How we make it

Four quiet steps

Cut. Salt. Sun. Oil. The same order her mother used. Nothing added to make it faster.

Cut

The keri is cut when it is still firm. Nothing shredded, nothing rushed. Each piece should keep its shape in the oil.

Salt draws the water. She turns the bowl once or twice. The fruit changes colour and weight. This is the part that cannot be hurried.

The bowls go out. A cloth. Light. A few days of doing almost nothing. She knows by smell when they have had enough.

Mustard oil, heated, cooled, poured to the brim. Then she waits again. The jar is ready when she says it is.