Oh, another childhood favorite - Nellikka or Amla or Indian Gooseberry. We used to have fresh gooseberries with all its bitterness, just to enjoy the sweet reward at the end; a drink of water after a bite of gooseberry, and voilà, the water tastes sweet! This was something magical for us kids. Coming to think of it, I still don’t know the reason behind this phenomenon! Yes, it is still magical.

I picked up some frozen gooseberries from a local Indian store a few weeks ago and as with most of my purchases, duly forgot about it. That’s when I came across this post at Delectable Victuals, one of my favorite blogs with wonderful pictures and excellent writing by one of my favorite bloggers, Sheela. Well, my gooseberries didn’t look anything like Sheela’s picture, these were frozen and kind of yellowish in color. My mom assured me that not all gooseberries are green, and these are perfectly good, so I proceeded to make a Nellikka Pickle, loosely based on Sheela’s recipe with a lot of input from my mom.

Ingredients

Method

In a pan, heat oil and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to splutter, add the fenugreek seeds and fry till brown.

Add curry leaves, ginger and garlic pieces and fry till the pieces are crispy.

Reduce the heat and add the spice powders and fry till brown.

Add the gooseberries, salt and sugar and saute till the gooseberries are soft.

Add the vinegar and hot water and cook a bit.

When cool, transfer to an airtight container and leave it for about seven days before transferring to the refrigerator.

My first attempt at making pickles. Only problem with making pickles is having to wait for a while before reaping the rewards - I am all about instant gratification. But this looks like it is worth the effort. 

This goes to beautiful, gorgeous, funny, magnanimous Coffee for her Monthly Blog Patrol - Preserve It event. I hope all those adjectives will make her forget that my entry is one day late. 


Comments

26 Responses to “Nellikka (Indian Gooseberry) Pickle”

  1. Cinnamon on July 21st, 2007 8:53 pm

    yummm…. i love the color of the pickle… its so inviting… looks very yummmyyyy!!

  2. Sia on July 21st, 2007 9:47 pm

    ……………………………..
    i am falling short of words sig darling. just cant take my off the screen… that pickle is to die for….

  3. Asha on July 21st, 2007 9:52 pm

    This is the second Gooseberry pickle I am drooling at today,Roopa has the same!:)
    Looks mouthwatering Sig.So far I have never seen Nellikai here,must try.Beautiful!:))

  4. Pravs on July 21st, 2007 10:20 pm

    hey sig, for all the doubts you had about the nellikka…. pickle tooks fab. Mom’s know better :D

  5. Nupur on July 21st, 2007 10:56 pm

    That is truly one gorgeous picture! All the beauty of Indian pickles…

  6. musical on July 21st, 2007 11:47 pm

    Hey Sig, you get gooseberries in Seattle! Lucky you!! Seattle is not too far from LA, and its always good to share some pickles ;). he he, which brand gooseberries did you by (since you said they were frozen)-may be i can ask the Indian store here to get some.

    and this one picture of pickle is BLISS!

  7. Lata on July 22nd, 2007 2:50 am

    Hey Sig, I love this pickle like anything and many times tried to buy a packet of Frozen ones but always was apprehensive, next time I will definitely buy this and try it out.

  8. Raji on July 22nd, 2007 3:41 am

    I am singing…

    Yummy..Yummy..Yummy .Yummy ..Nellikka Pickle….
    Nellikka pickle.. yummy.. yummy

  9. Anita on July 22nd, 2007 5:13 am

    I made mine months ago but yours looks so much better (read hotter)! I just winged it with a combination of spices usually used in Punjabi pickles. This is bookmarked for next year!

  10. Roopa on July 22nd, 2007 5:35 am

    wow sig your the color of your pickle is mouth watering! mine the color turned out very dark :)!Nice entry !

