Green Apple Instant Pickle

I made this green apple pickle using super sour green apples from my back yard. We were literally wasting those apple as none of us like sour apple. Came across this recipe when one of my relative visited us and gave me the idea of making this pickle. Initially I tried with just two small apples as I was not sure whether my people will like it and surprisingly, they really liked it.  In fact my girls liked taking it as side dish along with curd rice to school.  Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Green Apple -  2
2. Salt to taste
3. Red chilli powder - 2-3 tsp (acc to taste)
4. Hing - few generous pinches
5. Sesame Oil - 2 tbsp
6. Mustard Seeds- 1 1/2 tsp
7. Fenugreek/Methi seeds - 1 1/2 tsp

• Chop the apple into small pieces.  
• Sprinkle the required amount of salt, mix it well and keep it aside for an hour.   
• After an hour, heat the oil, crackle mustard seeds. 
• Add methi seeds and fry it until golden brown.  
• Mean time, add the required amount of chilli powder on top of the apple pieces along with few generous pinches of hing.  
• Pour the hot oil tempering on top of the chilli powder and mix every thing well.  
• Keep it aside for another half and hour and can be used after that.

Since this is an instant pickle, we can use the mustard seeds and methi seed as tempering.  If we are planning to make it in large quantity, it is better to dry roast mustard and methi seeds and grind it and use that ground powder.  It will definitely taste better. Above said quantity will last for two days with a family of five :)

Lemon Pickle

I made this pickle with the lemons I got from our backyard. I made lemon rice using one last week and the I used 4 lemons for making this pickle. Felt so good.  This is basically my patti's recipe. But most of us use the same recipe to make pickle.  Here goes the recipe:-

Ingredients:-

1. Lemon - 4 Nos (Medium sized - US lemons)
2. Salt to taste
3. Red chillies powder - 2 tsp (acc to taste)
4. Sesame oil - 3 tbsp
5. turmeric powder - 1 tsp
6. Fenugreek - 2tsp
7. Mustard  - 1/4 tsp +1/2 tsp
8. Asafoetida powder - few pinches.

First cut the lemon into small cube sized. Sprinkle the required amount of salt on it and keep it aside in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days depending upon how well the lemon is soaked. Mine took 3 days to soak fully in salt.  When you are ready to make pickle, first dry roast fenugreek and mustard (1/4 tsp) and grind it into fine powder.Preheat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add turmeric powder and red chilli powder and let it fry for couple of minutes. Do not burn it. Add the ingredients to the soaked lemon and mix it  well.  Now add the ground fenugreek & Mustard powder to it and mix it well. Let it  soak for couple of hours  before we start using it.  Store it in a air tight container and can be used for one week to 10 days.

Gooseberry Pickle

I bought the whole packet of frozen gooseberries to make this pickle. But somehow or the other I didn't get time to start this and I started using few gooseberries for making pachadi or arachukalakki etc. This time I wanted to make this pickle without fail and I started making this yesterday night around 9 PM. It came out well and it tastes really good(I wanted to have this pickle as side dish for yesterday's dinner).

Ingredients:-

1. Gooseberries - 1 cup
2. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
3. Red chillies powder - 1 tsp (acc to taste)
4. Salt to taste
5. Sesame OIl - 4 tbsp
6. Jaggery - 1 tsp (optional)
7. Fenugreek seeds - 3/4 tsp
8. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
9. Asafoetida powder - few pinches

First cut the gooseberries and take out the seed. Put it in a microwave safe bowl, add water and cook it for 4 to 5 mts. Make sure its only 3/4th cooked. Take out the berries and drain it. Keep it aside. Now take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds **, add fenugreek seeds ** and asafoetida powder and saute' for about a minute. Now add turmeric powder, red chillies powder and salt to it and fry it till raw smell goes out. Now add 3/4th cooked berries to it and mix everything well. It take 2 mts to mix. Turn off the stove and sprinkle the jaggery powder on top of it. Mix it well. Transfer it to a air tight container and enjoy it for more than 10 days.


** - My MIL asked me to make powder from mustard and fenugreek seeds and sprinkle it. Since I started doing this at night I didn't want to make powder. I just used it. If you wish to make powder, just fry mustard and fenugreek in a dry pan, let it cool and grind it into a fine powder (can grind separately).

This pickle goes to Vani's AFAM event.

Mixed Vegetable Pickle

This is something I used to buy from grocery store. This time I just wanted to try by myself with a handful of veggies. Since I am the only person here in my house who eat pickle very often, I just tried with a little quantity of veggies.Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Carrot - 3/4 (chop it into 1" size)
2. Lime - 1 (small - chop it into tiny pieces)
3. Lemon - 1 (small - chop it into tiny pieces)
4. Mango - 3 tbsp (chop into 1" size)
5. Bittergourd - 1/2 (chop it into 1"size)
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Red chillies powder - 1 tsp (acc to taste)
8. Salt to taste
9. Sesame Oil - 4 tbsp
10. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
11. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
12. Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp
    

There are two ways of making this pickle. First one is microwave the Veggies, lemon and lime for 3 mts. till it 3/4th cooked and season it. But I didn't microwave the veggies, I cooked it on stove top. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add asafoetida powder and add all the veggies and saute' for a minute. Now add turmeric powder, red chillies and salt and sprinkle a hand full of water and let it cook. When the veggies are fully cooked, add asafoetida powder and mix it well. Do not mash the veggies and do not over cook the veggies. This can be a wonderful side dish for curd rice.

Puli Inji - Ginger pickle

This is another pickle which we can make using ginger. This inji puli and pulikachal are different from each other. The main ingredients are as follows...

Ingredients:-

1. Ginger - 5 tbsp (Chopped evenly)
2. Tamarind(raw) - 2 tbsp
3. Green chillies - 1 or 2
4. Jaggery - 1 tbsp
5. Salt to taste

First take the raw tamarind (its better to use raw tamarind instead of tamarind paste), green chillies, jaggery and salt and grind into a fine paste. Do not add water while grinding. Now we can follow two ways of making this inji-puli. One is just mix the chopped ginger to the above paste and mix it well. Let it soak for a day. We can start using this as a pickle from the next day.

Other method is, take a pan, preheat a teaspoon of sesame oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add the grinded paste to it with half cup of water and let it boil for 5 to 7 mts. Turn off the stove and put the ginger pieces on top of it and mix it well. Let it soak in the tamarind paste overnight and can be used the next day.
The above said quantity can be used for a week.