Method

1. Take 1 cup white vinegar, 3-4 tsp sugar, salt and 1 cup of water in a pan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally till the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool completely.

2. Add the 20 pearl onions, 10 garlic, 3-4 red chillies to the solution and mix well.

Do not confuse pearl onions with shallots

Pearl Onions look just like normal onions but are smaller in size. Shallots are darker in shade and are pointed at both ends (more like garlic cloves)

More info on 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_onion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shallot

3. Pour into a dry glass jar and allow the pickle to mature for 3 to 4 days at room temperature and then refrigerate.

Serve with chicken starters.

This is my favorite pickle made my by grandmother. I love it so much that I eat it more like a side dish than a pickle.

This pickle needs to be refrigerated else it spoils quickly. The best part of this pickle is its crunchy texture and to retain it we make smaller quanities and finish it off within a few days. Hence don’t make a lot of it at one time – the recipe is simple and you can making it again quickly.

Method

1.  Take1 Cup finely chopped carrots (the orange variety) and 1 cup of finely chopped cauliflower (the vegetables should not have a trace of water - for this after washing the vegetables dry them on a towel/paper before cutting). Add salt and 1 lemon juice to it and keep aside for 2 hours
2. In the meantime, boil 1 cup of water and soak 4-5 dried red chillies for half an hour. Remove the chillies from water when soft and grind it to a thick paste with a pinch of turmeric, 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 1 generous pinch of asafetida. Use very little water to make this paste
3. Add the above mixture to the cut vegetables. Adjust the salt and leave overnight outside
4. Refrigerate it the next day after the vegetables taste pickled.

You can add half a cup of tendli to the vegetables (tindora in hindi /ivy gourd in English) if you like it. It gives a crunchier texture to the pickle. I  also add 2-3 tsp of finely chopped ginger or mango ginger since I like the taste of ginger in the pickle. The red chillies can be substituted with plain red chilli powder if you are in a hurry.