In season many of us eat amra (hog plum) with chilli and salt, and many also like to make a few jars of pickle to eat through the year. Every kind of pickle can now be bought in the market, but a homemade one has a fragrance all of its own.

Here is how to make amra pickle easily at home.

• Amra: 1 kg
• Mustard oil: one and a half cups
• Vinegar: half a cup
• Whole panch phoron (five-spice mix): 1 teaspoon
• Bay leaf: 1
• Mustard paste: 2 tablespoons
• Ginger paste: one and a half tablespoons
• Garlic paste: 1 tablespoon
• Green chilli paste: 1 tablespoon
• Turmeric powder: 1 teaspoon
• Sugar: 2 cups
• Salt to taste
• Ground panch phoron: 1 teaspoon

Peel and wash the amra. Grind the green chillies and mustard with a little vinegar. Heat the oil in a pan, add the whole panch phoron and bay leaf, then fry the spice pastes together with the turmeric powder.

Add the amra and fry for a few more minutes, stir in the vinegar and cover the pan. Keep cooking over a medium flame. Once the amra is cooked through, mix in the sugar.

At this stage turn the heat down, so that the sugar and spices soak properly into the fruit. When the oil separates, take the pan off the heat and mix in the ground roasted spice. The sweet-and-sour amra pickle is ready.

Let the pickle cool and store it in airtight glass jars. Putting it out in the sun from time to time will let it keep for a long time.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.