Indian Gooseberry is called Amla (Hindi) or Nellikayi (Kannada) or AvaLe (Konkani). HinDi is a kind of pickle. Usually HinDi looks like a chutney . Amla is a rich source of Vitamin C and has many uses in Ayurvedic medicines .
We make two kinds of pickles with Amla . It is also used in many dishes. But at my home, Amla is synonym with AvaLe HinDi . Aayi’s AvaLe HinDi is very very popular among all our relatives. Amla that we get in our place is of very small in size. So we used to order big Amlas from either Mumbai or Belgaum. Then Aayi would make the pickle and give to all the pickle fan relatives.
The most distinguishing feature of this pickle is the fresh green peppers. We have a pepper plant(creeper) at home and the fresh unripe green peppers are used in this pickle. These fresh peppers are not as spicy as the white or black peppers, but these gel well with the bitter-sour taste of Amla .
 Have you ever tasted Amla ?? If yes, have you tried eating it and drinking a glass of water? Same feeling you will get when you eat this pickle and drink water…Its nothing less than heaven :).
I like to eat this pickle with rice, rotis or even with simple bread. I found the Amla in frozen section of Indian store here.
Ingredients: 5-6 big Amlas ( AvaLe or Nellikayi ) 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1/4 tea spn asafoetida( hingu ) 1/2 tea spn fenugreek( methi ) seeds 1 tea spn chili powder 1 tea spn oil 1/2 tea spn chopped green chilies 1/2 tea spn grated ginger 1 tea spn fresh green unripe pepper Salt
Do not add white or black peppercorns to this pickle. Only green unripe peppercorns can be used for this. If green peppercorns cannot be found, increase the amount of green chilies and ginger for better taste.
Method: Cook Amla with 1 cup water and salt(preferrably use cooker for cooking). Remove the seeds and reserve the pulp. Grind the pulp with mustard, asafoetida, chili powder and 1/4 tea spn fenugreek seeds (Unlike any other pickles, mustard and fenugreek are not fried for this). Water used for cooking Amla can be used for grinding, but do not add more water. Heat oil and fry chilies, ginger, peppercorns(if using), little salt and 1/4 tea spn fenugreek seeds. Add this to the amla paste and mix well. Store in an air tight container in refrigerator. It can be consumed immediately. It remains good for atleast 3-4 months (may be more than that).
Preparation time : 30mins
We are back from a short Thanksgiving trip to Colorado Springs. Met few of our friends. We celebrated our very first Thanksgiving with a wonderful family. We got a very cute Thanksgiving gift from them. I cannot explain how happy we were to meet this family, but unfortunately because of no sleep due to an early flight and then roaming around at a high altitude, we were very tired and forgot to take any pictures with them. They had prepared a wonderful dinner for us. Their very talented kid played a song on her piano for us. Before going to thier house, we met my husband’s old friend. He was more than happy to show us the places around. These two friends helped us to come out of all kind of tensions and loneliness we were having for the past few months by being away from home. I wish we could stay with them for some more time, but we had already booked hotel in Colorado Springs.
Now coming back to recipes, few of my friends had requested to post breakfast recipes here. So this week is going to be a “breakfast week”. I will post some of the recipes that I tried in recent past.
Neerulli (Kannada) means Onion. As the name suggests, the main ingredient of this dosa is onion. I got this recipe from an old Kannada weekly. It had some 50+ dosa recipes. I tried most of them. This is one of the dosas which I liked very much. This is a spicy dosa , so does not require any sides like chutneys or bhajis . But I served it with my Aayi’s mango pickle.
Ingredients: 1 cup chana daal 1 cup toor daal 1 cup rice 1 cup onion(chopped) 1 cup grated coconut(fresh or frozen) 1/4 tea spn Tamarind extract (or extract thick juice of 3-4 pieces of tamarind) 3-4 red chilies 1/2 cup coriander leaves Oil/ ghee Salt
Method: Soak rice and daals in water for 4-5hrs(or overnight). Grind them into a smooth batter and leave it for around 1hr. Grind red chilies, coconut, onion, coriander leaves to a paste. Add this paste and salt to the batter, mix well. Heat tava and spread a dosa. Spread some ghee /oil on the dosa. Fry well from both sides. Serve hot.
PS: This dosa can be eaten alone without any chutney . I served it with pickle to give some extra taste.
Serves : 5-6 Preparation time : 20mins (excluding the 1hr standing time)
