Sri Lankan Achcharu

Achcharu is a Sri Lankan pickle associated with the April New Year season and special functions. Amila Gamage Wickramarachchi’s selected vegetable version uses red onions, green chillies and carrot, with the offered optional raw papaya.

Vinegar carries crushed ginger and garlic, ground black mustard seed, ground black pepper, turmeric and salt. The same vinegar is used first to simmer the vegetables and then to complete their spiced dressing.

Half the listed vinegar is heated in a clay pot. Red onions are simmered and lifted into a mixing bowl, followed by halved green chillies; carrot strips and the selected raw papaya are treated in the same way.

The vegetables are mixed together. The remaining vinegar and the other seasonings are added to the vinegar still in the pot and boiled briefly, then that hot mixture is poured over the vegetables.

The same vegetables and dressing are mixed well and packed into a glass bottle to mature. This profile follows the mixed-vegetable recipe rather than the author’s separate baby-jackfruit variation.