Cooking like my mother

My mother belonged to the generation of cooks that cooked with ingredients they had. If a recipe called for something that was not on hand or not available or was too expensive, she could easily find a good substitute. Since moving out of India, I am trying to apply same principle to my cooking. There is definitely a huge variety of fruits, vegetables and spices available here, but every now and then I am reminded of a fruit or vegetable that is just not available here. 'Karonda' is one such berry that I have not found in US. Here  is a wikipedia page describing this berry. At my house, Karonda was used to provide tartness to chutneys and also cooked with green chilies in a quick 'karonda-hari mirch' pickle. In the tradition of cooking with ingredients one has, I have found cranberry to be a good substitute for Karonda. During Thanksgiving time, when it is hard to miss cranberry in the store, I cant resist making this cranberry relish the way my mother made kar