amle ka achar : Indian gooseberry pickle recipe and significance of Amlaki Ekadashi

Amla, Amlaki or Indian Gooseberry come in the season when winter is just about to start and we keep getting amla throughout the winter season. My grandmother used to call Amla as sacred fruit and as a blessing for winters. If one eats one amla everyday one wouldn't get sick ever she used to say and it is so true. Amla is a great immunity booster thanks to very high levels of Vitamin C in it. Read about more health benefits of Amla along with my grandmother's recipe of amle ki chutney.

It was because my Dadi (grandmother) that we got to know that there is a tradition of worshiping amla tree on the day of Amlaki Ekadashi as Lord Vishnu is considered to reside in it. I find it a beautiful philosophy to equate a tree to a God and worship it.

Most medicinal plants are worshiped in some form or the other in India, the traditions are prehistoric and might have tribal origins, but I find these traditions and rituals really beautiful. Just like ritualistic worship of Gods has preserved temples as the only surviving historical monuments, I believe the useful plants have also survived due to some or the other sacred ritual linked with them.

So there used to be a pooja and picnic under the amla tree in Banaras and the practice still survives as I am told by friends there. I remember there is a dedicated orchard of amla trees in Sampoornanand Sanskrit University where a community picnic happens every Amalaki Ekadashi. I have been to it once and it was really good. This day of Amlaki Ekadashi is also known as Aonra tar (below the amla tree) in Banaras and Eastern UP. Aonra is the name of amla in local dialect. ISCON devotees also worship amla this way.

Imagine how well our grandmothers were connected to nature and treated food as sacred. I remember about 10 kilos or more amle ka murabba being made in our home every year and it was a preferred way of eating amla during summer months as it is considered cooling. A great way to enjoy amla in the off season. Till a couple of years back I used to cook my grandmother's recipe of Chyawanprash too. May be I'll do that again with home grown ginger and long pepper, other herbs will be store bought of course.

Make this simple amle ka achar till then. This amle ka achar is a quick pickle that stays for a month in refrigerator, there is lesser salt than the regular pickles where more amount of salt preserves the pickles. Lesser amount of salt in this pickle helps eat more of it in one meal and have more benefits of amla in one dose.

ingredients

20 large amlas
20 large (Bhavnagri or Anaheim or Jalapeno chillies)

to make a paste with 3 tbsp water ...
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1.5 tbsp Kashmiri red chilly powder (this is very mild hot)
1 tsp fenugreek powder
1 tsp fennel powder
pinch of hing (asafotida)
1 tbsp salt

to temper the pickle...
2 tbsp mustard oil
1 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)

procedure

Boil (pressure cook) the amlas with a cup of water till their segments get separated like this.

Chop the chillies in bite sized pieces or whatever size you like.

Make a slurry of the ingredients listed for a paste, adding a little more water if required.

Heat the mustard oil and add the nigella seeds and wait till they get aromatic, taking care not to burn them. Bring the gas flame to minimum.

Pour the spice paste slowly and stir. Let it cook till the oil separates.

Add the chillies and the separated segments of amla (discard the seeds), take the pan off the stove and mix well to coat.

Fill in a sterilised jar. This pickle is ready to eat in a couple of hours and can be refrigerated for a month or so.

One can always make amla pickle just like aam ka achar but do not boil the amla for that. Just chop it with a sharp knife, discard the seeds and follow the aam ka achar recipe. That amla pickle will last the whole year without refrigeration.

Any of these pickles will the right choice for your family if you eat Indian food mostly. The same procedure can be followed to make green chilly pickle as well if you like hari mirch ka achar. This amla aur hari mirch ka achar is really good with roti, paratha or daal chawal meals. Let me know if you find this recipe useful and easy to follow.

Cheers.

hari mirch ka sarson wala achar | green chilly pickled with mustard ...

