Carrot And Dry Fruits Pickle (Gajar, Sookha Meva Nu Achar)

Preparation : Soak the kharak for 4 hours in the 500 ml vinegar and drain. Slit kharak lengthwise in two and remove seeds. Squeeze out some of the juice from the shredded carrots- but not all. (Retain the juice in a jug). In the drained vinegar, add the shredded carrots, chile powder, and salt. Boil the mixture in a large sauce pan on medium heat until half cooked, stirring frequently. (about half hour). Add some more vinegar, and/or retained carrot juice(only if mixture appears dry). Add jaggery (after breaking/crumbling the block in small pieces). Add kharak, mustard, turmeric and garlic to the carrot mixture. Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently Add apricots and dates and cook until the mixture is thick and most of the liquid is absorbed. Stir frequently ( Note that the pickle will soak up some of the liquid while it is cooling) Add figs currents and resins. Stir and cook further for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool mixture and bottle in sterilized jars. Note. If the pickle appears somewhat dry after cooling, add some Golden Syrup mixed with some sweet sherry. Golden Syrup could be made somewhat more liquidy for easier mixing with the pickle by first heating it a little for half a minute or so in microwave or on stove. NOTES. Does not need refrigeration. And keeps for several months. Dried apricots with seeds (Jardaloo) are often not easily available outside of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. I have instead used dried, seeded, orange coloured apricots which are easily available in supermarkets. Source: Burjin