I bought a quite few amlas (usiri kayalu, Indian Gooseberry) at Toronto and I couldn’t resist making a small batch of pickle with them, following a recipe from Malathi Chandur’s cookbook – “Vantalu-Pindi Vantalu“. The pickle turned out to be hot, spicy good.
Recipe:
For 15 amlas
15 clean, fresh looking, blemish free amlas (usiri kayalu)
½ cup peanut oil
¼ cup of salt and red chilli powder
¼ cup of mustard seeds – roasted & finely powdered (aava pindi)
½ tsp of asafoetida (inguva)
Preparation:
First wash the amlas and dry them using clean cloth, without any sign of moisture.
Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add the amlas and sauté them till they turn light brown. Remove and let them cool down to room temperature.
Heat the remaining oil in another pan to a smoking point. Remove it from heat, let it cool down to room temperature.
Add salt, red chilli powder, mustard powder and asafoetida to the roasted amlas. Mix them all with a clean, dry spoon. Pour and stir in the heated (now at room temperature) oil. Mix them all together, again with a clean dry spoon. Cover tightly and let it stew at least for two weeks. The more you wait, the tasty the pickle becomes and the normal waiting period is one month. I couldn’t wait that long.:)
Just before serving, do the popu or tadka. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan, fry red chilies, cumin and mustard seeds until they splutter, then add garlic flakes and remove from the heat. Add it to the pickle, mix thoroughly and serve with rice and dal.
Amla Pickle (Usiri kaya Uragaya) – spicy and sour like mango pickle and quite tasty in this cold winter weather.
Recipe Source: Malathi Chandur’s Cookbook “Vantalu-Pindi Vantalu“
WOW Indira! I envy you. It has been so long since I have tasted usiri kaya. I used to hate these as a kid when we had family friends who had trees and used to give us TONS of these every season. But now as wiht everything Indian, I miss them.
You brought back some good memories.
Sam
Comment by Sam — January 17, 2006 @ 11:01 pm
They are so cute!
Comment by clare eats — January 17, 2006 @ 11:32 pm
I wish I was your neighbor Indira to share the pickle. That looks tasty!
Comment by mika — January 18, 2006 @ 12:49 am
Indira garu,
andaru cheyali cheyali anukunevanni miru chestunnaru.. chala santosham. inni vantalu try chese opika, time naku eppudu vastundo :-). Till then I will keep tasting & getting the inspiration from your recipes.
sankranthi mariyu nutana samvatsara subakankshalu ..
Sangeetha
Comment by sangeetha — January 18, 2006 @ 12:51 am
Man, those amla made my mouth water – i can just about taste the sourness now! Yum…!
Comment by Shammi — January 18, 2006 @ 4:23 am
Indira,
that looks so fantastic and delicious! Wish i could taste them…as Shammi said, it’s made my mouth water.
Kudos to your culinary and photography skills…
keep ’em coming.
Indira replies…
Thanks Swarna!
Comment by Swarna — January 18, 2006 @ 4:51 am
H,
I have tagged you for the “COMMON COLD REMEDY MEME”. Check out my blog for details….
Regards,
Rosa
Indira replies…
Hi Rosa, thanks for tagging me. Your meme sounds interesting and I do have few cold remedies related to food. I’ll definitely blog about it soon. Thanks!
Comment by Rosa — January 18, 2006 @ 8:38 am
Wow… The pickle looks absolutely spici-licious.
Comment by garammasala — January 18, 2006 @ 9:18 am
i love your site!i hope you won’t mind me tagging you for a meme. feel free to decide whether you would fill it out or not!
Indira replies…
Thank you Rokh.
and thanks for tagging me, but I’m going to pass on this meme, sounds like lot of work and frankly I don’t think, anyone would be interested to know or read my ‘7’ things list. Sorry and I hope you don’t mind! Thanks!
Comment by rokh — January 18, 2006 @ 10:12 am
Aha! I am going to buy some today. Thanks for the recipe Indira.
