Winter Vegetables Achar - Gajar Gobi ka Achar

In pursuit of my hobby to cook, this year I made my first pickle - a typical Bengali mango pickle during the summers. A glimpse of the results.


As a follow up to hone the skills further, had planned to make the North Indian vegetable pickle which is typically made during the winters. While I am not very fond of pickles, this is one pickle which I had been having since childhood and remains one of my most liked ones. I had the first taste of this pickle made by one of my maternal aunts staying in Delhi. My earlier attempt at making this pickle two winters back ended in a fiasco. Hence, this time I exercised extra caution. The fact that we have a nice open to the sky balcony helped further by ensuring good amount of sunlight for the 'solar cooking'.

The recipe I followed is as follows:

Ingredients:

1. Vegetables: Cauliflower, Radish and Carrot - 1 kg totally - about 300gm each of the radish and carrot - 500gms for the cauliflower because the stems will come off. I also added fresh green peas and some green chillies as well.
2. Spices: About 1 tbsp Red chilli powder; turmeric; 1 tbsp each of fenugreek, cumin seeds and mustard seeds
3. Salt - 30gms (about 2 tbsp)
4. 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
5. Mustard Oil - 2 ladlefuls (about 200ml)
6. Vinegar - 3 tbsp

Making the Pickle:

1. Wash the vegetables thoroughly. Cut the stalks off the cauliflowers. Lightly peel the radish and carrots after chopping off the tops and tails.
2. Cut the carrots into 2" long batons, separate the cauliflower into medium sized florets and cut the radish into slices roughly the size of the carrots. Cut the green chillies into two.
3. In a large vessel, bring to boil a litre of water and then blanch the cut vegetables (including the peas and green chillies) for 3 minutes.
4. Drain and then spread on a clean cloth and dry in the sun completely. You can put them in the sun for two consecutive days.
5. Dry roast the cumin, fenugreek, and mustard seeds. Coarse grind them. You can use a heavy pestle to do this.
6. Combine the above crushed mix along with the other spices and keep it aside.
7. Heat the mustard oil in a heavy bottom pan till smoking point. Add the ginger garlic paste allow it to fry for few seconds and add the spice mix. After frying for about 30-40 secs, add the vegetables into the pan. Stir and mix it well and allow it to cook for few minutes. Turn off the flame and allow to cool. Once completely cool, add the vinegar. Pour the entire mix into the jar.
7. Cover with muslin cloth and keep in the sun for atleast 3-4 days. Shake and mix well.
Enjoy!!

Location: Talegaon Dabhade Talegaon Dabhade

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dum Aloo (Bengali Style)

Image
1. Take baby potatoes. If you do not get baby potatoes, use medium / small potatoes. In case you are using the later, slit them partially, else for baby potatoes take the whole ones (with skin), and pressure cook them in salt water. It should not be boiled to perfection and keep it a little hard. Peel off the skin and take them in a bowl. Add a little turmeric powder and salt and mix. 2. Take onions and thinly slice them and keep aside. 3. Take one large tomato and chop them and keep aside. 4. Take a inch of ginger and 5-6 cloves of garlic and crush them with a pestle. 5. Chop fresh coriander leaves and keep aside for garnishing. 6. Take a fistful of green peas and blanch them (boil water and salt and once boiling, remove from fire and add the peas) 7. In a bowl, take the following spices - red chilli powder, garam masala powder (little cinnamon, cardamom, clove, nutmeg, mace: roasted and ground), turmeric powder, a little sugar, salt. Take 2 tbsp curd (plain yogurt) and mix all the in...
Read more

Golbari'r Kosha Mangsho

Image
For quite sometime we have been coming across various patrons and "well wishers" of a Calcutta mutton joint named Golbari. And the dish in specific mention was Golbari'r Kosha Mangsho. Golbari is actually the round building located at the 5 road crossing at Shyambazar in Kolkata. I am told that the original owners have now transferred the ownership and the place is now known as New Punjab Hotel. Kosha Mangsho loosely translated means a dry mutton dish with excess efforts on maturing part on the pan while cooking. At home we have been contemplating having this dish for quite sometime now. With the potential risks of LDL, Uric Acid, expanding girth, etc it's a challenge to have red meat at home, as a common fare. Hence the entry of red meat needs adequate pampering 😋. This time we thought we will try the preparation of the famed Golbari'r Kosha Mangsho. Mr Google helped us extensively and we landed up on the page of Anwesha,  http://peanutsontheroad.com . And thank...
Read more

Food Stories from Burma

Image
During my childhood, I was often told anecdotes about how some of our relatives had migrated from Burma (Rangoon in particular), to Calcutta under difficult circumstances. Closest in that circle was one of my maternal Aunts' husband (mesho) who had migrated with his entire family to Calcutta and started afresh in a small apartment near Calcutta's Gariahat. An excellent gourmet and extremely knowledgeable about food pairing, he was also an extremely interesting story teller. He was the first person who made me aware of Burma. During my school days, came across stories (from teachers) based on characters shuttling between between Rangoon and Calcutta. One of the most significant was that of " Pather Daabi " by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. And while learning, I came to learn the word " ambidextrous " which was an unique ability of the protagonist, Sabyasachi.  Few months back when an opportunity came up to visit this wonderful country, Burma, (now Myanmar...
Read more