Punjabi Mango Pickle ~ Indian Cooking Challenge

Indian cooking challenge for the month was a pickle from the state of Punjab. Srivalli gave us Simran's mom's recipe. So, far, I can say, this is the easiest of all the challenges.  This was a new kind of pickle for me. Though most of the pickle made in South India is spicy, we have our share of salted pickles and pickling in brine. And those doesn't call for any oil and salt is the only preservative.  I have tasted store bought pickles that uses mustard oil. So I am used to the pungent mustard oil in pickles. 

As I said, the recipe is very simple. You have to just mix all the ingredients and leave it for two weeks for the flavors to mingle. I did just that. After 10 days, I did a taste test and felt I should spice it up more. Washed and wiped dry, a handful of green chillies. Chopped it, not fine, and added it to the pickle.  

I find the oil very flavorful, with the spices soaked in it. You can add some spice masala to the oil and brush it on your khakra/roti/puri. It will taste awesome.

The initial measurement given by Simran was for 5 Kg of mangoes. Srivalli scaled it down to 1/2 kg of mangoes. The spices were given in grams and I don't have kitchen scale. I used some online converters and got a fair idea of how much it will be in teaspoons/tablespoons.

I am giving the measurement as I used.

You need

• Raw Mangoes - 1/2 kg
• Mustard oil - 50 ml
• Salt - 4 tblspn
• Methi / Fenugreek seeds - 2tspn
• Kalonji / Nigella seeds -  1 tspn
• Saunf / Fennel Seeds -  2 tspn
• Turmeric powder -  3 tspn
• Whole Peppercorns - 2 tspn
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp 

Method

Select mangoes which are sour. That works best. Chop the mango in to 1 inch pieces. Dry it in the sun for 2-3  hours. You can also spread it under the fan if no sunlight. Wash the glass/porcelain jar to store the pickle. Sun dry the jar too. 

Take a large pot. Add mustard oil, turmeric, salt and the spices. Mix well. Add the sun dried mangoes and toss well, until they are well coated with the masala.

Keep the jar in the sun for a day. Leave it to mature for two weeks, though you can use it right away too.

Veppilakatti ~ Spicy, Tangy and Aromatic Chutney Powder

Veppilakatti is a spiced leafy chutney powder, which is very famous among the Palakkad Iyers.  The name 'veppila' meaning neem leaves, doesn't say about the ingredients. I am ignorant why the name. Anyways, these fragrant balls make a great side for curd rice. I'm sure those who have tasted this once will know, what I am talking about. For the others, when you read the ingredients, you can imagine it.  This is a very traditional dish, which is rarely made at home, these days. 

Wild lemon leaves (Vadugapuli narangathilai) is the star ingredient in the recipe. Its not the narthangai/citron  which is bitter. The leaves has to be picked carefully since the tree has lots of thorns. The picked leaves are washed and patted dry. Tender leaves can be used as such. For the rest, the thick vein in the middle has to be removed. Handful of curry leaves is also used. Traditionally, these leaves along with salt,will be pound in the mortal using the olakkai, i.e the long wooden pestle used to pound rice.  After pounding the leaves, next comes the mixture of red chillies, green chilly, hing and tamarind. These will be pounded almost fine. Finally the leaves are added to it and pounded together. This will be done in batches. Pounding will release some juice from the leaves and salt.  The spice and leaf mixture will be transferred to a big vessel and mixed well. Then it is made into balls and stored in air tight container. 

With the arrival of mixer grinder, Amma used to powder the spice mix in the mixer and pulse the leaves coarsely. Then do a final pounding in the mortal using the pestle.  Now a days, hardly anyone bothers to do all this, since it is readily available in the markets.  I don't like the store bought ones. This time, I had asked my uncle to send some through Amma. Thanks to my mama and mami, I got a huge batch of home made veppilakattis. These are the pics I clicked when Amma got it for me. Its made partly using the mixer and the rest in the mortar. Pounding in the mortar does increase the taste since the ingredients are blended better than in a mixer grinder.

