Winter Amlas and the Quiet Art of Preservation
Winters in Bombay are almost a myth but what signals the season are the vegetable markets bustling with winter goodies — green garlic, yams, sweet potatoes, and my favourite, amlas, or Indian gooseberries. My mother would buy kilos of fresh amla and I would shriek with joy as we sat down to clean and sort the winter produce. I wasn’t interested in the cloth bags she brought from home, packed with vegetables. I was only after the amlas, rushing to bite into their sharp sourness. She would nudge me right away and say, wash them before you eat. So I gathered all the amlas into a container and washed them under the sink tap. I was taught only once how to handle amlas for preserving and I knew the steps perfectly. After each amla was washed carefully, I would let them dry on the windowsill. Then I grabbed a kitchen napkin and thoroughly wiped each amla dry. When they were all dried, I needed my mother again to find me an old glass jar. She would reach into the depths of the kitchen cabinets...