A guest post by Tishya Doraiswamy, my most gifted and talented niece, a high schooler in Delhi.
It’s always wonderful to see family cooking together. Just the other day, I had the wonderful privilege of witnessing my grandmother teach Suvir – an uncle of mine, how to make her famous Lasora pickle – I got to see the two best cooks in my family work together.
A day before Suvir came to my grandmother’s house, she prepared everything in anticipation washing and keeping the Lasora out and ready to prepare.
The next day, Suvir came to learn the famous recipe – the only way to learn recipes from my grandmother is by watching and making them with her, since she only ever prepares food through estimation. However, the food she makes is always wonderful – and having an award-winning chef in the kitchen surely couldn’t do any harm.
Lasora, also known as pink pearl or Indian cherry is popular in India, especially when it comes to making pickles such as this one.
Lasora Pickle: The ingredients required for this recipe are:
- Lasora: 2kg
- Grated raw mango: 2 cups
- Mustard seeds: 50g
- Fennel seeds: 75g
- Methi (fenugreek) seeds: 3 tablespoons
- Kalonji (fennel flower): 2 tablespoons
- Turmeric: 1.5 tablespoons
- Salt: 50g
- Red chili powder: According to taste preferences
- Mustard oil: 1.5 cups
First, boil the lasora in water with salt till it is tender. Then remove the caps from them and spread them out to dry for 2-3 hours.
Next, the masala powder has to be made. To do so, grind together all the ingredients (grated mango, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, methi seeds, kalonji, turmeric, red chili powder) coarsely and mix them in with the lasoras. This is the best time to get your hands dirty- so use them to mix together all the vibrant ingredients to make your masala!
Add salt according to your taste.
Put the mixture in its container and pour the oil over it. This is the one of the last steps in the recipe, and now comes the most challenging bit – the wait.
Leave the pickle for 3-4 days, till the lasoras are sour and the stickiness disappears.
By the end of it, your pickle should look a little like this – vibrant and ready to eat!
In my experience, no pickle can ever taste bad if it is made the right way – carefully, and with hands full of love. Seeing Suvir and my grandmother cook together was a wonderful experience – we stood in the hot summer heat of the kitchen as Suvir sang and my grandmother taught him her own recipe.
In fact, being there in the kitchen, filled with laughter and love – seeing my family make the pickle – only made it taste that much richer when I finally had it.
Awwww ...am sure it was a brilliant experience . Am going to try and make it at home too . Have only ever tasted Lasora Ka Achaar ..never made it. Thank you for sharing the recipe x
Posted by: Smita Bhatnagar | Friday, June 21, 2019 at 11:21 AM
Beautifully written rishta and so much the need of the hour ....family's have always bonded over food and legacies are created on the basis of food. Loved reading it. Your niece is very articulate suvir...God bless her and really admire her for her understanding of the relationships at such a young age. Keep writing tishya
Posted by: Priya suri | Friday, June 21, 2019 at 12:09 PM