Nellika Achaar – Gooseberry/Amla Pickle
Do you know your pickles or will they leave you in a pickle? 🙂 🙂
Did you know in Thrissur(North Kerala), pickles made of baby mangoes are called “kadu maanga” while in Pathanamthitta (South Kerala) these are called “kanni maanga“. The “kadu maanga” pickle in South Kerala are cubed mango pieces in a spicy gravy which is actually called “maanga curry” in North Kerala..
I love pickles. We are a family who love pickles! We can have pickles with anything. As a dip for chips, as a spread on our wraps with some other fillings and with the other usual suspects – plain rice, chappati, pulav etc etc.
As a child, i remember mom pickling tender mangoes (kanni manga) in summer and storing them away far from our reach (she is very wise, i tell you 😉 ) . But as i grew up i realized she lost her touch in making pickles. Could be primarily as dad was diet conscious in terms of salt and oil he intakes with his food and the pickles ended up being forgotten.
Fortunately for me, my amma (mother-in-law) is amazing at pickles. Nellika(amla), maanga(mango), naranga(lime), irumban puli (bilimbi) are constants at her house. Everytime i visit her, i return back with bottles of these yumminess, i mean pickles . At my place these do not last very long and are very quickly cleaned up, then we go back to our store bought pickles.
However recently with the Covid lockdown we could not travel to Kerala as we do every year and my annual supply was halted. The store bought ones somehow tasted rancid too. I tried different brands but somehow i guess it was old stock that they were pushing out. A distress call to amma quickly put all worries aside. I could not believe how easy this pickle recipe is. I have already made this 2-3 times now. While it does not have her magic touch (i believe i will get there eventually, very optimistic in fact :p) , it sure is very very close enough.
so here goes, enjoy it….
Nellika Achaar
Ingredients
- 250 gms Nellika
- 1 cup Til (gingelly oil)
- 1 tbsp Mustard seeds
- 5 no dried red chillies
- 10-12 no sliced garlic cloves
- 1/2 tsp hing
- 1/2 tsp ulluva/methi/fenugreek powder
- salt to taste
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- water as required
- 4 tbsp kashmiri red chilli powder
Instructions
- In a sauce pan, add the washed amla and sufficient water to cover it. Bring this to a boil. As soon as it boils, switch off the flame and drain the water. Reserve 1/2 cup of reserved water in which the amla were boiling. We will use this later
- After the amla piece have cooled down to be handles, segment these and discard the seed. Look at the video to see how to do this. This is fairly easy once the amlas have been steamed
- In a bowl, mix the amlas with the chilli powder and salt. set aside
- In a thick bottom deep frying pan or kadhai (large enough to handle the amla and oil), add 1 cup of gingelly oil. When this warms up add the mustard seeds and the dried red chillis. As the mustard seeds splutter, reduce the flame to medium and add the curry leaves and garlic cloves. Careful as the leaves will release moisture and it may splutter. Keep your distance here
- Let the garlic cloves fry for a minute or so taking care it does not get burnt. At this point, you can either reduce the flame to the lowest setting or switch off the burner completely. **Do not forget to do this or the spices will get burnt and the pickle will have a bitter taste.Add the amlas mixed with the red chilli powder and salt to the pan and mix thoroughly.
- Add the 1/2 tsp of hing(asafoetida) and ulluva podi (fenugreek/methi powder) and stir to mix
- Switch on the flame or increase to a medium flame and then add the reserved 1/2 cup of cooking liquid from the amlas ( set aside when we cooked the amlas)
- let the whole mix simmer for a couple of minutes, giving it a nice stir.
- Let it cool down completely before storing this in a dry cool air tight container.
Notes
- Make sure that the container you store the pickles in completely dry before storing the pickle.
- As i live in a very hot region, i refrigerate the pickle in the fridge to prevent moulding.
- Always use a dry clean spoon to take out the pickle from the container.
