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Lemon pickle (Karnataka style)
Lemon gives various benefits for health whether used alone or in combination with other ingredients. Lemon is rich vitamin C and sour taste is good for congestion, cold, good for skin, good food preservatives, balances pH levels, boosts immune system, promotes healing of body from various conditions, hydrates lymph system, good for weight loss and it is a good diuretic. Lemon pickle is a delicious pickle that helps to regain the taste bud activity after fever and sickness.
Ingredients:
3-4 big, fresh lemons
1/4 cup salt or crystal salt
1 Tbsp red chili powder
1 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp oil
1/4 Tsp Asafoetida
3/4 Tsp mustard
1 Tbs Turmeric powder
Method:
Wash and thoroughly wipe the lemons to rid of all moisture from outside.
Remove the tips of lemon cut them in half and cut each half into bite sized pieces.
Put 1/2 Tsp of salt in the container. Now add the lemon pieces in a layer on top, add more salt on top. Keep repeating until all lemon pieces are used up. Add little more salt on top of lemons.
Close the lid. After 2 to 3 days, open the jar. You will notice the reduction in the quantity. Mix well and keep aside in a cool, dark place.
For the next 4 to 5 days, every day using a clean and dry spoon, mix the lemon pieces well so that salt gets to all of them. By the 5th day, the pieces would have softened quite a bit.
Now you can add spices and condiments – First add chilli powder.
In a dry pan roast the fenugreek seeds until they turn light brown. Allow it to cool.
Grind the fenugreek seeds to fine powder and add it to lemon pieces.
In a pan heat oil, add mustard. When mustard pops, add asafetida, turmeric powder and turn off the flame. When the seasoning has cooled down completely, add it to the pickle.
Lemon pickle is ready to serve with any dishes including morning rice porridge, breakfast, afternoon lunch and evening dinner. It goes very well with bread, rotis, chapatti, idli.
Carrot is a fibrous, healthy vegetable rich with carotene. Carrot is considered as one of the healthiest vegetable. It is good as antioxidant, helps in easy digestion, has anti-cancer benefit, good for vision health. The pickle made with carrot is delicious, easy to make and can be done within 15 minutes..
Ingredients:
250 gm carrots
3 Tbsp powdered mustard seeds
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp chilli powder
1/2 cup mustard oil
Method:
Peel the carrots, and cut them to an inch pieces, not too thin.
Mix all ingredients together, and put the mixture into a clean jar with a tight lid.
Leave in the sun for about a week and shake the bottle once a day to mix well.
Have carrot pickle with rotis, chapatti, bread, curd rice, pulav rice etc. It can be added to curd while preparing raita for various rice dishes.
Somewhat similar to Benarasi Red chilli pickle with additional ingredients, green chilli pickle is favorite of spice lovers. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
15-20 green Serrano chili peppers
3 tablespoons coriander
1-1/2 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/8 teaspoon asafetida
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon mango powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 mustard oil preferred
Method:
Wash and dry the chilies and cut a vertical lengthwise slit. Combine coriander, fennel, and fenugreek seeds. Grind coarsely. Add salt, mango powder, and turmeric to the ground spices. Mix well.
Heat oil until quite hot, and pour over the dry ingredient mixture. Mix well.
Stuff the spice mix into the green peppers and place in a glass jar.
Keep the jar under direct sunlight for a day or two.
Green chilli pickle is ready to serve with food of your choice – curd rice, paratha, rotis, rice dishes etc.
Capsaicin content that is present in chilli makes it medicinal herb. It clears congestion, relieves pain, reduce blood cholesterol, good for osteoarthritis, helps to stop prostate cancer, prevents stomach ulcer, easy digestion and recent studies show that chilli also helps to reduce weight. Stuffed with good herbs Benarasi red chilli pickle is delicious and anybody who wants to consume chilli in a friendly form can get benefit out of this.
Ingredients:
1 red chilli pepper
1 3/4 cup amchoor or dry mango powder
2 1/2 cup powdered mustard seeds
1 1/4 cup fenugreek powder
1 cup powdered fennel seeds
1 1/2 Tbsp asafetida
1 cup salt
1/2 cup turmeric powder
4 cups mustard oil
Preparation:
Remove the stalk of the red peppers and cut around the base. This should create an opening to fill spices.
Mix all other ingredients by adding 1/4 cup oil.
Stuff this mix inside red peppers, pressing the filling in firmly, so that it is tightly stuffed.
Dip each red pepper into the oil and place in the container, one by one.
