Gooseberry Pickle

Ingredients:

15 clean, fresh looking, blemish free Gooseberry
½ cup peanut oil
¼ cup of salt and red chili powder
¼ cup of mustard seeds - roasted & finely powdered
½ tsp of asafoetida

Instructions:

1. First wash the gooseberries and dry them using clean cloth, without any sign of moisture.

2. Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add the gooseberries and sauté them till they turn light brown. Remove and let them cool down to room temperature.

3. Heat the remaining oil in another pan to a smoking point. Remove it from heat; let it cool down to room temperature.

4. Add salt, red chili powder, mustard powder and asafoetida to the roasted gooseberries.

5. Mix them all with a clean, dry spoon. Pour and stir in the heated (now at room temperature) oil.

6. Mix them all together, again with a clean dry spoon.

7. Cover tightly and let it stew at least for two weeks.

8. The more you wait, the tasty the pickle becomes and the normal waiting period is one month.

Note: Just before serving heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan, fry red chilies, and cumin and mustard seeds until they splutter, then add garlic flakes and remove from the heat. Add it to the pickle, mix thoroughly and serve with rice and dal (lentil)