Preserve Peak Produce with This Indian Pickle Recipe

[Celerity]

Making your own aachar will give you a reliable stash of summer flavors to pull from at your leisure.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/how-to-make-indian-pickles-at-home



Achaars, aka Indian pickles, are popular condiments in India. Achaar making is a popular activity during the hot summers, utilizing the bounty of peak produce. During my childhood, I would help my mother with the annual preparation, sneaking pieces of raw mango from the pile (I was too impatient to wait for the finished product). As an adult now living in the United States, I avoided making them and instead picked some up during trips home to India to visit family. My mom, mother-in-law, aunt, or friends were always happy to send us off with a bottle or two from their annual batch. But in the past few years, I’ve experimented with making small quantities of achaar here and there. While testing recipes for quick pickles to include in my cookbook Roti, I found it a calming and somewhat forgiving process.

Although it is not advisable to eat a jar-full of Indian achaar all at once, getting to know well-made achaars could very well make you a connoisseur. They aren’t difficult to make but like any good thing, require some time commitment. Once you learn how to make them, you will have a reliable stash of summer flavors to pull from at your leisure. The word “achar” or “achaar” is erroneously defined in the Collins Dictionary as a pickle made with mangoes. This is an incomplete description—which may explain why most people tend to get the concepts around Indian pickles wrong, too. Let us fix that by starting at the beginning.

Pickles represent preserved forms of a variety of fruits and vegetables that experience some degree of fermentation. They include a level of tanginess and can have a variety of whole spices. Most American, European, and Middle Eastern pickles are vegetables preserved in a liquid of brine and white or red vinegar, with a sprinkling of spices like dill, garlic, and pepper. Of the Asian pickles, East Asian pickles use a variety of pickling liquids varying from miso, sake, salt, soy sauce, ordinary vinegar, rice vinegar, and others. Marinated olives from many Mediterranean countries are perhaps the closest representative cousin to the Indian achaar.

South Asian achaars are common in countries like India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Nepal—since the spice palate includes familiar flavors. Indian achaars’ are predominantly oil-based preserves. There are hundreds of kinds of Indian achaars, and even then, every family personalizes the recipe to suit their preferences. The easiest way to understand how to make it is to know that every achaar requires three important ingredients and four critical steps. I’ve learned that apart from a few basic ground rules—like making sure everything is sanitized and dry before filling and storing—Indian achaars are far more adaptable than I previously believed.

What You Will Need To Get Started

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[Haggard Celine]

1. Thanks for the idea.

I like just about any kind of pickle, and I'm going to try at least one of these soon.

[roamer65]

2. You're making me hungry.

Those dishes look good.

[Hotler]

3. Yum. One of my favorite sides at the Indian resturant. Salty, tart and hot.

Aachar, feta on warm buttered pita or wheat toast.