Naranga Curry / Achaar - Lemon Pickle - Kerala Style

Kerala Lemon pickle

A few months back, I posted Mango pickle. Click here to read the recipe of Mango pickle.
This time I am posting lemon pickle. But the full credit for this recipe goes to my mother-in-law. Its she who has prepared this. It is entirely different from my mothers version of Lemon pickle. This one also very different and really tasty.

As we know lemons are highly rich in Vitamin C that has huge health benefits such as improving immunity, reducing body fat etc. It improves skin improves beauty.
One of the major health benefits of drinking lemon water is that it paves way for losing weight faster. Lemon juice is also very good for cleansing out the toxins in our body.

Ingredients 

1. Lemon - 15 nos
2. Mustard seeds - 4-5 tbsn
3. FenuGreek- 4-5 tbsn
4. Green chillies - 15 nos
5. Red chilly powder - 7-8 tbsn (Kashmiri chilly powder is preferred due to colour and texture that it imparts to the pickle). If you are using the normal chilly powder, you can use around 3-4 tbspns
6. Asafoedita - 2 tblspn
7. Salt to taste - Around 7-8 tbspns would be required

Salt is an excellent preservative and hence no additional preservative such as vinegar etc. is required to be added. Mustard is used in the pickle for decreasing the sourness and for increasing the thickness.

Process

First, wash and clean the lemons. 
Chop each lemon into 2 halves and then cut it into small pieces. 
Add salt, mix thoroughly and then add the chopped chillies into it and mix it thoroughly.
Keep this aside for one day .

Fry the fenugreek  seeds till it becomes dark brown colour and then grind it in a mixie to make it into a powder. 

Next take the mustard seeds and grind them to make a powder. 

Keep both these powders aside.

Prepare 2 glasses of boiled and cooled water and keep it aside.

Next add the fenugreek powder, mustard powder, Asafeodita powder, Red chilly powder into the chopped lemon-green chilly mix. 


Pour the boiled-cooled water little by little into the mix and keep mixing it thoroughly to bring in consistency. Keep it aside for 2-3 days.
Much of the water would have got absorbed into pickle. If required, add a little more of the boiled and cooled down water. Add salt if required. Keep in a tight ceramic or glass container for 2-3 days. 

In 2-3 days, lemon pickle would be ready to be consumed. 
Since this is a pickle, it must not be excessively eaten - 1-2 tbspns is the max that we must consume at a time since it contains lot of salt. 

#lemonpickle, #onam, #onasadhya, #keralasadhyarecipes

Inji Curry / Puli Inji / Inji Puli (Ginger finely chopped and fried prepared in Tamarind pulp and Jaggery gravy)

The feast specialist - Inji Curry or Puli Inji.

Today I am posting one of the most important dishes for any festival or feast in Kerala - Inji curry, also called Puli inji, Inji puli etc. 

This is a very tasty dish which contains 3 of the 6 tastes that we eat - spicy (ginger), sweet (jaggery) and Sour (tamarind). This helps in easy digestion and absorption of the quantity of food that we eat during festivals, feasts etc. 

Wanted to post this before the upcoming Vishu festival so that all my friends who dont know to prepare this extremely tasty dish (or pickle??) can take a look and try it out.
I used to see my mother prepare this on the previous day of Vishu or Onam.  

I tried this out and it came out well, I hope so... :)

Ingredients for Inji Curry / Puli Inji:

Ginger – 100 gms
Coconut oil – 2-3 tablespoons
Green chillies – 4-5 nos.
Jaggery – 5-6 tablespoons 
Tamarind – one lemon size

Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 6-8 nos

Red chillies - 3 nos
Salt – around 1 tablespoon

Process for Inji Curry / Puli Inji

Soak tamarind in a warm water and keep it aside. Soaking in warm water makes it easy to completely extract the pulp in a lesser time. 

Peal the ginger, wash and chop it into fine pieces. Chop the green chillies also keep both aside. 

Jaggery sliced

Take a frying pan and pour 2-3 tablespoons of oil (coconut oil is prefered).  Heat the oil and put the mustards into it and let it splutter. 


Once the mustard completely splutters, break the red chillies into 2 and add them. Then add the curry leaves.

Next add the finely chopped ginger and green chillies into the pan. Pl. see the first pic in the steps given beside. 

Continue to saute till it completely gets fried and becomes brown. The indication that its ready is that it gives a dry leaves sound when you stir it in the pan. Pic no. 2 given aside.

Once this stage reached pour the tamarind pulp and add salt to taste (around 1 tablespoon will suffice). 

Allow it to boil for few minutes. After that add the jaggery powder and let it boil until oil separates.

Inji curry is ready… Store in a glass bottle. This will stay good even if it is not kept in the refrigerator.


















#ginger, #gingerrecipes, #puliinji, #injipuli, #injicurry, #tamarind,  #keralarecipes, #indianrecipes, #vegetarian

Manga Achaar - Kerala Style Mango Pickle - Manga Oorugaai

Hi friends... this is my first post on pickles... I just tried the mango  pickle in the kerala style and this is the result... There are various methods of preparing the mango pickle such as chopping the mangoes and adding salt and keeping it for a long time in a ceramic jar (bharani) for year long consumption...

What I have tried is a simple and easy to make version of the pickle which we can start consuming within a few days.

Pickles are considered very good when eaten along with main food since they aid digestion, help in adding probiotic bacteria into our gut etc. 

However, we must be careful to eat less of pickle - usually a max. of one table spoon a day since pickles contain lot of salt and hence sodium, which increases blood pressure.

So enjoy the mango pickle along with a main course consisting of rice and other vegetable curries... 

 Ingredients:

Raw mango - 8 to 10 nos, sour variety

Kashmiri chilly powder - 5 to 6 teaspoons (if Kashmiri chilly powder is not available, the 2-3 teaspoons of chilly powder). Kashmiri chilly powder is preferred due to the color and texture that it imparts to the pickle.

Asafoetida Powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Fenugreek Powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Gingelly (sesame) oil - 4 teaspoons

Salt - 2 tablespoons (add more if required depending upon the extent to which the mangoes are sour)

Process:

Cut the mango into small cubical pieces. Add 1 tablespoon of salt into the chopped mangoes, mix well and set aside for 5-6 hours.

Take a frying pan and add 4 teaspoons of gingelly oil and allow it to get heated. Once hot, add the kashmiri chilly powder,  asafoetida powder, fenugreek powder and 1 table spoon of salt. 

Mix thoroughly and stir fry in low flame for a couple of minutes untill it becomes very consistent and fairly thick paste. 

Remove from the heat and allow it to cool. Once it gets cooled, then add  the chopped mangoes and mix well. 


Take care to add the chopped mangoes only after the oil-spices mixture cools down

Taste and add salt if needed.Transfer it in a ceramic jar or a glass bottle. 

Start consuming after a few days so that the spices and salt get absorbed by the chopped mangoes and the mango pieces start dissolving into the mix and get softer

#pickles, #mangopickle, #mangaachar, #keralarecipes, #indianrecipes, #vegetarian