 Green chilly pickled with mustard seeds or hari mirch ka sarson wala achar is an easy recipe that needs just a couple of days to get pickled. Mustard is a traditional pickling agent in north India and we use it many ways and making the hot chilies milder is one of the benefits of pickling with mustard. It helps ferment the pickling chilies first, makes them a little sour after a few days and then the sourness just kills the heat of chilies after about a month or so. Some people like it a month old when all the heat of chilies is gone and the pickle has gone completely sour. I generally add the soured green chilly pickle to some salad dressing or blend it in some dip or hot green chutney.

If you are pickling green chilies this way, make smaller amounts so it is over in about 2-3 weeks, or wait till the required sourness is achieved and refrigerate the pickle after this point, if something is left till then.

Mild jalapeno peppers are used for this pickle, but you can go ahead and use the hot jalapeno as well. Depends upon how hot you like your pickled chilies.

ingredients..

8-10 mild jalapenos
1/2 cup yellow mustard powder
1 tbsp mustard oil
2 tbsp table salt

procedure...

Wash and pat dry the chilies. Make a slit lengthwise and keep aside.

Powder the mustard and mix in the salt and mustard oil.

Mix the mustard powder and oil well to make a crumbly mixture.

Stuff lightly into the slit green chilies and bottle them. The chilies release their juice within 2-3 days and you would see a watery liquid in the bottom. Shake the jar once in a while so the pickling is evenly done.  The pickle is ready after 2-3 days of pickling but keeps maturing for 2-3 weeks before getting too sour.

Serve this pickle with any Indian meal as a condiment or chop it and add to the salad you toss that requires a hot mustard dressing. You would see how versatile it is.

 Some more chilies anyone?

sweet chilly-ginger and tamarind sauce...

Sweet chilly sauce is a common condiment and sauce in the western, Thai and Malaysian cuisine. Commonly used for seasoning stir fries or as a dip for fried snacks or to smear on sandwiches and rolls. The uses can always be to suit personal taste as I have liked Thai sweet chilly sauce with my omelets too. But this one is a slight variation of Thai sweet chilly sauce.

This sweet chilly-ginger and tamarind sauce is a versatile sauce owing to it's ketchup like consistency. Actually when I gifted this sauce to a friend, she thought it is a tomato ketchup. Tamarind and ginger make this sauce quite interesting in the taste. It suits both Indian dishes as well as western style stir fries or as a dip.

Big fat red chilies of the cayenne pepper variety, are in season normally from January to March in the north of India and people use it to make stuffed red chilly pickle mostly. I use this variety of chilly to make chilly jam and orange or kumquat and chilly marmalade mostly. I also use this chilly as a substitute for red bell peppers to get a capsaicin flavor in my stews and salads sometimes as the husband is intolerant to bell peppers. Have a look what all I made using these chilies.

This sweet chilly-ginger and tamarind sauce has become quite popular as an all rounder sauce at home. I don't do any straining when I make this sauce, except for the straining of the tamarind pulp after soaking seedless tamarind in hot water for an hour.

ingredients...

Fat red chilies (cayenne or jalapenos will be good to use) 200 gm
fresh ginger root 150 gm
seedless tamarind 100 gm
jaggery or raw sugar 650 gm
salt 1/2 tsp

procedure...

Soak tamarind for an hour in 2 cups of  hot boiling water and strain the pulp in a wide pan after mashing it properly.
Remove stalks from the chilies and chop roughly.
Clean the ginger root and chop roughly.
Puree the ginger and red chilies together in a blender.

Now keep the pan with strained tamarind pulp on gas stove. Add the chilly and ginger paste and the jaggery and salt and heat to boil the mixture. It becomes a little frothy first, lower the heat after this and simmer on low flame for about 45 minutes.

It can take a little more time to reduce and become the consistency of ketchup. You can reduce it further to a jam like consistency.

And the sauce is done. It is an easy sauce to make and you will be spared from many preservatives  colors and texture enhancers used in commercial ketchup and sauces. You might like to to strain the sauce half way into the cooking and then reduce it to desired consistency.

