Punjabi-style pickle

As pickling seem to be getting popular again I am going to post this recipe , it is not necessarily pickling as such as you are cooking the vegetables a little but it does give an almost instantaneous result. And it is really full of those rich Indian spices that are so good to eat.

You will need

3tbsp palm sugar or light brown sugar

175ml/6floz cider vinegar

120ml/4floz mustard oil, peanut oil or vegetable oil

2 or 3 garlic cloves

1or 2 in/ 2.5 to 5cm fresh ginger

400g/14oz cauliflower florets

5 medium carrots

225g/9oz baby turnips

2tsp whole brown mustard seeds

2tsp salt

1tsp chilli powder

1½tsp paprika

½tsp garam masala

To start you need to prepare all the vegetables first. Peeled and crushed the garlic then grate the ginger in to the garlic. Now cut the white cauliflower florets into small pieces, peeled and cut the carrots into 5cm/2½in pieces. Finally peeled and half the baby turnips. Finally take your brown mustard seeds and crush them as fine as you can.

Now in a sauce pan het the vinegar and sugar until the sugar dissolves then set it to one side. Now add the oil to a large pan and heat slowly once the oil is hot add the garlic and ginger. You do not want to fry the garlic and ginger but infuse the oil with all its flavours so slowly let it cook for about a minute or so.

Now add the cauliflower, carrots and turnips to the pan. Lightly fry them so they start to so a little soft, then reduce the heat and add all the spices. Coat the vegetables with the spices and then add the sugar and vinegar mix. Make sure that everything is fully coated with the spices and the sugar and vinegar then take of the heat and let it cool.

Once it is cool spoon into clean jars or a plastic container. Make sure that you get all the juices with the vegetables. Then pop it in to the fridge and let it just sit for about 24 hours before you use it.  The longer you leave it the better it becomes and it will keep for about 3 to 4 weeks in the fridge.