Name: Achar (Pickled Vegetable Crudités in Spiced Vinegar)
Yield: Makes about 8 kg or 17½ pounds
Ingredients: 10 candlenuts (buah keras); 120 g or 2 ounces turmeric (kunyit); 140 g or 5 ounces salt; 5 candlenuts; 1½ kg or 3 pounds sugar; 2 tablespoons sugar; 340 g or 12 ounces peanut brittle (tow tung), chopped roughly. *; 3 tablespoons sesame seeds (bijan); 1¼ ounces salt; 2 cups oil; 450 g or 1 pound shallots, peeled and diced; 4 red chillies; 1 tablespoon belachan; 30 g or 1 ounce dried chillies, soaked in hot water for at least 10 minutes; 200 g or 7 ounces dried shrimps, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes; 2½ cups water; 5 cups rice vinegar; 450 g or 1 pound garlic, minced; 150 g or 5½ ounces large green chillies; 2 cups water; 4 cups salt; 1¼ cups rice vinegar; 1 teaspoon belachan; 3 kg or 6½ pounds cucumbers; 230 g or ½ pound carrots; 1 large head cauliflower; ½ large head cabbage; 4 teaspoons slaked lime powder (kapor); 10 shallots, peeled and diced

Preparation info

Makes about
8 kg

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Growing Up In A Nonya Kitchen

By Sharon Wee

Published 2012

About

Achar was one of the last Chinese New Year items to be made, after the cookies and before the cakes. To make the pickles, my mother bought sacks of cucumbers, carrots and cauliflower, in addition to bags of spices and bottles of vinegar. It was a major endeavour as she would selflessly stand for hours to chop the vegetables into the perfect-sized crudités, not trusting many of us around her to cut them into the same shape or size. A bottle of her famous pickled achar, along with a se