Fill the sauce in sterilised jars or bottles. This recipe makes about 900 ml of sauce. The sauce stays well on room temperature for about 4-5 months. Or keep it refrigerated if you live in a humid area or the jar keeps opening frequently. Using clean and ry spoons will be better or use squeezy type bottles if you wish to prevent contamination.

There are bits and pieces in this sauce since I haven't strained it after cooking the chilies and ginger etc but I like it this way. This way the sauce is not suitable for squeezy type bottles.

We like this sauce with our dahi bhalle chaat, as a dip for crackers, as a sauce for pakodas and even with parathas and omelet sometimes.

I am sure you would love this sauce, especially if you have kids at home. Many friends have been requesting me to make this sauce on a commercial scale and sell it in friends' circle. Yes, this sauce is that good. I will be making this sauce more and more to gift my friends and family as homemade gifts feel more personal to me.

what do you think?

angoor ki chutney | green grapes chutney with ginger...

Angoor ki chutney or green grapes chutney is no less than the Mango chutney we love with our Indian meals or with crackers and cheese. While I myself don't eat much chutneys and jams, Arvind loves them. He loves the jams, marmalade and such chutneys more than fresh fruits sometimes. I am more for the fresh fruit but then such chutneys are a good way to use up any leftover fruits or when you buy in bulk and can't consume so much fresh. I do buy fruits and vegetables in huge bulk sometimes, being greedy for fresh produce always. This tendency makes me guilty of wasting them a few times as well, though I try and give away the extra to the house help.

This chutney is an Indian way of using fruits for making a sweet and savory, sometimes hot with chilies preserve. Also called as launji, this type of chutney can be made with any sour fruit or vegetbale, some neutral vegetable also make good launji and raw papaya launji is as good as kachhe aam ki launji, the recipes will differ obviously.

Khatte angoor ki launji may have some roasted cumin powder too, but we all make them the way we like. Some people love a hint of garam masala too in this angoor ki chutney or launji, even I like it occasionally.

This tomato chutney is more popular as a daily thing. Basically a condiment that is served along with an Indian thali meal, it serves the purpose of a palate cleanser. More popular in the central states of India, I have seen Bengali families serving such chutneys (cooked with more sugar content) at the end of the meal, just before desserts.

There are food traditions and there are recipes, modern life doesn't give us many chances to eat traditionally laid out meals but we enjoy the taste elements in bit and pieces. Like this chutney will be on a toast some day, on a cracker with cheese some other day and will be had with a paratha meal some other time.

I kept the sugar content lesser in this chutney, it still keeps well for a week at room temperature, for longer shelf life it's better to refrigerate. The chutney is a basic jam with lesser sugar content and lesser degree of set. More sugar added will cause the chutney to set like a jam as sugar causes the pectin the fruit to gel.

ingredients...

green grapes 500 gm
finely chopped or grated ginger root 2 tbsp
salt 1/4 tsp
sugar 100 gm
water 1 cup or a little more (depends on how juicy the grapes are, smaller grapes might need a few tablespoons more of water)

procedure...

Chop the grapes in halves or as you like.

Mix all the ingredients in a wide and thick bottomed pan and cook on a medium flame. The mixture will come to a boil, start frothing and then bubbling merrily while it reduces.

You should keep a watch on the liquidity of the cooking mixture as if the flame is high it would dehydrate faster and might need some more water added. Total cooking time on medium heat would be around 25 minutes but you just have to stir it in between and keep an eye. You can do other chores on the sly.

Easy isn't it?

You can always add some whole black peppercorns to this chutney, some roasted fennel seeds powder or a mix of roasted fennel and fenugreek. Some red chilly powder will be awesome too if you like a kick.

Check out a few more such chutneys with different ingredients, may be you would get an idea how these chutneys can transform a meal...

Khajoor tamatar ki chutney

Plum chutney

Mango chutney 

Date and ginger chutney with tamarind 

Tamatar ki mithi chutney

We Indians made the fruit jams spicier and tangier. I hope you would love having these chutneys with your meals. So try these if you haven't had them earlier. Those who know these chutney, know what I am talking about.