//Just before serving, do the popu or tadka. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan, fry red chilies, cumin and mustard seeds until they splutter, then add garlic flakes and remove from the heat. Add it to the pickle, mix thoroughly and serve with rice and dal.//
This is new to me.
Infact, have never attempted pickles before.
Questions.
1. Is is mandatory to use peanut oil? How about Canola or sesame oil.
2. Can you show us how the soaked pickle looks before doing tadka. Do you store in a glass bottle or in a pickling jar? I would love to see some photos.
As somebody said earlier, sometimes I wish that i could just dip my finger and…
slurrp… 😉
-Mathy
Comment by Mathy Kandasamy — January 18, 2006 @ 11:27 am
Hi Mathy…
1. peanut oil, mandatory… nope. You can try with sesame or mustard oil. Compare to corn and vile vegetable oil, canola is the best, may work too.
2. The soaked pickle, before popu, looked exactly like the one I showed in the picture. Blood red due to red chilli powder and amlas in brown colour, floating in oil.
I stored it in a glass jar.
3. The reason for tadka is back at home, they make large quantity of pickle for like one year worth. After waiting period is over, they remove small quantity at a time, do the popu and serve. I think popu is sort of freshening up the pickle a little bit. That’s all.
Hope this helps! 🙂
Comment by Indira — January 18, 2006 @ 11:40 am
I used to hate these pickles and I still hate them…But yours looks quite good.
Comment by Gini — January 18, 2006 @ 12:12 pm
I LOVE Indian Gooseberries – both big and small kinds… Maybe I’ll just pack my bags to Toronto soon 😉
Comment by Kay — January 18, 2006 @ 1:05 pm
Do these need to be kept in the sun while they’re pickling?
Indira replies…
I know there is one other amla pickle recipe which requires exposing them to sun, but for this particular Andhra recipe, the cook book author didn’t mention anything about it. I followed the recipe, turned out to be good.
Comment by Manish Khettry — January 18, 2006 @ 1:47 pm
wonderful recipe and pickle….i gotto try making this…thanks Indira.
Comment by Shomas — January 18, 2006 @ 1:50 pm
Indira, I just tagged to for the Seven Meme. Check out my blog for more details. Cmon, Join in the fun! It’s interesting…
Comment by Kay — January 18, 2006 @ 3:10 pm
Ofcourse, it’s optional.
Comment by Kay — January 18, 2006 @ 3:12 pm
Looks yummy. Too bad your recipe didn’t come to me when I lived in Toronto. Gooseberries are one of my favourites. As a kid, I used to eat it raw, dipped in salt. After eating it, it was norm for us kids to drink water for the sweet after-taste. Thanks for the memories Indira.
Since amla is not available here, do you know if I can substitute other veggies for amla? Maybe mango?
Comment by Pavani — January 18, 2006 @ 3:13 pm
I love your blog. I always learn new things here! Never heard of amlas but now I am intrigued. Are there other ways of cooking them?
Indira replies…
Hello MM… Thankyou.
Only two things we ususally make with this amla. One is the pickle, I blogged. The other recipe is jam or ‘murabba’ we call it, by cooking it with sugar. Amla Murabba has a sweet and sour taste, very unique taste. Pickle is avialable commercially in Indian grocery shops, try ‘Priya amla pickle’. But jam, I’ve never saw one in stores.
Comment by MM — January 19, 2006 @ 11:26 am
The amla pickle looks very yummy. Hmmmm its one of those things I miss being away from home. Amla or Nellikaya in malayalam (thot u might be interested 🙂 ) soaked in brine is my fav. Just soak in brine along with some green chillies slit vertically, keep for few days and it tastes yummy like any other “uppilittathu”
🙂
Comment by Kerala Girl — January 19, 2006 @ 5:51 pm
Indira, I am a new fan of your blog. I spent about an hour yesterday reading and looking at your beautiful pictures. The amla pickle sounds yummy. Did you use the black mustard seeds? We get the ground mustard here in the US, and I was thinking if I can use it in our pickles?
I also wanted to appreciate the ingredient-wise categorization of recipes here. Thank you for sharing such wonderful recipes.
Comment by RP — January 21, 2006 @ 11:32 am
hai indira,
Its nice to see your recipe postings on a regular basis since this jan, by the way was it any new year resolution. if it is iam glad. Great work.
Shayna
Comment by shaila — January 22, 2006 @ 1:08 pm
CHALA CHALA BAGUNDI.
Indira replies…
Meeku nachhinanduku chaala santhoshamu.
Comment by sailaja — February 12, 2006 @ 2:21 am
hii indira’
thanx a lot for such a nice receipe…easy to prepare too.I was searching a lot for good one…and now i got it…
thanx…i will surely go to ur blog.
sunita
Comment by sunita singh — July 24, 2006 @ 1:08 am
Thank you so much for such a nice website. Lovely photos. Believe it or not, you are doing great service to the people of the world. Nice way to educating people of eating healthy, vegetarian. Thank you for all your hard work in maintaining this site. It has surely enriched my life in someway. It has always been a pleasure to visit your site. Thank you once again. Keep up your good work and service.
Comment by kavitha — November 10, 2006 @ 12:42 am
Was just wondering if you’d have any specific recommendation for this preparation using frozen amlas?
Comment by Adam — November 14, 2006 @ 7:26 am
I just bought a bag od frozen amla from the Indian stores. If I thaw it and let it out to dry, is it possible to use those for this pickle recipe?
Indira replies:
Hi Deepz: I never tried pickle making with frozen ones before so I really can’t give any advice. It might turn out good but I don’t think it’s going to store well. Try a small batch, see how that works. If you try, please do let me know the result. Thanks Deepz.
Comment by Deepz — March 20, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
Hi Indira,
I have been a regular visitor to your site. It is eye candy to see such wonderful recipies and pics. Keep up the gpood work.
I did try making amla jam with Frozen Amlas and it turned out to be good. Not tried any achar/pickle with that though. My mom was more concerned on my health and suggested the jam that could be eaten for health benefits. It is much simpler and quicker than the traditional murabba you spoke about but with the same taste.
Comment by Parul — April 7, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
[…] next comes Indira’s Amala pickle which was decided last minute since i had few more amalas left. I bottled yesterday hoping for a better view today. […]
Pingback by My Chow Chow Bhath Pickles for Preserve it MBP « — July 21, 2007 @ 4:59 am
Nice recipie
I tried it ..and it was yummy!!!!
Comment by priya — June 8, 2008 @ 9:43 am
where did you buy your amla in toronto?? i have been searching for amla for almost 2 years.
Comment by anita — June 13, 2008 @ 10:11 am
Nice recipes. I tried almost half of ur list and those are really delicious. Thanks.
Comment by kamala — August 30, 2008 @ 5:11 am
acham amma pettinattuga undhi.ruchi aswadhisthene thelusthundi
nenu thayaru chesi ruchi chusanu ma pakka intiwallaki ruchi chupinchanu wallu antaru
“inkonchem ruchi choopinchava”
thanku
Comment by radhika — November 14, 2009 @ 1:09 am
i was longing to make the usuri aavakaya but was not aware of the process. thanks
Comment by udaya — November 20, 2010 @ 6:03 am
nice recipe i tried mouthwatering
Comment by anitha — October 16, 2011 @ 8:41 am
I just gone through this receipe of amla pickle, there is querry in my mind that how the masala will go inside amla without pricking them, moreover how the water contents of amla will get dried to protect the pickle from damaging. please answer my querry as early as possible.
Comment by santosh gupta — December 22, 2011 @ 8:38 am
Where in Toronto did you buy it, I’ve been looking for this for ever and can’t find it anywhere
Comment by hernanday — September 4, 2012 @ 8:25 am
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