The recipe I am giving is like an approximate one. This will fairly give an idea of what all goes into it and the proportions.

You need

Naaragathilai/ Wild lemon leaves - 1/2 kg  

Curry leaves - a handful

Green chilly - 15-20 nos

Tamarind  - Orange sized

Salt

To roast in oil

Red chilly - 250 gm

Hing/Peringayam cube - 50 gm

Method

Heat 2 table spoon of oil in a kadai. When the oil is hot, drop the hing pieces. It will get fried and the pieces will turn crisp. Remove and add the red chilly. Roast for few minutes. Leave it to cool. Powder the hing and chilly in mixer grinder. The add the green chilly and tamarind to it and pulse again. Remove the spice mix and keep it aside. 

Pulse the lemon and curry leaves along with salt, in the mixer till it is pound into small pieces. Finally blend the leaves and spice mixture. This can be done in batches. Take all the mixture in a big vessel. Mix it well and shape into balls.

As I mentioned before, this can be eaten along with curd rice. You can drizzle some gingely oil on it and have as a side for idly or dosa. 

Inji Puli /Pulikachal - Ginger in tamarind sauce ~ Kerala Special

Today is Uthradam, the day preceding Onam and it is as important as the Onam day. The last minute shopping rush on Uthradam, to get every thing ready for Onam is termed as "Uthrada Paachil ". All those who will be celebrating Onam will be busy shopping for veggies, bananas, chips and Onakodi ( new dress to be worn on the day of Onam). The streets will buzzing with people. At home, preparations of the Sadhya/feast will be going on full swing. As I mentioned in my last post, apart from the vadukapuli achar, inji puli is the other star pickle for the sadhya. This will also be prepared in advance and it tastes better as it ages a day or two. 

The preparation of inji puli is quite easy but there is some amount of cooking time involved since the tamarind extract has to be simmered till it is half of the original quantity. As the name suggests, inji is ginger and puli is tamarind. So this is essential a harmony of these two tastes complimented by green chilly, salt and a bit of jaggery too.

You need

• Tamarind - lemon sized ball
• Green chilly - 5 nos
• Ginger, finely chopped - 2 tblsn
• salt to taste
• Grated jaggery - 1 tblspn
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tspn

To season

• Gingely oil - 1 tblspn
• Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
• Chana dal - 1 tblspn
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
• Red chillies - 2 nos, broken into two

Method

Soak the tamarind in 3 cups of warm water for 10 minutes. Soaking in warm water helps to  fully extract the juice easily. Extract the tamarind pulp and keep it aside. If you need add some more water as you squeeze but let it not exceed another half cup. If you add too much of water,then you will have to simmer to longer to thicken.


Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add chana dal, broken chillies and curry leaves. When dal turn light brown, add finely chopped green chillies and ginger. Saute for a minute. Add the extracted tamarind water, turmeric and salt. Let it simmer and reduce to half the quantity. Add red chilly powder and grated jaggery. Let it simmer to a thick gravy. Check the salt and tanginess and add more spice accordingly.
It will stay good for a week if kept outside.

The measurements need not be very accurate and you can go by your instinct and add accordingly. If you like to have a bit of sweetness to taste, then increase the jaggery.


Wishing all my readers and friends a very happy and colorful ONAM.

Vadukapuli Naaranga Achar - Onam special pickle

Onam, one of the biggest festival of Kerala is round the corner. This is the one festival which is celebrated for a longer period spanning 10 days. The pookalam (flower arrangement), Onakodi (new clothes) and Onasadhya (feast) are the highlights of the celebration.When it comes to the sadhya, the preparations start earlier on. Banana chips and sarkkaravaratti( deep fried raw bananas coated with jaggery) will be prepared 2 or 3 days before the Onam. Pickles will also be prepared before hand. Vadukapuli naaranga and inji puli are the common pickles served.