Cheers.

Khajoor tamatar ki chutney | dates and tomatoes chutney...

This is actually an Indian style tomato and dates spiced jam. Actually a tomato-ginger and dates spiced jam. Now you know what I mean. Except that the tomatoes are not skinned and de-seeded and the jam is not blended smooth. A chunky spicy jam for your sandwiches or to be served as condiments with Indian meals. This chutney is loved with spicy samosas, aloo parathas and any kind of Methi or Bathua parathas. Or on it's own if you are a wicked person :-)

 You just need some red ripe heirloom (desi) tomatoes, some dry dates we call Chhuharey (see the picture), some fresh ginger root and a blend of garam masala, preferably home made. And yes, you can add a little tamarind too if you wish but this is made without any tamarind pulp.

Ingredients...

ripe desi tomatoes 500 gm (5-6 medium large tomatoes)
dry dates (chhuharey) 20 ..soaked overnight
finely chopped ginger 2-3 tbsp or to taste
red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
special garam masala 1/2 tsp
sugar or natural brown sugar (boora/shakkar or jaggery) 300 gm
salt to taste, just 2 pinches is the requirement

procedure...

Dice the tomatoes and put them all into a wide base pan.

Chop the soaked dates too in desired size pieces and dunk them all into the same pan. Add salt, sugar (I used natural brown sugar) and chopped ginger to it too and start cooking on medium-low flame. Keep stirring in between as it takes quite a long time to cook (around 40 minutes) and might get stuck to the base of the pan.

Just as the jam/chutney starts getting thick and shiny it is time to add the red chilly powder and garam masala. Cook for 5 more minutes or till you get a jam like consistency and bottle it in a sterilised jar.

This can be blended smooth if you wish and can be a good substitute for tomato ketchup for your kids. I like the depth ginger provides into this chutney and the garam masala makes it very aromatic. A sweet, spicy and hot chutney to make the meals pack a punch.

Cheers...

Plum chutney: quick and fiery...

Some fruits make very interesting chutneys. Especially if they are bright colored and the sweetness is complex with a generous hint of tartness. I make good use of them sometimes in quick chutneys when a few of them are getting stale in the fruit bowl.

For this chutney I used just 2 of them. Red ripe juicy Plums I mean. The chutney was so good and yet so hot and fiery it lasted 3 days. Just a small teaspoon of this chutney is packed with flavors to perk up a meal. Think lentil salads and a chicken stir fry in my case.

So you chop the required amount of Plums. I used just 2 large Plums...

Add 1 tbsp of sugar for this quantity, 2 pinches of salt and a generous pinch of red chilly powder.

Then microwave it for 2 minutes...

Mash it, dehydrate for another minute in the microwave if required and serve in a bowl. Hot or cold or chilled as and when required.

I made use of a pretty ramekin gifted to me by Ruchira. Doesn't it make a nice chutney to be served into a red bowl?

Store it in airtight jar and keep refrigerated for up to a week. A nice make ahead chutney for gettogethers.

This chutney makes a nice topping for scones too. I often make it quickly when I bake some scones for ourselves. Especially those with a nice sweet and salt balance.

Or try this on some crackers.

Mango chutney...

I didn't know Mango chutney is more popular in the west than the country of it's origin. I was astonished when a few of my blog friends pointed out. How can a chutney which is a staple sweet n sour condiment on our plate every summer in practically every home , be more popular in far away countries who import mangoes from us?

This is the power of food uniting us in amazing ways.

I still wonder how the firangs can eat more mango chutney that us :-)

May be the mango chutney is more popular as a packaged product, more visible on the shelves of supermarket. That is a believable thought. Isn't it.

Having said that, all Indian states have their own version of mango chutney and all homes have their own finer nuances going on with chutneys. After all chutneys are made to suit individual palates, something you lick in a small quantity and get a satiety feeling after a meal. Even if the meal was boring.

