Homemade pickle to add a kick to your meal…
Hwz everyone doing? I am having a relaxing weekend and hubby is having a painting weekend, I am assisting him a bit too. Well, it’s not oil painting or glass painting…it’s painting the stairway spindles. They had light wood color and now getting changed to black. We have been doing a lot of personal touches to our house and turning it into a home. Last weekend it was backyard work, it’s fun and a lot of work as well. I am constantly reminded of ‘No gain without pain’…
Now, lemme talk about pickles. Typing pickles itself is making my mouth water. Pickles are served with most of the lunch meals in India. When I have Indian food, I like to have pickles on the side which adds an extra kick to the food. I don’t make homemade pickles that often as I tend to buy store bought ones. Sanjeev Kapoor’s South Indian mixed pickle has been one of my favorites. It got finished last month, since then had been thinking of making homemade pickle. I had bought frozen gooseberry from the Indian store a few months ago and totally abandoned it in the freezer. Last year in Summer, I tried making gooseberry chammanthi using one of my family recipe. For making that, gooseberry has to be first sun dried and then it’s ground with green chili and other ingredients. Since here only frozen gooseberries are available, it was very hard to sun dry it. While sun drying them, moulds started forming, which grossed me out. I guess only fresh gooseberries works for making that.
So, I gave up on making gooseberry chammanthi and made gooseberry pickle instead. Gooseberry has a lot of health benefits, in N.America, it’s only available at Indian stores, look in the frozen section. It’s little bitter and is most commonly used for making pickles. My mom used to make gooseberry juice and she made me drink, it was little bitter. Once, my mom even made honey gooseberry; gooseberry was soaked in honey and stored for a month, it tasted really good.
If you get hold of some gooseberries, try making this pickle. It’s easy to make and tastes very good. You could even make this with raw green mango or lemon.
Gooseberry Pickle
Warning: Turn on the exhaust and windows, very intense aroma will be released and the smell will linger in the kitchen for a long time. I made this outside on the grill burner on a beautiful evening.
Ingredients
- Gooseberry, whole- 15
To marinate gooseberry:
- Chili powder- 1 1/2 tsp
- Kashmiri red chili powder- 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
- Cumin powder- 1 tsp
- Salt- to taste
Other ingredients:
- Sesame oil or Vegetable oil- 1/4 cup
- Mustard seeds- 1 tbsp
- Fenugreek seeds- 1/2 tbsp
- Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
- Red dry chili whole, halved- 3
- Garlic, chopped small- 4 cloves
- Dried fenugreek leaves or Kasuri methi- 1 1/2 tbsp
- White vinegar- 3 tbsp
Instruction
- Steam cook the whole gooseberries till they turn soft. I used idli cooker for steam cooking if you have steamer use that.
- After the gooseberries cool down, chop them small, discard the seed.
- In a large bowl, combine chopped gooseberries along with the above-mentioned ingredients ‘to marinate gooseberry’. Keep aside for 1 hour.
- Place a wok or non-stick pan over medium heat, add oil, let turn hot.
- Add mustard seeds, let it splutter.
- Add fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, red dry chili, and chopped garlic to the oil.
- Saute till garlic starts to turn light golden in color.
- If it’s turning brown, lower the heat and saute.
- Add the marinated gooseberries, combine well.
- Cook for a few minutes.
- Add dried fenugreek leaves and combine well.
- If it’s too dry you could add some more oil.
- Finally, add vinegar and combine well for a couple of minutes.
- Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Remove from heat and let cool down completely.
- Store in glass jars, pickles taste better after 1 or 2 days.
- Only use dry spoons to scoop out the pickle.
- Keep refrigerated for longer shelf life.
Tips:
- You could use raw green mango (steam cooked or not) or lemon (steam cooked) instead of gooseberries.
- Adjust the spice and salt level according to your needs.
- Gooseberry, whole- 15
- Chili powder (spicy)- 1½ tsp
- Kashmiri red chili powder- ½ tsp
- Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
- Cumin powder- 1 tsp
- Salt- to taste
- Sesame oil or Vegetable oil- ¼ cup
- Mustard seeds- 1 tbsp
- Fenugreek seeds- ½ tbsp
- Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
- Red dry chili whole, halved- 3
- Garlic, chopped small- 4 cloves
- Dried fenugreek leaves or Kasuri methi- 1½ tbsp
- White vinegar- 3 tbsp
- Steam cook the whole gooseberries till they turn doft for 10 minutes. I sused idli cooker for steam cooking, if you have steamer use that.
- After gooseberries cool down, chop them small, discard the seed.
- In a large bowl, combine chopped gooseberries along with the above mentioned ingredients 'to marinate gooseberry'. Keep aside for 1 hour.
- Place a wok or non-stick pan over medium heat, add oil, let turn hot.
- Add mustard seeds, let it splutter.
- Add fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, red dry chili and chopped garlic to the oil.
- Saute till garlic starts to turn light golden in color.
- If it's turning brown, lower the heat and saute.
- Add the marinated gooseberries, combine well.
- Cook for a few minutes.
- Add dried fenugreek leaves and combine well.
- If it's too dry you could add some more oil.
- Finally, add vinegar and combine well for a couple of minutes.
- Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Remove from heat and let cool down completely.
- Store in glass jars, pickles taste better after 1 or 2 days.
- Only use dry spoons to scoop out the pickle.
- Keep refrigerated for longer shelf life.
Adjust the spice and salt level according to your needs.
