Are you familiar with wood apple? This is a very unique fruit of our country commonly known as 'Kod Bel'. I love the sour, funky taste. Adding some sugar and spices to its creamy texture can create one of the best pickles.
Recently, I made a big batch of wood apple pickles to preserve for the whole year. Let me share my detailed process.
What do we need?
- Wood apple
- Sugar
- Dried red chili
- Turmeric and chili powder
- Salt
- Mustard oil
- Five spices (Nigella seeds, brown mustard seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, Cumin)
- Bay leaves
- Garlic
- Hot spices powder
I know this ingredient sounds complicated. But believe me, if you are a native, it's nothing. lol. Also, if you skip some of this, you can :)
Let me share the wood apple scooping process first!
This is the word apples, the puter shell has a wooden texture for sure.
After breaking up the shells.
After scooping it up with a spoon you will get a creamy texture.
Now, let's prepare for the cooking process.
- Add 200gm of mustard oil to the pan with a few cloves of garlic, some dried red chili, and bay leaves. Fry them until the fragrance come out.
- Add the wood apple to the oil, and put red chili powder, turmeric powder, and salt proportionately.
- Mix them well and cook for a while.
- When they are well cooked add some sugar as per your taste. If the apple tastes very sour you need to put a good amount of sugar or as you like your pickle to be.
- When it is cooked for 15 minutes, add hot spice powder. I added some more usage lately as it tastes quite sour.
- Stir the mix and cook on low flame for another few minutes.
I didn't add any preservatives. If the pickle is well cooked, if you put it in the sun every now and then, and use no wet spoon to scoop your pickle then this will be good to go for the whole year.
We usually add a spoonful of this pickle with our rice or rice and lentil mixture. It tastes quite unique, you may find something new if you have not tried wood apple pickle before.
I hope you like my recipe.
Have a good day, everyone.