Chutneys were a way to perk up everyday meals initially I guess. More chutneys were eaten in summers as this was the season when only a few vegetables were available and Indian summers didn't allow much meat eating in those natural living days without these air conditioned bubbles to call a home. Chutneys with mint, green chillies, onions and mangoes were cooling on the system.

Even this chutney is. Cooling in one more way as it does not require stove top cooking.

 I prefer the mangoes which get yellowish and squishy, almost half ripe for this particular chutney.

The quick recipe and procedure simplified...

Just peel and chop about 3-4 raw mangoes. Remove the hard stone as you require only the pulp/flesh.

To a cup of raw mango flesh, placed in a pyrex bowl of suitable size, add 1/2 tsp of salt, 3 tbsp of sugar and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Let it rest for a couple of minutes and then repeat microwaving it for 2-3 minutes more.

Take out the bowl and mash the raw mango flesh with the tines of a fork.

Add a generous pinch of red chilly powder and a generous pinch of garam masala.

Now this garam masala is special, and does not include cumin and black peppercorns.

So if you add a regular garam masala from a packet, the taste of the chutney would be a little different. Still tasty.

Powdering one clove, half a green cardamom, few seeds of black cardamom and a tiny piece of cinnamon together freshly in a mortar and pestle can be good if you don't have that special garam masala with you.

Cook the chutney once again for a minute or until it bubbles. The finished chutney becomes like jelly when it cools down and can be preserved for up to 2 months but you wont have to worry about that when you make such small quantity almost instantly.

Make just a bowl and enjoy till you get a next batch of raw mangoes and may be next time you would like to make this one...aam ka khatta metha achar when you get unripe mangoes.

Note: If you want to cook this chutney in a pan, just mix everything except red chilly powder and garam masala and add 2-3 tbsp of water as it might stick to the pan, and cook till it gets squishy. Mash and add the powders and take off the stove.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature if you make a smaller quantity to last about a fortnight. Otherwise refridgerate up to a year.

Banaras ka khana has shifted to it's own domain now. Please let me know if you find any difficulty searching for recipes or in commenting here. It will be immensely helpful in making the site more user friendly.

Thank you.

Date and ginger chutney with Tamarind | sonth imli ki chutney...

Sonth imli khajoor ki chutney to be precise. This is a sweet sticky gooey chutney that looks like jam or a fruit preserve. Packed with all the sweet and hot and a little savory and a lot of tangy flavors. All wrapped in one lick of the spoon.

 A complex flavor imparted by an earthy yet tingling kick of dry ginger powder, hot red chilly powder balanced by those juicy bits of dates and a slurry like tamarind jelly. This chutney is used as a condiment with meals or as a topping for many popular chaats. With Dahi vade, with dahi wale gol gappe or with samose..this chutney picks up any snack or meal to a new level.

Here is a dahi vada chaat with this chutney on top and some chopped coriander greens and a few crushed potato chips..It can't get any better.

The recipe is pretty simple and the chutney keeps well in the fridge for about six months. So it is a nice recipe to have in your repertoire. I am sure you have at least one recipe of a tamarind chutney with either dates, Aam papad or even Raisins or Apples. Or Pineapples.

The fruit can be of your choice and the consistency also keeps changing according to the main meal you want to serve it with.

This one is a traditional flavor from UP and goes well with all kinds of chaat.

ingredients...

tamarind 50 gm (seedless sticky tamarind)
Or same amount of tamarind paste from a packet
dates chopped finely 50 gm
jaggery 25 gm or to taste
red chilly powder 1 tsp
dry ginger powder (sonth) 1 tsp Or fresh ginger paste 1 tbsp
garam masala 1/2 tsp (I use this special garam masala, it can be a powder of Laung, Elaichi, Daalchini otherwise, including both kinds of cardamoms all in equal amounts)
salt to taste (1/2 tsp is enough as the chutney is not too salty, adjust salt after the chutney is done)

procedure...

