Homemade Achar/ Nyonya Acar 娘惹阿杂菜

Achar/ Acar is a mixture of pickled vegetables commonly served in Asian cuisine. It's generally made with different types of vegetables and fruits such as cucumber, carrots, pineapple, long beans, and cabbage, pickled in a well-seasoned vinegar concoction. It's an excellent side dish to increase appetite and goes well with greasy food such as nasi lemak and deep-fried food, it even tastes good on its own. During Chinese New Year, we serve Achar with prawn crackers and that's my top favorite pairing! ;)

The Achar recipe that I'm sharing here is a simplified version of Peranakan/ Nyonya Achar. 

Ingredients:

中文食谱：请在网页的右边点击Translate，然后选择中文翻译

2 Cucumber

1-2 Carrot

1/2 Pineapple

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

100g Rice Vinegar

100g Water

100g Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt (additional 2 tsp to dehydrate cucumber and carrots)

80g or more Gound Peanuts

2-3 tbsp Toasted Sesame Seeds

Some oil for cooking

(A)

3 Shallot

1 Onion

5 Dried Chili

3 cloves Garlic

2 Candle Nuts

1/2 thumb size Galangal

2-3 Red Chili

1 Lemongrass

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Method:

1. Cut cucumber and carrot into strips, mix with 2 tsp salt, let it sit for an hour, squeeze out the liquid, set aside.

2. Add ingredients (A) and some water (optional) into a blender, blend till smooth. I'm using Ninja blender which is very effective and quick, take only seconds to blend the ingredients into a paste.  Ninja blender can be purchased from Ninja Kitchen Official Website. Cart out with Promo Code: MIKISNSG to get a 10% discount for any Ninja-Shark products via their website.

3. Heat some oil in a pan/ wok, add in the paste and turmeric powder. Stir fry till the oil seeps through. Add in vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, you may adjust the taste to your own preferences.

4. Let it cooled for a while. 

5. Combine all ingredients together, leave it to cool completely. Store in airtight jar/ glass containers. Keep refrigerated and serve the next day. Best consumed within 1-2 weeks. 

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By readers, some feedback from those who have tried this recipe: