Assorted Vegitables Pickles

Pickles is part of our daily food. Dal Bhat and Tarkari may sound bit boring but pickles really adds that extra zing to our taste buds; that plays a huge role. We take it only half or a spoonful of it but it's that part of the food that we can't live without. We can convert almost everything to pickles. It is rare that we can't convert a vegetable or a fruit into a pickles. Sometimes single vegetable gives that tangy taste and sometimes the mixed vegetables gives us a reason to finish food. We need it more during summer seasons rather than winter season. However winter is the right time to make pickle.

Ingredients :

Carrot : 100 grams

Cabbage : 100 grams

Onion : 100 grams
Cucumber : 100 grams
Radish : 100 grams
Tomatoes : 100 grams
Red chili powder : 2 tablespoon
Salt : half teaspoon
Vinegar : 2 tablespoon
Fenugreek seeds : 1/2 half teaspoon
Mustard oil : 2 tablespoon

Process :

• Cut cucumber and radish and then sprinkle salt over it, then keep it aside for five minutes so that all the juices will come out from it.
• After five minutes drain the juice and keep it aside.
• Chop cabbage, carrot, onion and tomatoes into small square pieces. Keep everything in a bowl.
• Add salt, red chili powder, vinegar, sugar also in the bowl.
• Mix it properly. Mix it while pressing it little bit harder so that the juices will comes out from the mixed vegetables.
• Heat a pan. Put oil on it.
• Once oil is hot enough put fenugreek seeds. Wait until the color of seeds becomes total black.
• Pour the hot oil over the bowl.
• And then mix it again.

Now, Your pickles is ready !

The recipe is shared by Ramina Bajracharya. She is a fashion designer, a mother,  a housewife and food lover herself. She belongs to Newar community, who are well known for their culinary art as they have mastered the art to tease the taste buds of  gourmet.

Roasted Tomatoes Pickle

Tomato, is widely grown and used fruit in our day in and day out meal. I can say this for sure, it is the most popular garden vegetable around the world, not just in Nepal.

As I have written many times before also tomato pickle is part of our Nepali food because   80% of home cooked meal won't pass the day without it. We like the variety of it so we cook, roast or boil tomatoes to convert it into pickle, so that we get different taste on different day.  This being part of our food culture here is one more way to enjoy tomato pickle and this time we are going to enjoy it on new taste.

Ingredients :

Tomatoes : Four medium size

Chili   : Two green

Garlic : 2 clove of

Salt : ½ teaspoon of

Timur : Four - five seeds of

How to convert it into pickle ?

• Roast all the tomatoes in a hot and pan without any fat or oil on it.  Put the garlic and chili also on the same pan.  
• Roast it until you get all roasted smell and look on the tomatoes.
• Once it's properly roasted gas off and let it there for a minutes only with lid on.
• Peel the skin of tomatoes and garlic before putting it in the mixture.
• Add chili and salt also in it.
• Timur needs to be grind separately or it will give coarse taste and rough flavor.
• All the ingredients goes into the mixture.
• We run mixture only for 20 seconds.

Now, your pickle is ready !

Note :

• You can use mortar and pestle, if you do not have mixture at home to convert it into paste.

Fresh Chili pickle

                                                           Green chili is one of the key ingredients in all the pickles we make, without this no pickle is ready. add some but using it as main ingredient of the pickle is whole lot of different thing but to some people hot is not enough. So, they go for hotter. And here is one such pickle for those who love hotter pickle.

Ingredients :

Long fresh chili : 500 grams

Mustard oil : 150 grams

Cumin powder : two teaspoon

Coriander powder : two teaspoon
Turmeric powder : half teaspoon

Salt : as per taste

Fenugreek seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Bay leaves : three nos

Timur : 5 - 7 piece only

Half cup lemon juice : six big lemons

One glass bottle : 1 kg [1000 gram] capacity

How to convert it into pickles ? 

• Wash fresh chilies well and let it dry under the sun for at least one hour, so that there won't be any trace of water.
• Heat a pan and put all the chili on it and move it or about two or three minutes so that chili will be softer.
• Keep a karai over medium heat gas. Put two hundred ml mustard on it.
• When it's hot enough, put fenugreek seeds on it.
• When the color of fenugreek seeds turns black put chili and bay leave on it, stir it.
• Let it fry for some time and then add salt and turmeric powder on it.
• When it looks fried enough add cumin and coriander powder.
• Stir it some time and then add lemon juice on it.
• Let  the chili simmer on low gas for about 5 - 7 minutes.
• Gas off and let it cool down before you fill the bottle.
• Keep the lid tight before you store it.

Now your pickle is ready !

Note : 

1. Store it in a cool and dry place. 
2. This pickle can be eaten as soon as it is made, at the same time this can be preserved or a long time also.

This recipe is shared by Nayan Shrivastava a college student here in Kathmandu. However, she would like to pass all the credit to her mother Kamini Shrivastav, resident of Dhanusa, Raghunathpur, Nepal. Nayan and her family moved into Nepal from India more than a century ago. So, they bring that Indian style of making pickle in our kitchen.

Mint Pickle

Mint is abundantly available in Nepal. So, it should not be surprising if its widely used for multiple purpose. Some prefer to drink its tea for health reason and some use it as medicinal purpose. However, its pickles is one of the most used in our society. Some people call pasty pickles like this chutney also instead of pickles. A gourmet friend of mine try to convince me the difference between chutney and pickles. Its called chutney, if you dip your finger in it and then lick your finger but for pickles you can take a piece of it.

                                                      

Ingredients :

Mint leaves : Handful of  [ an adult women’s hand ]

Garlic   : 2 cloves

Green chili : 3 nos

Red Chili powder : Half teaspoon

Salt : As per the taste

Turmeric powder : Half teaspoon

Mustard Oil : Two tablespoon

Fenugreek seeds : Half teaspoon

Lemon : Two medium size lemon

How to make pickles out of these ingredients ?

• Clean mint leaves and chili
• Peel garlic
• Put mint leaves, chili, garlic, chili powder and salt into the mixture.
• Switch on the mixture just for about 20 seconds.
• Squeeze the lemon juice on the  paste and then mix it with a spoon.
• Pour it on the steel bowl.
• Heat a pan and put the mustard oil on it.
• When the oil is hot enough put the fenugreek seeds on it and wait until the fenugreek seeds becomes black.
• Put a turmeric powder on top of the mixed paste.
• Pour the hot oil over it.
• Put the lid over the paste for about two minutes and then mix it one more time.

Now, your pickle is ready.  

Chayote [ Eskoos ] Pickles

Chayote is an edible plant belonging to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, along with melons, cucumbers and squash. Globally it is known by other names including christophine cho-cho, pipinola, pear squash, vegetable pear, or choko.Wikipedia that is what wikipedia says about eskoos, this is what we call it here in Nepal. This is a vegetables which is available in abundance in its season. No wonder, we use it to make pickles also. Its taste is as good as you find the taste of cucumber. Some novice can't even find the difference in taste.

Ingredients  :

Chayote : 500 grams [ 2 medium size ]

Potato : 100 grams

Sesame : 3 tablespoon

Green chili : 3 or 4 nos

Red chili : one teaspoon

Salt : as per taste

Turmeric : one teaspoon

Fenugreek : 1/2 teaspoon

Lemon : 2 medium size

Mustard Oil : 2 tablespoon

How to convert all these ingredients into pickles ?

• Cut the chayote into two piece and then boil it along with cleaned potatoes.
• Peel the skin of chayote and potatoes.
• Cut it into square shape.
• Keep it all in a bowl.
• Cut green chili into fine piece and put it in a bowl.
• Roast sesame seed and grind it to make its power.
• Put all the ingredients into the bowl where we have put chayote and potatoes.
• Squeeze the lemon over it and mix all the ingredients.
• Put the turmeric on top of the pickle and ..
• Heat the pan over gas.
• Put mustard oil in it and when the oil start giving of smoke ad fenugreek seeds. Wait until its color becomes black.
• Pour the hot oil on the bowl, make sure it makes the chun sound.

• 

  Ramina Barjacharya

  Once you pour the hot oil cover the bowl for about two minutes and then mix it again.

Now your pickle is ready !

The recipe is shared by Ramina Bajracharya. She is a fashion designer, a mother, a housewife and food lover herself. She belongs to Newar community, who are well known for their culinary art as they have mastered the art to tease the taste buds of  gourmet.