the oil, and the result is a pickle of extraordinary intensity — simultaneously hot, sour, salty, and aromatic. A small piece of lal mirch achar with dal-chawal is the Banarasi comfort meal at its most honest.

Red chillies are among the most nutritionally potent vegetables. The compound that creates their heat — capsaicin — has a remarkable range of documented health benefits.

Whole red chillies are the star of Salteen's most iconic pickle — lal mirch achar. They also contribute as dried and powdered spice to our broader masala blends.