Pour the remaining oil on the stuffed red peppers.
Keep this pickle under the sun for about a week.
Serve the stuffed Benarasi red chilli achar with your choice of main course.
Appemidi is a variety of mango available in Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka. It is famous because of its unique fragrance, which remains for a longtime. It is has gained popularity nationally and internationally because of its taste. Appe is variety of mango and midi means tender mango.
Ingredients:
Appemidi mango – 100
Salt- 750gms
Red chilli powder -500gms
Fenugreek- 4 tsp
Mustard- 50 gm
Asafetida – 1 and 1/2 tsp
Black pepper 1 and ½ Tbs
Sesame oil – 5 Tbs
Method:
Wipe the mangoes with a clean cloth. Take a few mangos at a time, coat them well with the salt, and keep them in clean dry container. Repeat this until the entire mangos are over. If there is any remaining salt it can be added on top of the mangoes
After one week, remove the mangoes from the tub. It leaves the salt water. Boil this salt water for 20 to 25 minutes in high flame.
Dry fry fenugreek, black pepper and asafetida. When they start popping, remove from fire and grind them .
Add this mixture to the boiled salt-water when it become cold and add the red chilli powder. Mix it well. Now add the mangoes to this mixture.
Pour 1-inch sesame oil above it and cover it with a lid. Tie a neat thick cloth over it and store it.
After a week taste the pickle. If salt is less add little more salt and keep it for a day or two.
Appemidi pickle is ready to serve with curd rice, idli, dosa and with lunch and dinner.
Avakkai (Cut Mango) Pickle: (Andhra and Tamil Nadu style)
Ingredients:
Raw green mangoes – 3 medium size, each cut into 6-8 pieces (sour variety) approx 4 cups
Mustard seeds powder – 1 cup (sun dried- less than 1 cup mustard seeds)
Red chili powder – 1 cup
2 Tbs fenugreek seeds
Salt – 3/4 cup powdered white crystal salt
Gingelly oil – 1 1/4 cups
Methi seeds – 1 1/2 tsps
Method:
Wash raw mangoes, remove any dirt and dry the mangoes.
Wipe the mangoes with a cloth and cut them into pieces with the kernel intact.
Grind the sun dried mustard seeds to a fine powder. Set aside.
Grind the crystal salt to a fine powder. Set aside.
Take a large wide vessel or bowl and add red chili powder, mustard powder and salt and mix well with clean, dry hand. Add fenugreek seeds and 3/4 cup oil and mix well. Add mango pieces and mix well, let the mixture coats the mango pieces *.
Place the spice coated mango pieces in the jar. Now add remaining spice powder.
Pour 1/4 cup oil on top and cover the pickle jar with the lid.
After 4 days open jar and using a clean spatula mix the content. Pour 1/4 cup oil on top as the pickle needs to be covered in thin layer of oil. Cover the jar with lid. Let the pickle marinate for another 4 days.
After 8 days recheck the jar and taste the pickle. If needed add little more salt. The mango pickle is ready for consumption.
Serve avakkai with breakfast items or lunch and dinner items.
* If you are fond of Garlic, while preparing pickle add few cloves of garlic for the pickle.
Punjabi aam pickle is rich in flavor and color has all good ingredients. It is easy to make and can be stored for longtime.
Ingredients:
2 kg mango -Cut into small size
100 gm fenugreek seeds
50 gm coarsely ground red pepper
60 gm onion seeds
100 gm fennel seeds
2 Tbsp black peppercorns
50 gm turmeric powder
300 gm salt
Half to one liter mustard oil
Method:
Mix all the spices together and add half a cup of oil to the mix. Sprinkle a little of this mixture into the jar.
Take some mangoes and add into spice mixture, mix well. Place another layer of mango pieces and add spice mixture. Repeat this till the mango pieces and spice mixes used up. If there is any spice mixture left, add it on the top of the layers.
Add remaining oil on top of the contents so that, the mango pieces and spice mix has to cover with oil.
For about a week, keep the jar under the bright Sun.
After a week remove the jar from Sun. Punjabi pickle is ready to serve with rotis, paratha or chapatti.
Mangoes have many health benefits – Prevents Cancer, Lowers cholesterol, clears the Skin, good for eye health, alkalizes the body, helps in normalizing insulin levels, contains rich vitamin E & is aphrodisiac, good for digestion, cools down the body and prevents stroke and it contains vitamin C, A and carotenoids that helps to boost immune system. Tender mangoes that are used in pickle has similar benefits because of their mild sweet and more sour taste.
