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Gooseberry Spiced Atchar

Gooseberry Spiced Atchar is a traditional South African Indian recipe for a classic quick pikle of gooseberries cooked with curry paste and spices that's typically served as a starter with poppadoms. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic South AfricanIndian version of: Gooseberry Spiced Atchar.

prep time

5 minutes

cook time

30 minutes

Total Time:

35 minutes

Serves:

4–6

Rating:

Tags : CurrySpice RecipesSouth-africa Recipes

This is a South African Indian-style quick pickle intended to be served with poppadoms as a starter.

Two types of plant are commonly called ‘gooseberry’ the European Ribes uva-crispa and the closely-related American Ribes hirtellum as well as the South American Physalis peruviana, known variously as Cape gooseberry or Peruvian groundcherry. Both are grown in South Africa and both can be used in this recipe. The green gooseberry is quite tart whilst the red gooseberry is sweeter. The Cape gooseberry is sweeter still. So, the particular fruit type you use will affect the final flavour of the dish. As this is intended as a starter, I prefer more astringent green gooseberries myself. But, as with any recipe adapt and suit to your own tastes. Both fruit tend to have a relatively short season in South Africa, so I buy more than I need and freeze the remainder. If you don’t have enough, you can combine both fruit to make the dish.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
3 green cardamom pods
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 garlic cloves, crushed
5cm piece of ginger, grated
2 fresh red chillies, chopped
2 tbsp curry paste
125ml (1/2 cup) red wine vinegar
1 tbsp dark Brown sugar
Finely-grated zest of 1 lemon
300g gooseberries
2 tbsp fresh mint
Poppadoms, to serve

Method:

Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the dry spices and fry for about 30 seconds, or until aromatic. Now stir in the garlic, ginger, chillies and curry paste.

Continue cooking for 2 minutes more then add the red wine, sugar, lemon zest and gooseberries. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the mixture is syrupy.

Take off the heat and add the mint. Allow to cool completely before serving alongside poppadoms as a starter.