Coffee and grains aren’t really an equivalent comparison.
@harters I think it’s because most restaurants are North Indian / Punjabi / Mughlai, and those pickles tend to be spicy, not sweet.
For some eastern and western states, sweet flavor weighs in to the balance more heavily.
You should be able to find them quite readily at Indian grocery stores, given the heavy Gujarati and Bengali/Bangladeshi populations in the UK (and in the US).
I’m sure no offence was intended but that word is a racial insult in the UK - on a level with the N-word.
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Yes. I did not know that it was such an awful word. I will try to edit it. Thanks
I asked the moderators to amend it or remove it. 
Thanks for your consideration.
Long ago some Indian colleagues took me to their favorite restaurant for buffet style lunch. Not having eaten much Indian cuisine I just plated what looked interesting. I thought these lovely braised potatoes reminded me of something my mother used to prepare. So I happily added a mound to my plate.
At the table I placed a reasonable chunk of “potato” in my mouth and about died. It was 99% salt. I choked it down and asked what it was.
My Indians friends laughed and laughed at me. Apparently it was what they call “pickle”. They said I was to lightly touch my bread or a fork of other food to the pickle to add a tiny bit of flavor. They laughed about that lunch for a long time.
I got them back though. They wanted to try A&W root beer. So I took them to the fast food A&W. They absolutely hated the root beer. Their faces turned to a classic Shar-Pei shape (like Gordon Ramsay). Lol!
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There are certainly similar stories from people unfamiliar with ginger ale, who tried it expecting to write home about a specialty of our local brewers. 
PS: I’m convinced that the only way for commercial root beer to taste the way it does is that they use the same flavouring formula as the major American toothpaste brands did 40 years ago. 
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I’ve come across the Priya brand in Asian supermarkets here, but hadnt heard of Ella. Do they export out of India?
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I just got around to reading this and am glad I did. A very good thread and my thanks to all who have contributed their knowledge.
I currently have a green chilli pickle, Ashoka brand, and Ginger Pickle, RaSna brand that I like. I know I’ve had lime pickle and garlic pickle, too. I’ve tried 3 different mango pickle brands and not cared for any of them. I’ve read it’s the variety most commonly served in Indian restaurants here.
My favorite Indian grocer, an hours round trip, had their home made dahi, chutneys and other products in a cooler in the produce department. Chutneys were in one serving sizes - i.e., about a1/4 cup, the dahi was a quart and better than any of the mass produced brands in other coolers in the store.
That was the best way to buy good chutneys.
Their snack bar at the rear turned out some of the best Gujurati food in the whole area.
Unfortunately they closed during the pandemic after the death of the matriarch. They promised to come back but haven’t yet.
Hope this is a good place to share about this!
Thinking of making it with mostly chard stems, but it’s got lots of intriguing comments about chutneys!
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Just came across this thread and thought this would be a good place to share this article I read a long time ago and really enjoyed. Indian pickles, especially homemade, are a treasure.
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Looks like a geeen chutney recipe swapping chard for the cilantro or mint, and I’m not sure chard stems have enough flavor of their own to totally replace the herbs rather than supplement them.
Also it’s cooked, which makes sense for chard stems — green chutney is raw.
In this realm of highly seasoned greens, you may want to take a look at baata / bharta / chokha from Bengal & Bihar — well spiced / pungent mash of some vegetable with aromatics and spices, typically eaten with plain rice or rice and dal.
The green bean one would textually be closest to Swiss chard stems, and if it were me, I wouldn’t puree it, just smush it a bit at the end. But baatas do have a more pureed texture, so you can go with your preferred outcome.
You can also cut it with some boiled potato if you want to temper the intensity.
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Thank you! I’m also looking at pickle recipes. God forbidI just toss them.
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I enjoy both swiss chard stems and beet stems – usually just saute with onion & garlic and finish with vinegar. But I like the bharta / baata idea, will try next time I have some.
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Thank you! That green bean recipe looks tasty! I have about a pound, so I was hoping for something that would be good for awhile.
I substituted chard stems successfully for long beans in this recipe:
It’s not an Indian pickle, but it does hold well in the fridge and is a nice accent to main dishes (I added it to a sesame noodle dish).
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@Saregama your post reminded me of a recipe my aunt used to make - a ‘bata’ of cabbage and prawn heads! It was so good. The texture was the result of grinding the ingredients on a ‘sheel nora’ - a large stone slab with dents chiseled into it with a rolling pin like pestle to crush and grind the ingredients on the slab. It’s hard to recreate the texture using modern kitchen gadgets. My aunt died many years ago. My mum still has an ancient sheel nora and every few years gets a man to come and refresh the dents in the slab with a chisel!
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We have ours too (called sil-batta in hindi). Here is a pic & article for those curious.
My mom remembers my dad grinding masalas on it in the early days of their marriage (she couldn’t even make tea 
).
I remember it in use throughout my childhood, but one grandmom and mom were both early adopters of any kitchen technology available, so mom mostly used a mixer-grinder. (My other grandmother viewed modernization as the devil and continued to use the grinding stone when required, and also a kerosene stove despite everyone’s constant comments that she’d blow herself and all of us up some day 
– but of course she didn’t).
I’m in the mom / grandmom camp of being a champion of tech that saves (usually women’s) labor and effort.
I think texture can be achieved by different applications of the tech – such as not grinding fully, or in stages. I have two mini choppers that chop to different textures / sizes, and will grind if processed further. (So, for eg, I can get a fine dice or a grated onion, depending on what I do with the same machine.)
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