How many of us like achaars? Achaar or pickle is one such recipe that goes well with both starters and main course. Achaar or pickle is a way to preserve seasonal fruits or veggies to consume in off seasons too. Today, I bring to you some Must Try! achaars and good enough to be in your next achaar making to-do list.
Let’s see one by one in clockwise rotation-
- Outenga(in assamese)/ Elephant Apple Fruit/Dillenia indica(scientific name)–
Description:It is a tropical fruit of South east Asia and has many medicinal properties. It grows as a shrub and its place of origin in India is north east India and also very popular in Bengal and Orissa. Its most loved fruit by the wild elephants and that’s how it got its name
Health Benefit Properties: Cures stomach related problems, keeps the stomach cool, improve RBC count, protects kidney, slows down aging, lowers blood pressure, fights infection, good for eyes and the list goes on.
Taste: Sour
Preparation Process: Clean the outenga and cut them into desired sizes and add salt and turmeric. Now allow them to sun dry for a day. Once done in a pan dry roast some Jira seeds, Dhania seeds, Meithi seeds, Sauf, small amount of mustard seeds(preferably yellow seeds), chilies allow them to cool and then grind them together into course mixture. Now in a pan take mustard oil and heat it, allow the oil to cool down to Luke warm and add the outenga pieces along with the mixture and keep it in a dry bottle. Occasionally keep the bottle in sun for better preservation. Enjoy and get benefited in off-seasons too.
2. Amla/Amlokhi/Gooseberry/Phyllanthus emblica(scientific name)–
Description: This fruit does not need any description. It is one of the super foods.
Health benefits: good source of vitamin C and the list of benefits is countless. It was used as ayurvedic medicines and is very common in Indian households.
Taste: Sour
Preparation Process: Clean the amlas and boil them. Once cooled, remove the seeds and cut them into desired sizes. Apply turmeric and salt and sun dry them. In a pan take sufficient mustard seeds and meithi and dry roast them. Allow it to cool. Grind the masala into course mixture. Again in a pan take mustard oil, heat the oil and allow it to cool. Once cooled to luke warm add the amla/amlokhi along with the mixture. Store in a dry glass bottle for better preservation. Sun dry occasionally.
3 Bogori/ Jujube/ Zizyphys jujuba(scientific name)-
Description: Bogori is a winter fruit and people enjoy it eating both raw and ripe both having sour and sweet taste respectively. It is believed to have originated in Indo-Malaysian region and widely spread across the globe.
Health benefits: Moisturizing agent, it controls sebum production, helps promote collagen synthesis and the list goes on.
Taste: Sour and Sweet
Preparation Process: The preparation process is exactly same as the previous one for savory one but to make a sweet achaar salt should be substituted with jaggery. Sweet achaar pickling duration is shorter and should be consumed soon. Picture shown is a savory one.
4. Guta nemu/ round lemon:
Description: This fruit does not need any description. It is one of the super foods. It is a must have ingredient in all food across globe
Health benefits: good source of vitamin C and the list of benefits is countless.
Taste: Sour
Preparation Process: Clean round lemons preserved in sufficient amount of salt. The salt allows the pickle for preservation and its benefit increases with the age of its preservation. This pickle itself is a medicine to so many problems and it is must-have food item if you have never known it before. It gives quick relief to stomach disorders and serves as first aid for stomach related problems.
If you like these Achaar/ Pickle recipes do let me know by commenting and I will come up with some other achaar recipes in later posts.
–Contributed by
Dipali Das
I am a person who enjoys life to fullest
and always take life as a challenging yet
wonderful experience. I have around 30
years of cooking experience and this is a
nice platform to introduce myself as a
home cook.
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