Bit of a Bite: Getting into a pickle

A few years back I found a bottle of danya chutney in a Lansdowne Road, Cape Town spice shop.

The Quality Pickles bottle stuck in my mind for its homemade label, and the chutney's unusual coriander leaf intensity with underlying chilli heat.

Spotting the same labels at a Cape Town food show in 2014, I was delighted to note standards hadn't slipped - the pungent chilli sauce is now a staple condiment in my fridge.

The Parker family produces around 25 sauces, chutneys and pickles under their label. Walking into their home in Rylands Estate, you immediately notice the smell of spices.

Riyaaz Parker worked as a blockman at a butcher when his wife Soraya cooked her first atchar-style dried fruit pickle in 2000. Friends bought it to serve at weddings and on Muslim holidays. The mixed vegetable pickle came next. Friends snapped it up, as they did the lemon chunks pickled in mild red chilli sauce (perfect with a fish curry, or for stuffing whole fish).

Their son, Shakeel, soon joined the small business, and today he runs it full-time. Eleven employees perform hands-on work, but Riyaaz still lends a hand, and Soraya is consulted before any new products are introduced.

Quality Pickles bottles line shelves in spice shops and suburban butcheries in the Cape and further afield. A few Eat In national produce awards down the line, their formula relies on quality ingredients, and a willingness to consider suggestions from customers, family and friends. That's how the mango chutney, popular garlic sauce and pineapple chutney came about.

Said Shakeel: "We experimented with our first danya chutney one Sunday morning. I loved it so we gave it to our family and friends to try. It became our biggest seller."

As a keen cook, Shakeel is very involved in new recipes. A tomato-based samoosa dip is one of Soraya's favourites because it's mild.

The idea for a sour sauce from dried apricot mebos came from one of Shakeel's friends. I'm told it's marvellous for coating chicken wings.

Personally, I'm a fan of the sweet-sour tamarind sauce - forget about straining messy tamarind pods for Asian chicken flavouring, or to add tang to soups. The Quality Pickles tamarind sauce makes an easy basting for fish too, and is especially tasty with their sharp lemon pickle.

Most of the 350ml sauces and 400g pickles combine a masala spice base with garlic, sugar, oil and vinegar (retailing at under R30). No preservatives or artificial colourings are used, but that's all the family will divulge of their recipe secrets. I sampled coarse black pepper sauce (Shakeel recommends it with strong cheddar) and a mildly spiced, mayo-based seafood sauce (it would liven any tuna sandwich).

I tasted hot peri-peri sauce last. I was about to return for a second taste when the extent of its heat registered - I soon understood why ice cream was served alongside. The Parkers were amused, but they know the power of their products.

"Some people say our chilli sauces get hotter in winter," said Shakeel. "We've heard herbs tend to be more fragrant then."

• Quality Pickles. Contact 021-637-8751 or www.qualitypickles.co.za