  11. Jyothsna on July 22nd, 2007 6:59 am

    Yummmmmmmmmm!! Now I’m missing all those things I didn’t care for as a child! Pickle looks great :)

  12. Coffee on July 22nd, 2007 7:56 am

    AHHH!!! I can pick it up right now from that pic sig!! Fabuous pic and its bookmarked to try! :)

  13. sra on July 22nd, 2007 10:08 am

    Lovely photo, Sig! We Telugus make a mean gooseberry pickle too, but very differently!

  14. Richa on July 22nd, 2007 1:03 pm

    omg! ur post did remind me of that magical power of amla ;) what fun it used to be :) ur pickle looks absolutely gorgeous, mouth watering! who knew frozen amla could work so well!

  15. Mandira on July 22nd, 2007 2:41 pm

    the pickle looks fabulous, I have to look for gooseberries!

  16. Suganya on July 22nd, 2007 9:48 pm

    Sig, you have *tempted* be very bad. I HAVE to try this. Its been eons since I had gooseberry!

  17. Sharmi on July 22nd, 2007 11:48 pm

    that pickle looks mouthwatering Sig! Gooseberry was my childhood favorite too. that picture makes my cheek hurt:)

  18. bee on July 23rd, 2007 4:50 am

    my favourite pickle. looks just wow.

  19. Sandeepa on July 23rd, 2007 5:32 pm

    That pickle looks totally mouthwatering…whoa to die for.
    Also i absolutely loved your karela-shrimp dish. Everyone at home laughs at me because I tend to add shrimp to everything. Now that there REALLY is a recipe like that I am going to shut them up by making this with a picture of your dish framed on my kitchen wall

  20. Sig on July 24th, 2007 2:35 am

    Cinnamon, Sup, Asha Thank you :)

    Pravs, good to see you…. yep, the nellikkas looked realy questionable… but turned out great :)

    Nupur thanks :)

    Musie :) yep, seattle is not too far from LA, so make a trip sometime… I am sure you will get this in LA too in some Indian store… I forgot the name of the brand, will note it down next time I buy it.

    Lata, obviously not as good as fresh ones, but not too bad in pickle…

    Raji… lol someone loves her pickles…

    Anita… it does look hot doesn’t it… the color is from the red kashmiri chilli I used, its not all that spicy :)

    Roopa, just chked out your entries, and wow look delicious girl!

    Jyo, yep I didn;t care for pickled nellikka much either back then… i was more into raw nellikka, but I sure love the pickle now.

    Coffee, does that mean you accept this entry for MBP? :D

    Sra, yummm telugu pickle, must be hot…. u must post sometime…

    Richa, thanks girl. frozen ones worked surprizingly good enough… :)

    Mandira thanks… Never seen fresh gooseberries anywhere here, so good luck finding some…:)

    Suganya, Sharmi, Bee thanks :)

    Sandeepa lol… thats my mom too… she adds shrimp to everything, she even sneaks some dried ones into sambar, can you believe that? :D

  21. Sukanya Ramkumar on July 24th, 2007 3:26 am

    U make pickle……Great….Mouth watering recipe….Never tried making nellikka pickle at home… Wating to try it out….YUM!

  22. Archana, mama of twins on July 24th, 2007 6:43 am

    beautiful color on that pickle. I love nellikai, used to eat so much of it raw with salt and chillis.. I am afraid of frozen stuff but maybe ok for pickling!

  23. Sheela on July 24th, 2007 7:06 pm

    wow, Sig, can I expect a jar in the mail for me?
    “expect all you want, you are not getting any”, huh? thought so…

    mouth watering - i packed some yogurt-rice for lunch today and wish i could reach into my montitor and grab some to go with my lunch now:-)

  24. Mishmash ! on July 24th, 2007 7:07 pm

    Who ate my comment ? you or blogger? :(
    Just wanted to say “WOW, what a great shot! “

    Shn

  25. Padma on July 24th, 2007 7:42 pm

    that looks awesome, I like amla achaar..the pics are cool sig!

  26. Shantanu on July 26th, 2007 4:48 am

    I am a sucker for pickles, especially the really hot ones! This one looks absolutely delicious.

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