How to prepare Amla / Nellikka Achar at Home?

Amla in Hindi, Gooseberry in English and Nellikka in Malayalam and Tamil are one and the same.  The gooseberries have a lot of nutrition in them.Make the pickle when you get them frsh and use it as a sie dish daily.

Ingredients needed for Nellikka Achar:
1 kilo Amla fruit
1 cup  Chilly powder
1 tsp  Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp Asafoetida powder
1/2 tsp Fenugreek roasted and powdered
1 cup til / Gingelly Oil
To temper
Mustard seeds – as required
Salt – as required
Curry leaves - a little

How to prepare Nellikka Achar at Home?
Take a wide bottommed vessel with enough water to immerse the Gooseberries. Add salt to taste and turmeric powder. Bring the water to boil.
Add the gooseberries to the water, cover and simmer for about 5 - 8 mintes or till the gooseberries change colour and get tender.
Let cool, drain and keep the liquid separately.
Remove the seeds  from the gooseberries. This can be done by just passing the knife through and cutting the berries to small chunks.
Heat oil, splutter mustard. Add curry leaves, asafoetida powder, fenugreek powder and the chilli powder. Once a nice aroma starts coming add the drained liquid  and let it come to boil. Check for salt and add if needed. Add Gooseberry chunks to this and mix well. Simmer for a minute. Remove from fire and let cool.
When cool store in the bottle.

Points to Note:
This pickle cannot be stored for a long time. In the refrigerator this Nellikka achar will stay for a  month, if you are careful about the way you handle the pickle.
Take a little of the pickle at a time and that tooo use only clean and dry spoon.

Use  the big sized whole Nellikka for this pickle.  The small ones known as vedi nellikka  can also be made into pickles using the same recipe.