Vadukapuli naaranga is a kind of citrus fruit which is very juicy and sour level is high compared to lemon. It isn't bitter like Narthangai. I'm not sure of the English name of this. On searching the net, I understand Citron is narthangai. If any of you know the English name for vadukapuli, do leave a comment and shall update it here.  Update This is called kadarangai in Tamil and wild lemon in Enlgish. Thanks Hema for the info.

This naaranga can be pickled with just salt, green chilly and ginger or the usual way of pickling with the regular ingredients of red chilli powder, fenugreek and mustard seeds. I prefer the salted version and love it very much. I like the chillies and the ginger in this pickle more.  This pickle is very easy to make. The only work involved here is chopping the fruit, chillies and ginger. Then its just mixing all the chopped ingredients with salt and the pickle is ready.

You need

•  Vadukapuli naaranga - 1 nos, chopped into bite size pieces
• Green chillies - 10 -12 nos, finely chopped
• Chopped ginger - 2 tblspn
• Salt to taste

 Method

Take these measurements as pointers and you are free to increase or decrease the quantity of chilly and ginger.  Mix all the ingredients in a dry vessel. Transfer to a clean, dry glass jar. Cover tightly and leave it for a day. The juice will be released from the fruit. The juice combines with salt will have a consistency of honey. It tastes great with curd rice.

It will keep good for a week wit refrigeration. If you want to increase the shelf life to another week, make sure you add some more salt because that's the only preservative added here.

Karuveppila Thokku /Curry Leaves Pickle

Curry leaves are good source of calcium and vitamins and minerals. Usually, curry leaves are used in the dishes for the flavor it imparts. And generally, these leaves are picked and kept side when served. When people discard/disown someone/something after using it for their benefit, its compared to leaving out the curry leaves while serving. (Kaaryam kazhinjal kariveppila pole)

 

 

 

I often make curry leaves powder and thogayal. Once I got to taste this thokku at my brother-in-laws place. My co-sister had got from her hometown. It was shop bought, probably packed by home based pickle makers. There was no ingredient list on it. Though, it was tad sweeter to my taste, I liked it. I tried to recreate it at home. It came out well. It goes well with dosa/adai and rice too. It keeps good for 2 weeks under refrigeration. I guess it will have shelf life of at least a week, even if kept outside.

 

 

 

You need

 

• Curry leaves - 1 cup packed, separated from the stalk
• Red chillies - 4 nos
• Tamarind - gooseberry size
• White Sesame seeds - 2 tspn
• Hing - a small piece
• Salt
• Oil - 2 tblspn
• Jaggery - a tiny piece

 

 Method

 

Wash and dry the curry leaves. Roast it in a kadai/Mw till crisp. Dry roast sesame seeds

Heat a teaspoon of oil. Drop the hing piece and when its fried, remove it. Then roast red chillies.

Powder curry leaves, sesame seeds, hing and salt.
When it is coarsely powdered, add the soaked tamarind and jaggery. Grind till smooth.
Use the tamarind soaked water to grind. You need to have a runny paste.

Heat 2 tablespoon of oil. Add the ground paste. Simmer till it thickens

Adjust the quantity of red chilly and jaggery to suit your taste palette.

 

 

 

Honey Gooseberries- Indian gooseberries soaked in sugar-honey syrup

Gooseberries/Nellikkai/Amla are rich source of Vitamin C. The gooseberry from an integral part of various traditional home remedies and is an essential ingreident in most of the Ayurveda medicines. The gooseberry fruit contains as much as 20 times of vitamin C as that in an orange. Iron in the food is best absorbed when taken in combination of food containing Vitamin C. In that scenario, honey and gooseberries form a perfect pair.  I first saw gooseberries soaked in honey at Wayanad.   At first, I did not know that it was soaked in honey. When I saw similar jars at different tourist spots, I asked the cab driver and he enlightened me on that. I jusst bought two pieces to taste it. I loved it. From then on, I wanted to try it at home. But did not search for a recipe though. It was in the back of mind.  Later I found it in Meenakshi Ammal's Samaithupar Part II.

