Mixed Vegetable Achar

Achar is a type of pickle, which originated in Malaysia. Some achars use vinegar and oil as preservatives, but I was taught to make it with mustard oil as the preservative medium. I have seen recipes that use vegetable oil and mustard powder added, but they don’t give the genuine result of the ‘Indian Achar’ I know and love, but rather come out more like piccalilli. If you are unable to get mustard oil, which is readily available from Indian or Asian supermarkets, then use vegetable oil but add more mustard seeds.

This makes about 8 x 454g jars.

Ingredients:
1 – 1.5kg carrots
500g green beans
1 small cabbage – preferably white cabbage, not Savoy
1 small cauliflower
15ml mustard seeds
15ml cumin seeds
15ml sesame seeds
12 chillies, split lengthwise, seeds left in
15ml salt
5ml ground mace
5ml ground cloves
5ml ground cardamom
30ml tandoori spice or ground chilli powder
250ml muscovado sugar
750ml mustard oil – or vegetable oil and mustard seeds

Method:

Peel the carrots and cut them into julienne pieces. I’m lazy; I put them through the chipper plate in the food processor. It might give a bit of a choppy mess with lots of little bits, but it’s for pickle, so it doesnt need to be perfect...

Wash the beans well – I find they always have a bit of dirt on them and if you don’t wash them they can add grit to your pickle. Top and tail the beans , then cut them on a slant into ½ cm lengths – the thin slither eradicates any stringiness they might have.

Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and cut it into quarters. Cut out the hard central core and slice up the rest of the cabbage as you would for coleslaw – again, I’m lazy and run it through the thick slicer plate in the food processor.

Break up the cauliflower into small florets, cutting the larger florets in half or quarters and discarding the thick stalks. I usually cut up some of the thinner stalks into thin slithers just to add some bulk and crunch to the achar.

Blanch all the vegetables in a large pot of boiling water for 5- 10 minutes, until they are softened. Drain the water off and allow them to dry. In Durban when I made this I would lay the vegetables out on a large sheet in the sun, but we don’t have the space or get that kind of sunshine in the UK, so here I put the vegetables on baking trays and dry them for about 30 minutes in a low oven, about 150C. Once the vegetables are suitably dried – they only need to have some of the moisture taken out so they are not wet – put them into a large pickling basin.

Now you need to sterilise your jars. I usually do this by first soaking and washing the jars well in warm soapy water to remove any dirt they may have left from their previous use and to remove any labels. Once they are clean, I rinse them in warm water and place them on a baking or roasting tray. Into each jar, I pout about 1 inch of water and then put them in the oven at about 120-150C for a half an hour. If your jars have metal caps, the best way to sterilise these is to put them in a pot of water on the stove and boil them for about 10 minutes. Leave your jars in the oven and the caps in boiling water until needed.

When your jars are almost ready in the oven, make the tempering to go on the vegetables. Put the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, sesame seeds and chillies in a frying pan with about 100ml mustard oil and bring them up to heat until the cumin seeds are spitting and the mustard seeds are jumping. Pour this tempering over the vegetables in the bowl and mix through.

Mix the salt, ground mace, ground cloves, ground cardamom, tandoori spice or ground chilli powder and sugar in a bowl and add to the vegetables, blending the spices through the mixture. Now you can spoon the vegetables into prepared sterilised jars.

Lightly heat the mustard oil – or vegetable oil and mustard seeds if you prefer – in a saucepan. As soon as the oil begins to smoke, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool slightly for 4-5 minutes. Pour the oil into the jars over the vegetables until the vegetables are covered – this may take a couple of top ups in each jar as the oil makes its way through the vegetables and settles in the jars. Once all the jars are filled, you can seal the jars with their lids. Store at room temperature for about 2 weeks before using. This pickle should keep for at least 6 months or more.