I recently made the seasonal shulghum achaar…Shulgum is turnips in english.

In kashmir we use shulgums in a lot of dishes in various combinations. Like with rajma, with chicken, with lotus stems, even a nice hearty soup.

My neighbour’s mother who graciously shared some shulgums they got from a friend’s farm with me had made one khatta meetha achaar using gud (jaggery)… which I liked a lot too.

Here is the recipe for my version.

Ingredients:

1 kg Shulgum… peeled and diced (Keep to dry on newspaper)

Garlic cloves… a handful

1 onion… sliced lengthwise

Spices:

half tea-spoon sund (dry ginger powder)

4 tea spoons saunf

hing powder -half tea-spoon

a handful of whole saunf

2 tea spoons garam masala

2 tea spoons of coarsely ground mustard seeds(rai)

2 tea spoons red chilli powder

2 table-spoon Kashmiri chilli paste (for colour)

namak swaad anusaar

Method:

Heat mustard oil.. enough to cover the shulghum Burn it to smoking point, then let it cool Now add the spices followed by garlic, onion and shulghum Mix well Transfer to a jar Keep in sunlight for 2 to 3 days… Check for salt by the end of day 1… add more if required. In the same way you can do a combination of different vegetables… Knol kol is in season and a must try.

Looks yum… right! You can see the whole saunf, the spices, that beautiful red in the oil, everything… I feel very happy and hungry when I see this picture!