When I was preparing the post I googled to find the benefits of Goosberry to include as part of  the post. I found a recipe for honey berries. I felt it more healthy with out the addition of sugar and think these are the kind I had at Wayanad.

The gooseberry can be preserved using honey, and thus used throughout the year. Take required number of gooseberries and clean them in running water. Pierce the gooseberries using a sharp stainless steel edge at various spots. Now immerse these pierced gooseberries in a jar full of pure honey. Cover the mouth of the jar using fine white cloth and place the jar in sunlight for an hour for 15 days. 

A tablespoon each of fresh gooseberry juice and honey mixed together forms a very effective medicine for several ailments. Its regular use will promote vigor in the body within a few days. When fresh fruit is not available, dry powder can be mixed with honey.

For more info on gooseberries and how it can be used as home remedies, check here.

While writing the post, I am reminded of a popular Malayalam saying -
"Moothavar chollum muthunellikkayum Aadhyam Kayakkum, Pinne Mathurikkum "
(മൂത്തവര്‍ ചൊല്ലും മുതുനെല്ലിക്കയും ആദ്യം കയക്കും പിന്നെ മധുരിക്കും).
It translates as "Both elders's advice and goosebrries will taste bitter at first but will turn to be sweet later ". Have you tried drinking water after a bite of gooseberry. If not, try it. Then you will understand the meaning of the above.


Now on to  the recipe I followed.

You need

Gooseberries - 1 heaped cup

Sugar 3/4 cup

Water - 1/4 cup

Honey - 2 tblspn

Cardamom - apinch

Method

Wash and dry the berries. Prick with a skewer/toothpick at few places on each berry.  Prepare sugar syrup. When the syrup is sticky, i.e. prior to one thread consistency, add the berries and turn well. The moisture released from the berries will make the syrup thin. Continue cooking till the syrup attains the one thread consistency. Add honey and cardamom powder. Cook for 2 minutes and remove from fire. Cool and store in dry glass jar.

Since the berries are also cooked, it gets soaked faster. You can eat the berries the next day itself. But as it ages, it gets more soft and tastes better with soaking. You drizzle the syrup on poories, rotis or bread too. The syrup tastes delicious with the juice of the gooseberries blended in.

Whole Moong Dosa and Instant Mango Pickle - Maanga Curry

I am used to having filling breakfast like idli/dosa/pongal. Oats porridge, cornflakes ,muffins or energy bars can't find place at breakfast table. I like to have variety in breakfast at the same time making it healthy too. These whole moong dosa do appear in our breakfast table once in a fortnight. The soaking time is less compared to our usual dosa. Also no fermentation required. Split moong dal can also be used in place of whole moong, though the taste will be different. I prefer whole moong for the fibre content. This is similar to Andhra pesarattu. I believe, in Pesarattu, only whole moong is used.

you will need
1 cup raw rice
1 cup whole moong
1 inch piece ginger
3 green chillies
few curry leaves
2 medium sized onions (optional)

Yields 12 dosas.

Wash and soak raw rice and whole moong for 4-5 hours. Grind them along with ginger, green chillies and curry leaves, to a not too smooth batter. You can grind this in the mixer grinder also and batter can be slightly coarse too.

Before making the dosas, mix in the finely chopped onions to the batter. I haven't added this time. Of course adding onions enhances the taste. Make slightly thick dosas and cook both sides. You can cook it either soft or crisp according to your taste.

