PICKLED APPLES

The name of my blog টক ঝাল মিষ্টি (tok, jhal, mishti meaning sour, spicy, sweet) comes from this specific food, pickles. Now pickles in the US and pickles back in my country, Bangladesh, are completely disparate. I personally enjoy both kinds of pickles, but Bangladeshi pickles are finger-licking good, that it actually makes you want to eat more. The Bangladeshi pickles have unique taste with a combination of sour, sweet, and spicy flavors. Of course, the proportion of these three flavors change depending on the type of pickle. My favorite kind is the one which has the dominating flavor of sweetness, which is absolutely difficult to find. And the pickle that are often found in markets have a dominating flavor of spiciness. It has been over a year since I moved to the US and I started craving the former kind. Although I was craving pickled mangos which is more prevalent in Bangladesh, I heard some of my friends here tried pickled apples. So I had to give it a try.

First off, I chopped my apples into bite size pieces. In a pan, I added some mustard oil, and fried the apples in it for about 10 minutes on medium high heat, allowing the apples to soften a little. Next while tasting as I go, I added in my seasonings: vinegar, sugar, salt, red chili powder, fried dried red chili and panch foron powder. I mixed everything in thoroughly and covered it with a lid leaving it on medium heat till the apples were cooked to my liking. I, then, poured it in a glass jar and let it cool before I could dig in. Luckily I managed to get the taste just as I wanted it. I would have been quite disappointed on my chef instincts if I didn't get the taste right, since I tasted my mixture at least 50 times while I was tossing in my seasonings. The best part though, was how I got my hands on panch foron powder. I tried using a blender at first, but nah! it didn't work out at all. So instead, I grabbed a handful of the panch foron and fried them (no oil used). Next, I put them between two parchment paper and hammered it with a rolling pin. Just kidding! I just rolled my rolling pin on it for a while and since they were fried, they easily crushed into an almost fine powder. So, that's how I quenched my craving for pickled apples. I will leave down picture of some of my trials on the other kind of pickled vegetable.