Olive pickle is one of my favorites because of its bold and tangy flavors. I usually make a big batch and serve it for the rest of the year.
A few days ago when I was returning home from the market, I saw a street vendor selling olives although it's not the season. I couldn't resist and bought some to make more pickles as my previous batch was almost finished.
Let me share the recipe.
Ingredients:
- 500g green olives
- 1/4 cup mustard oil
- Dried red chili and bay leaves
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp 5 spices (mustard seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds (methi), cumin seeds, and nigella seeds)
- 2 tsp of red chili powder (adjust to taste)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp salt (adjust to taste)
- 1 cup of sugar or more if you like
- 1 Ripe Tamarind
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- A pinch of allspice powder
The ingredients may seem a lot but believe me the process is very simple. You can skip all the spices if you don't have them or even the 5 spices, and replace them with Jeera/Cumin if it's not available to you.
The cooking process:
Wash the olives thoroughly and pat them dry. Boil the olives in salted water for about 5–7 minutes to soften them. Drain and set aside to cool.
In a pan, add dry roast mustard seeds along with 5 spices in low heat until they release their aroma. Add the dried red chili, garlic slices, and bay leaves and fry them.
Add the olives, mix, and cook for a minute.
Add red chili paper and turmeric powder accordingly. Mix them and cook on low heat for 10 minutes until they become soft.
Add a ripe tamarind to balance the taste. You can add pulp as well.
Add sugar and mix the pickle well until the sugar melts.
Add vinegar accordingly let the pickle cook and mix with the ingredients properly.
This is how it is supposed to look. Yes, there's a lot of spices. The taste is complicated. But I love the tangy, sweet, sour, and flavor of all those spices.
It goes best with rice and any kind of fancy Bangladeshi meal. Also, we add it to our puffed rice mix or snacks as well. Even we like to enjoy it solo sometimes.
I love how it turned out.
You can make this simple pickle as well and enjoy the flavorful pickle that will add a zing to any meal!
