Nellika Uppilittathu..

There is this movie called Achuvinte Amma starring Meera Jasmine and Urvashi. It has a melodious lullaby song - Enthu paranjalum nee ente thu alle vaave..
One of the scenes of the song has Meera Jasmine showing a sour face on eating an upillitta nellika from a road side vendor. Somehow, whenever I see gooseberries, this scene flashes in my mind as I too get tempted to taste salted gooseberries. Each time, I buy gooseberries, I plan to pickle them or soak them in salt water. The plan never materializes, thanks to my memory.

Came across a recipe and found that it was very easy to prepare uppilitta nellikai. The otherwise untouched gooseberries were finished to half by husband in two days, when I prepared uppillitta nellikai. The best  part is gooseberries are loaded with Vitamin C, and if this was a way they could be consumed, then why not?

Here goes the ingredients:
1) 500 gms of Indian gooseberries -
2) 6-8 Indian green chillies slit or 8-10 dried Kanthari mulaku slit (Thai pepper) or 4-6 fresh kanthari mulaku.
3) 3 cups of water
4) 1 + 1/8 cup of crystal salt
5) Vinegar (optional)

Salt and water ratio (2 cups of water:3/4th cup of crystal salt)
Process:

1) Mix the salt with water in a vessel and place it for boiling.
2) Once the water boils, simmer it for 4-5 minutes under low flame.
3) Fill the glass bottle with amlas and green chillies layering by alternately.
4) Pour the boiled hot water into the glass bottle. The hot water softens the gooseberries. As an alternate, place the gooseberries and slit green chillies in the vessel where water was boiled, after flame is switched off.
5) Add a dash of vinegar as a preservative. - I did not add any. I knew they would be finished before long. :)

End of  two days, my salted amlas have been reduced to half the bottle.

Red Wine Contd...

Exactly 14 days before, grapes were placed in the earthenware pot for fermentation.

It looked like this on the first day.

And 14 days later, they look like this...

The pulp of grapes has started to show up. According to my parents, we could take it after 20 days and filter it out. 

But I decided to keep it until Maundy Thursday. I am planning to filter the mixture on that day. Two days are required for the filtered mixture to settle down. 

The last part of the red wine series - to be continued...

Red Wine from grapes

As per the Syrian Orthodox calendar, we are one week past into the holy fasting period. We follow typically 50 day period of fasting. Fasting implies no non vegetarian dishes allowed. Fasting not only implies in diet, but also in living a life sans worldly pleasures. This includes no movies, no extravagant shopping, living modestly and with prayerful days.
This Easter, we decided to ferment grapes and extract some grape wine. And now is the right time to do it. Here goes the recipe for the same.

Ingredients:
1 kilo grapes
1 kilo sugar
3 bottles of boiled and cooled water (1 bottle = 750 ml)
1 tsp yeast
1 egg white
100 gm of broken wheat

Preparation:
1) Place water to boil
2) Wash grapes thoroughly.
3) Place water in a bowl and microwave it for 10-20 seconds. Add yeast and allow it to ferment for 10 minutes.
4) Once the water is boiled, allow it to cool. Meanwhile, wash the broken wheat.
5) In a earthenware pot, add in the grapes, sugar, broken wheat, fermented yeast, egg white and boiled and cooled water.
6) Stir nicely using a wooden spoon.
7) Cover the earthenware with a cloth and fasten it tightly with a rubberband or thick thread.
8) After every alternate day, stir the mixture using wooden spoon. Cover it and store in a cool and dark place.

More to come in the coming days...