Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Mixed vegetable pickle

I have been looking at my cupboards longingly at the now empty jars of spicy pickles that mom packed for me when I returned from my vacation in India. Rice is a part of my daily diet, most often. Without Indian homemade pickles, eating rice is really boring, even if dal, curries etc. are present. When Indira made her lemon pickles, I was so happy that I found a connoisseur of Indian pickles. After my first semi-disastrous attempt at making mango pickle, here is my second trial of making a crunchy, mixed vegetable pickle. I have started to love veggie pickle after our visits to the Hindu temple in Pittsburgh, where along with all the delicious food this pickle is also served.

2-3 carrots, sliced into small cubes
1/2 cauliflower, separated into small florets
15 green beans, chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 inch ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
5 green chilies, sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. red chilli powder
1/2 tsp. fenugreek powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp.turmeric powder
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1/4 tsp. asafoetida (if available)
1 tbsp. canola oil

Method:
Combine all the vegetables in a bowl. Add salt, red chilli powder, lemon juice, fenugreek powder, turmeric and mix well. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, when it pops add the asafoetida. Add this to the vegetable mix. For the next two days stir and shake well once a day. Store in refrigerator.

For longer preservation, top the pickle in the jar with more oil so that pickle does not come into contact with air when jar is opened.

The result for now has been ho-hum. It is more like a crunchy, marinated salad that has been spiced up way too much. But since this pickle like ceviche, needs time for flavors to mingle and vegetables to soften, I will wait for a couple of days before I adjudge this as a failed attempt.

5 comments:

  1. hi, mika, sorry, i'm leaving this comment here, tried to find your e-mail but couldn't.

    was looking for something to use my guava paste and found your site -- great pics!

    will be in pittsburgh this saturday, and looking for a good asian family restaurant. any suggestions? we will be visiting the zoo and the market on penn so somewhere within 15 minutes of those places would be nice. thanks so much!

    my e-mail is dragons6 [at] stormloader [dot] com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pickles need patience, that's what my ammamma used to say. I think it will turn out good, wait for few days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice recipes. Can here from Ammani's blog
    I too have a few in my blog
    http://afrecipes.blogspot.com
    http://af25.blogspot.com

    Do visit

    ReplyDelete
  4. Welcome stefoodie and AF- nice to see you all here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mika,
    I really want to try making this...so tell me, what was your verdict...did it turn out well in the end? Would you make it again? Thanks

    ReplyDelete