Nellikai Pickle / Gooseberry Pickle recipe
These Indian style gooseberry pickles will definitely pep up your meal
Servings 300 g
Ingredients
- 250 g Gooseberry (Big Indian Gooseberry)
- 2+2 tbsp sesame oil/til oil/nallennai (or as needed)
- 8 cloves garlic
- 4 dry red chillies
- a gooseberry sized ball of tamarind
- 1 tbsp rock salt
- 1 tsp jaggery
- ¼ tsp hing/perungayam/asafoetida powder
- water as needed
- juice of 1 lemon
To dry roast and powder
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- ½ tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
Instructions
- Wash the gooseberry and wipe it with a cloth or tissue paper. Soak the tamarind in half a cup of water.
- Dry roast the mustard and methi seeds for a few minutes in low flame, till the mustard turns whitish and the methi starts browning.
- Cool this down and powder it in a motor and pestle. Add the garlic pods to this powder and roughly crush them.
- Grind the tamarind, the whole red chillies and the salt in a mixer to a smooth paste using the water in which the tamarind was soaked.
- In an earthenware pan, heat up 2 tbsp of sesame oil. Shallow fry the gooseberry in batches for a few minutes till it mildly browns up on the surface. Keep aside.
- In the same oil add crushed mustard-methi-garlic mix and give it a good stir.
- Add the ground paste, and the hing, turmeric powder, and jaggery.
- When it comes to a boil add the fried gooseberries and curry leaves.
- Taste test, balance the spices, and let it cook till oil separates. Add the lemon juice just before turning off the stove.
- Cooldown and transfer to a glass or ceramic container preferably. Let it mature for at least a week before consuming, but I bet it's not going to last that long.