Topa Kuler Achaar (Bengali-Style Sweet-n-Sour Berry Pickle)
Although luxury restaurants in Kolkata take traditional Bengali food very seriously, upscale restaurants in Kolkata are now digging more into rustic Bengali recipes and are giving them their own spin. The dine-out restaurants in Kolkata are now getting creative, innovating with evergreen Bong delicacies, like Topa Kuler Achaar, Chingri Macher Chatni, etc.
When I visit my homeland, I love to dine like Royalty at luxury restaurants in Kolkata. At the same time, I don’t leave Kolkata without tasting certain dishes made by my loved relatives. Among those dishes, my Dida’s (maternal grandmother’s) pickles are just mind-blowing! I remember the joy of eating her homemade sweet-n-sour Bengali pickle, called Topa Kuler Achaar, on summer afternoons, sitting on a guava tree branch, along with my cousins. As kids, we used to spend the entire summer vacation in my grandparents’ house, enjoying the fresh produce every day, hand-picked from their huge kitchen garden, fishing in the ponds inside the garden and sometimes, learning to climb trees and throwing the seeds of the topa kul berry pickle into the pond in order to create ripples!
Topa kul is a special kind of Indian ber, round in shape and tart in flavour. My grandparents still have a few Topa Kul shrubs in the garden and every year, these berries are sun-dried under the expert supervision of my grandmother herself. These sour berries are eaten as a sweet chutney or made into sweet-n-sour pickle, using jaggery as a base. At my grandparents’ house, it is eaten with doodh-bhaat (milk-rice) or the traditional fermented panta bhaat.
Topa Kuler Achaar
[The Bengali kul is called ber in Hindi. Sun-drying a bit before using them for pickling increases the shelf life of the pickle.]
Ingredients:
Sun-dried ripe Topa Kul (sour ber): around 1.5 kg
Palm jaggery: 1 kg
Panch phoron (dry-roasted and coarsely ground): around 90 g
Dry red chillies (dry-roasted and coarsely ground): 8
Water: around 2 litres
Salt: 3 tsp
Method:
Soak the berries in water for 15 min to get rid of the dust in the skin. Remove the berries from water and keep aside.
In a kadhai, add the jaggery and water and let the mixture come to a rolling boil. Stir continuously and cook for 15 min. Strain this mixture through a fine cloth, so that all the impurities in the jaggery are removed. Transfer the filtered syrup back into the washed kadhai. Now add the berries, along with the salt, and keep cooking for atleast 20 min, or until the jaggery syrup thickens a bit. The pickle should not be dry.
At the end, switch off the gas and let this cool a bit. Add the coarsely ground panch phoron and dry red chillies. Stir well. Bottle the mixture when cool. Use within a month.
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March 13, 2015 @ 8:41 pm
I love pickled things! This is so interesting, and totally new to me. Fun post — thanks.
March 16, 2015 @ 3:26 pm
Kul and dida…..you made me all moist eyed and nostalgic. The trees, the gardens, the ponds, the cousins…beautiful!
April 16, 2015 @ 2:31 pm
Hi
I have loved and eaten kul so many times in my childhood in Calcutta. Glad to spot a recipe. Where do you get kul in Mumbai?
February 24, 2016 @ 5:10 am
Kuker achare kul gulo ke roudre na sukiye khali tel holud nun ar Lanka guro diye makhiye du din ghare fan er haowa te adha sukhiye gur e diye fotale ha be na?
February 25, 2016 @ 8:42 am
Na Nanda Dulal da, roudre shukono ta bhalo, nahole kharap hoye jawar chance thake. Tobe roudre shukiye kaath korben na.
February 4, 2017 @ 6:32 am
try korchi
March 5, 2017 @ 7:47 pm
1 kg topa kul ke 10 to 15 minutes jale bhujhiye bhalo kore dhuye clean kore jal jhariye annya batite rakhben.
Next bota chhariye and phatiye nun haldi makhiye roudre bhalo kore shukiye rakhben.
Next panch poran 75 gm & Lal shukno Lanka 3/4 khana shukno kadaite tele niye thanda kore guro kore rakhben.
Next 300 gm guud +200 ml jal bhalo kore phutiye jakhon thick hoye aashbe takhon nun haldi makha kul mishiye lagatar narben. Jakhon chit chit hobe, guro mashla ta diye bhalo kore 5 minutes narben. Gas bondho kore thanda hote din. 2 / 3 ghonta pore glass container e bhore rakhben. 6 month bhalo thakbe.
March 4, 2018 @ 9:10 pm
Dear MB, eta ekdom thik, khile ektu gur er pariman baratay hobe aar baja masala ekdon seeshe debe. Glass er bayan dhayle 4-5 din roddur dile aro bhalo hobe
Saraswati Pujo Special: Shojne Phool aar Topa Kuler Chatni (Sweet-n-Sour Chutney of Moringa Blossoms and Sour Berries)
February 1, 2017 @ 10:18 am
[…] you know that this is the day when a Bengali student can start eating the Kul or the berry (Ber in Hindi), after it has been offered to the Goddess of learning or Maa Saraswati? Don’t know about the […]
Saraswati Pujo Special: Shojne Phool aar Topa Kuler Chatni (Sweet-n-Sour Chutney of Moringa Blossoms and Sour Berries) - Cosmopolitan Currymania
January 16, 2019 @ 3:24 am
[…] you know that this is the day when a Bengali student can start eating the Kul or the berry (Ber in Hindi), after it has been offered to the Goddess of learning or Maa Saraswati? Don’t know about the […]