Apple pickle

I am lucky to have a backyard bursting with fruits and veggies this time of the year and I am getting dizzy just thinking about different things I can concoct with these. I have plums, figs, apple, apricot and pear trees. And then in my veggie patch, I get green chillies, tomatoes, squash, lima beans, eggplant, zucchini, cauliflower, okra and cucumbers. It is plenty of work with a first grader and a baby, but still trying here and there to try something new.We have a big apple tree(crabapple) and it gets infected very easily, so we tried to rescue few of these apples before it succumbs to infections. When I say few, it turned out to be atleast 100 or so. In a desperate measure, I could think of only turning them into pickle, jam was not much of an option as I do not have a sweet tooth.


I got the readymade achar masala from Indian grocery store. The outcome of apple pickle was quite refreshing and goes quite well with dal and chapati.

Ingredients:
Apple 2lbs(cut and finely chopped)
lime juice 2tbsp
fennel seeds 1 tsp
Asafoetida(hing) according to taste
oil 5-6 tbsp
achar masala 3tbsp
salt, sugar as per taste

Mix the lime juice, salt and sugar with chopped apples. I have used crabapple, but Macintosh apples can be used as well.Just heat the oil. It should reach near it's smoking point, add asafoetida, fennel seeds, the readymade achar masala and put it soon on the mixed apples. The smell is heavenly after the mixture is mixed. I just made a big pot of plain mung khichadi just to enjoy this pickle. the lime juice and the fennel gives a nice tartiness and taste to the pickle.
I make this quick achar with firm young mango and also green chillies.


As I mentioned earlier, I get plenty of figs and I whipped a big batch of fig preserves, the recipe for which I'll posting next. Lucky me!!