Receta Recipe & Food Styling | Mixed Vegetable Pickle
Priceless childhood memories, some great friends, good food and endless time spent on Fatehsagar… these are the memories which make life sweeter.
Come winter and makki and bajre ki roti become staple food for us. Mom will make a huge batch of fresh vegetable pickle using mustard oil. We used to run out of house the day she would heat oil to makes this pickle. The strong pungent smell of mustard oil was hard on our nose.
Well, if you haven’t grown up eating this pickle, you might find it very strong on your taste buds. And with crushed mustard seeds as the base it makes it more an acquired taste for many to relish.
Lucky for me, my husband loved the very first time I made it some 20 years back just after our marriage.
Coming back to one another styling assignment for the brand Abhirami. I have done styling project for their rice and millet varieties, and this time it was for their ‘sevai‘ or thin vermicelli varieties with the photographer Nithin Bharat.
I completed most of the prep before the shoot and was ready for the day with my props and food.
Reached early and arranged the vegetables and other stuff in the studio..
The varieties of Abhirami sevai..millet, brown rice, multigrain, multi millet, brown rice..and so on ready for the shot..
In action..
One of the shots from the shoot..
Mixed Vegetable Pickle
So here is my instant fresh vegetable pickle that I made today..
I cannot imagine winter days meal in Udaipur without a good amount of this pickle on my plate. My daughter ran out of kitchen after I started heating the oil for pickle. Do not try this pickle with mustard oil if you can’t handle the pungency and strong flavors of it.
Dry roasted spices for the pickle..
Ingredients;
1 cup Cauliflower florets
2 Turnips or radish
2 Carrots
1 Cucumber
1 small Ginger
1 cup Oil
2 tbsp. Vinegar
1 tsp. Jaggery
1/2 tsp. Asafetida powder
2 tsp. salt
Spice mix;
3 tsp. Chilli powder
2 tsp. Mustard seeds
1 tsp. Fenugreek seeds
1 tsp. Fennel seeds
1/2 tsp. Turmeric powder
Method; Wash all the vegetables and wipe them with a kitchen towel to remove excess water.
Scrape carrots, turnips and separate cauliflower into small florets.
Chop carrots, cucumber, turnip and ginger into small pieces.
Spread all the chopped vegetables in a small plate and steam it for 2 minutes. Make sure that water do not touch the vegetables. I used my Dhokla plates to do the same.
Spread all the vegetables on a kitchen towel and let them dry under fan.
Dry roast mustard, fenugreek and fennel in a small pan for 4-5 minutes and grind into coarse powder.
Fill all the vegetables in a glass jar and add dry roasted powder, vinegar, jiggery, salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder and asefoetida powder in it and combine well.
Heat oil in a small pan till smoking pint and take off the heat.
Pour this hot oil over the jar filled with vegetables and cover the jar with a clean cloth.
You can use the pickle from the next day.
Notes;
Make small batches of this pickle as it may not stay good for more than a month. The vegetables tend to loose crispiness and become soft.
Replace mustard oil with any other vegetable oil if you are not used to the smell and strong taste of mustard oil.
Refrigerate the pickle if you are using less oil.
Avoid touching vegetables with hands, use spoon or fork to mix and fill the jar.
Use fresh pearl millet for best results as rotis made with old flour is tough to roll and start cracking while you roll them.
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