Kitchen and Home Making

Gooseberry is a fruit which has high source of Vitamin C. It has lot of health benefits and so why it is used in our Indian Ayurvedic medicines since many years. Such a healthy fruit is available only in particular season. So, I use to prepare it as pickle, in large quantity and refrigerate it for a period of 6 to 8 months. Pickles, usually calls for lot of oil and salt in its recipe and that’s why most of the people dare to take it. But, the recipe herein, doesn’t contains even a drop of oil and less amount of salt too! So, we can take it without any fear. During our childhood days, we use to eat gooseberry, though it is sour in taste, in large quantity, with salt and chilly powder mixed in one hand, and use to dip gooseberry in that spice powder and eat it. It tastes really divine! once we finish off eating it, immediately we drink a glass of water and it gives a sweet taste, while drinking. Those are really memorable sweet days…

Summer has already started to take its step slowly towards South India, particularly here in Chennai. The weather is hot now itself and hey….  its time for…. “PICKLES”. Yeah, summer is the right time to prepare pickles and store it throughout the year. Pickles…. makes my mouth water now itself. Generally, we use to prepare different type of pickles in different methods, how their mom’s and grand mom's were used to do. For the past one week, am seeing lot of lemons heaped in vegetable stores, which is also for nominal rates. The Fresh Yellow color was so inviting and I set my mind to buy it a lot. But, what can I do with such a large number? Yes, I prepared my mindset to prepare Lemon Pickle, after a lot of mood swings, since my SH, won’t even touch it, because of doctor’s advice.  But for me, I always have a special craze for pickles, not just lemon alone but for mango and gooseberries too.

Ingredients: Raw Mangoes – 2 ½ kg Red Chilli Powder – 150 gms or increase as per your taste Fenugreek Seeds – 25 gms Mustard Seeds – 200 gms Gingelly Oil – 500 ml Salt (measurement given for powder salt and not for rock / sea salt) – 150 gms Pickle Preparation: First wash the mangoes well and pat it dry with a cloth. Remove the seed alone from the mango and do not remove the thick shell behind the seed of the mango Now cut all the mangoes into 1 inch pieces and spread it in a cloth so that all the moisture content will be absorbed by the cloth. Dry roast the fenugrreek slightly till it smells well and let it cool well. Grind the mustard seeds to a fine powder and let it cool well in a plate. Grind the fenugreek seeds to a fine powder and let it cool well in a plate. Now mix mustard powder, fenugreek powder, red chilli powder and salt well and thoroughly with the help of a ladle. Do not use your hands while preparing pickle. Use a clean and dry ladle for the whole process so that pickle...