Thinking of Nellika/ Gooseberry itself makes me nostalgia. When I was kid, I used to like it a lot. First when you bite it will be bitter but after that when you drink some water it will be sweet taste that lingers for some time. For that the feeling of changing taste, I used to eat them lot. Amma will buy nellika/gooseberries and put them in salted water. In 4 or 5 days, gooseberries absorb the salt and tastes very nice. Some time she makes pickles with them.
Gooseberries are rich in vitamin C and they have immense health benefits from eye care to cure for diabetics and even anti-aging properties read from here and here.
When I was young, I used eat pickles in unique way. When grandma or amma serves pickles to appa or uncles, I will ask her to put in my plate too. I knew it was hot and won’t able to eat them as such. So when I finish my lunch or dinner, I will take my pickles in hand and wash them with water. Hence my biggest problem was solved by this method, heat is gone and only salt and a little bit of heat absorbed in nellika or mango will remain. I love them. One day my uncle finds out what I was doing and asked me to stop eating pickle by this method. However, my grandma told me do whatever I like. So this process continued until I was able to handle heat in my pickle.
After my marriage I found out that my hubby is a real fan of Bedeker mango pickle. However I don’t like it that much because of too much salt and fenugreek and so on. Thus I have started to make pickles, whenever I get green mangoes. Once I tried lemon pickle and failed big time. So I won’t touch that one anymore. For this vishu I made some green mango pickle, my hubby and friends who visited us liked it very much, as they came out tasty. When I went to Indian store, I found a packet of frozen Gooseberries, so happily I picked that immediately thinking of making some pickle or chammanthi with them. I love fresh ones very much, however, if you only get frozen use it also? I got this recipe from this blog. It is in Malayalam. I changed little bit by adding some turmeric powder, roasted fenugreek powder and some hot chili powder and skipped curry leaves, as my curry leaf plant is only started to come back after a big frost, since I don’t want to pluck from my little plant. Here goes the recipe.
What you need
Nellika/Gooseberries: 20 no
Chili powder: 2 and ¾ tablespoon of Kashmiri chili powder/Paprika + ¼ tablespoon hot chili powder
Salt: ½ tablespoon + 3 teaspoon
Turmeric: ⅛ teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds: ½ teaspoon
Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
Asafetodia: ¼ teaspoon
Red chilies: 3 no (Halved)
Gingerly oil/Sesame oil (Indian variety): 2 ½ tablespoon
Vinegar: 1 tablespoon
Water: 2 cup
How I made
Boil 2 cup of water and add gooseberries and cook them for 10 minutes. Switch off the flame and keep aside, don’t throw the water in which gooseberries are cooked. You need them for making pickle. Remove the seeds from the cooked gooseberries, cut into halves. Keep aside.
In a frying pan dry roast ¼ teaspoon of fenugreek seeds till brown it takes about 3 minutes. Once cooled grind them into fine powder and keep aside.
In the same pan add oil, mustard seeds, halved chilies and rest of fenugreek seeds and fry them. When mustard seeds starts spluttering switch off the flame and add turmeric powder, and chili powder( Paparika + hot variety) and fry them until raw smell removed for a 2 minutes to this add cooked goose berries and salt .Mix until everything combined and add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and let it boil it takes about 1 minutes. Then add 1 and ½ cup of gooseberry cooked water and mix and switch off the flame.
Transfer to bottle and keep aside for one or two day at room temperature so that gooseberries absorb salt and chili powder. If you want long shelf life store them in refrigerator.
Enjoy with any meal.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serving: 1 2 serving
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: I will
Swathi
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Yasmeen says
Pickle must be so tangy and yum 😀
RAKS KITCHEN says
Wow,I love this nellikai very very much,but never know to make any pickle this form!
Sook says
Oh I have never tried these before. I am intrigued by this post. Looks very good!
Ann says
Wow.. tasty! and mouth watering.
Gulmohar says
Lovely pickle..I haven't seen or had this in ages..
SpicyTasty says
My all time fav pickle. Love it. It looks so yummy swathi. Thanks for sharing dear.
Panchpakwan says
Wow such a mouth watering pickles..
Loved the color 🙂
Kiran says
Swathi,
Gooseberry pickle looks delicious and mouth-watering.It is a favorite pickle to me.Nice pic.Love to have it with hot rice or yogurt rice.
Kalai says
Swathi, the pickle looks very tempting and delicious. A good combo for plain curd rice.
Madhura Manoj says
Hmm tempting pickle...
Preeti Kashyap says
yummm...lovely with curd rice!
kamala says
Pickle looks yum and mouth watering.
SathyaSridhar says
Woow,,nellika oorugai super paa,,i like gooseberries with chilli powder n salt,,hmmmm taste good after eating it if we drink water it taste sweet...i like ur pickle dear..even me too do the same like you dear now wash the pickle in water and have it like a snack,,i got kadu maanga pickle with me i like that very much..
Life is beautiful!!! says
I am drroling on ur pickle now...a simple suggestion - try adding lime juice instead of vinegar....might be the taste will be much better.
simply.food says
Yummy mouth watering pickle.
M D says
Ur gooseberry pickle is making my mouth water. Its one of my favorites and I would hog like it was some subzi!
Vinolia says
ohhhh Nellikka oorka looks lip-smacking Swathi!!
it makes me nostalgic too!!! we used to buy these gooseberries secretly outside school and eat them!!
I love the small ones which are sour and these too!!
I don't get these here or I have to search for them in Indian shops...your pickle looks delicious;
what a fan of pickles you were when you were a kid... you liked so much that your preferred to wash & eat , haahaha, cute technique anyway 🙂
Priya says
Slurppp!!feel like having some tangy and spicy gooseberry pickle, tempts me a lot..
Aruna Manikandan says
Pickle looks spicy dear!!!!!!
Nice clicks 🙂
Hari Chandana says
looks spicy and tangy.. wonderful job dear. thanks for sharing!!
Sushma Mallya says
Tangy & yum...lovely click swathi,looks too tempting
shahana says
Swathi,Enganai kottipikkalai.Vaayil vellamvarunnu!
Ms.Chitchat says
Very tangy pickle,loved it.I too love nellikkai and mostly the smaller variety arinellikai :):)
SpicyTasty says
Wow!! I love it. definitely mouth watering...
Jay says
Superb dear...mouthwatery n delicious spicy pickle!
Swapna Sree says
woow!!!my fav gooseberry pickle.....loved the color,,like to have it with hot rice...
VineelaSiva says
Hai swathi u have a lovely recipes.The pickle looks fantastic.Do visit my blog when u r free
http://www.vineelasiva.blogspot.com/.