Soak the tamarind in 100 ml water and boil or MW for 2 minutes. Let it cool and mash the pulp and strain the gel like pulp. Discard the solids. You may like to add 50 ml water again to the solids and repeat the process to extract some more thinner tamarind pulp from it. Mix both the filtrates together.

Add the chopped dates and all the other ingredients and boil or microwave the mixture together till it becomes a jelly like consistency. You might like it thinner so stop cooking when your kind of consistency is reached. Thicker chutney lasts longer.

Use as required and refrigerate in an airtight container.

Tamatar ki meethi chutney being an all time favorite, this one comes a close second. It is dangerously addictive as you would want to keep dipping the spoon and licking it.

tamatar ki mithi chutney | condiments for banaras ka khana

There are a few foods you relate to your childhood. While growing up Tamatar ki mithi chutney was a winter delicacy as the tomatoes available in the winters were the juiciest kind packed with sweet and tart flavors. The desi (heirloom) tomatoes are the kind that are easily squished into your palms when pressed, not like the hard shell plastic like tomatoes (Roma and the likes) bred for longer shelf life available in the supermarkets these days.

Tamatar ki mithi chutney was made in bulk and was stored either in a ceramic barni or a specific bowl called as pathri in my family. Pathri is actually a bowl made of yellow sandstone of Jaisalmer, the below picture features tamatar ki mithi chutney in the same pathri I got from Jaisalmer last year.

These pathris were generally used for setting cultured yogurt or storing chutneys and condiments, each family used to have several sizes of these pathris and these were always bought from Banjara women who used to come home for selling their wares brought from Rajasthan.

This tamatar ki chutney is the UP specialty, its counterpart in Bengal is a much thick jam like version with either dates or aam papad added to it. There is another tamatar ki chutney which is made for large family gatherings at my home which includes dried dates, makhanas and some nuts and melon seeds etc, but this one is a simple saucy chutney mostly served with paratha meals in winters.

Some people love this chutney with everyday dal chawal meals, some with khichdi and some use it to replace tomato ketchup too. But this tamatar ki mithi chutney is an essential condiment for an elaborate meal served thali style or even buffet style.

ingredients...
tomatoes 1 kg
whole dry red chilies 4-6as per taste
mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
fennel seeds 1 tsp
fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp
nigella seeds 1/4 tsp
finely chopped ginger 1 tbsp or more
jaggery 300 gm
salt  1/42 tsp
mustard oil 2 tsp

procedure...

Chop the tomatoes roughly in small chunks, no need to fine chop. Break the whole dry red chilies in two three pieces and keep aside.

Heat the oil and throw in all the seeds and the broken red chilies, wait till they get aromatic and turn brownish (take care not to burn them) add the chopped ginger, wait till they sweat and add the chopped tomatoes at once.

Add water (about 500-600 ml) and salt and cook covered for 8-10 minutes. The tomatoes should get mushy.

Add the crushed jaggery and cook to make a syrupy saucy chutney, the color will darken a bit making the chutney a bright red saucy deliciousness. 

Dip your fingers in it and lick it, slurp it or dunk your parathas into it. Yummy is the word. The natural glutamates in tomatoes make this chutney so delicious it is a keeper.

Spread it on your bread to make sandwich or have it as a dessert for a change, tell me if you like it.

The chutney has amazing flavors. The heat of red chilies mingles very sharply with the deep earthy sweetness of jaggery while fennel, fenugreek and ginger are the main spicy flavors, the other things are kept subtle in my version. Accentuated fenugreek is great too if you like the methi flavor, add more fenugreek seeds if you wish.

Salt in this chutney is there just to balance the sweetness, this tamatar ki mithi chutney is a mouth watering delicacy and if you love tomatoes and chutneys and have a sweet tooth too  this is for you.

Most people I know from Banaras love it with alu parathas along with plain dahi or white butter. Do try that combination sometimes.