I served with fresh instant mango pickle. During summer, when raw mangoes are freely available, this pickle was part of our meal on almost all days. Its very easy to make and there is not much of a recipe for that. the pickle needs only 15 minutes of standing time after it is made to start consuming. Didn't I tell you its instant. I usually don't add too much of chilly powder since my husband usually eats it like a veggie side. when served during feasts, usually it will have a red color because of the chilly powder. I wonder now a days, the caterers do add a pinch of red color to give that fiery touch to it.

For the pickle, you need
1 raw, slightly sour mango
salt to taste
2 tspn of chilli powder (adjust to taste)
a big pinch of hing
1 tspn mustard seeds
2 tblspn of gingely oil

chop the mangoes into bite sized pieces. Heat oil in a small pan/karandi. When hot add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add hing, chilli powder and salt. Remove from immediately to retain the red color of chilli. Mix into the chopped mango. Mix well. Leave it for 15 minutes for the flavors to blend in.
It goes very well with curd rice and practically with anything at my home.

I am sending the plate of moong dosa to showcase at Dil Se's Breakfast table , to MLLA 13 guest hosted at TongueTicklers , an event started by Susan and to Padma's Dosa Corner

The jar of instant pickle makes it to Mango Mela at Valli's

Mango Thokku

Come Summer, every household will be busy making pickles and variety of sun dried goodies to last the rest of the year. Raw mangoes are pickled in various ways. This is an instant pickle which can be consumed immediately and do not require any standing time before consuming.

Ingredients

Raw mangoes, chopped - 2 cups

Gingely oil - 4 tblpsn

Chilli powder - 3 tspn

Salt - 2 tspn

Roasted and powdered methi/fenugreek seeds - 1 tspn

Mustard powder - 1 tspn

Method
The mangoes should be raw and sour. Wash and wipe the mangoes dry. Chop the mangoes into pieces with skin. If the skin is very thick, you can scrap and chop. The pieces are not chopped uniformly.

Take a MW safe bowl. Add 2 tablespoon of gingely oil and the chopped mangoes pieces. MW high for 3 minutes. This is to make the mango soft. If you want it mushy, keep for another 2 minutes. Add chilli powder, salt, methi powder, mustard powder and the remaining 2 tblspn of oil. Mix well, so that the spices coat the pieces well. MW for 3 minutes. Cool and store in dry, airtight bottles. It will stay good for a week outside and 2 weeks on refrigeration. The chilli powder i used is very hot which is specifically for pickles. You can adjust the amount of chilli according to your taste.
Usually, these kind of pickles are made not to last too long.

This is my entry to MEC:Extras, hosted by Rachel, an event originated at Srivalli's

Gooseberry pickle

Gooseberry Pickle (Nellikai Achar)

An easy to make pickle. In Kerala, during gooseberry season, this pickle will surely find a place in any sadhya(feast). This pickle doesn't have a very long shelf life as it is with pickles as such. It stays fresh for more than a week on refrigeration.

You need

Gooseberry - 1/2 Kg

Salt - 3 tbspn

Water - 2 tblspn

Oil - 2 tblspn

Roast the below ingredients in a tablespoon of oil and powder when it cools to room temperature

Red chilly - 15 Nos. (Adjust accordingly)

Methi seeds- 2 tspn

Hing powder - 2 tspn.

First start roasting the chillies. When it is almost done, add methi seeds and hing powder.

Preparing the berries

Keep the g.berries in a vessel and pressure cook the g.berries for 3 whistles. No need to add water.

When cooled, slightly crush the berries and remove the seed. Take care that it doesnot turn mushy.

Take salt and water in a vessel and boil it for 2 minutes or more so that the salt is completely dissolved. Leave it to cool.

Add the boiled salt water, powdered chilly to the deseeded berries and mix well.

Heat 2 tblspn of oil and when cooled,pour over the pickled berries and transfer to airtight bottles.

This is the first time I am participating for any event in blogosphere. Being a Keralite, I am more than happy to sent in this entry to RCI-Cuisine of Kerala hosted by Jyothsna of CurryBazaar.