Mango Pickle

Last week when we were in Frankfurt, we'd been to a Sri Lankan store. They had some awesome raw mangoes. But unfortunately not the ones I'm at the moment craving for :( Oh how I wish they'd ginimuthi / totapuri mavinakaye. I found a wonderful mouth watering photo online in Bindumadhavi's blog. She has used these mangoes to make pickles. Yummy!

Anyway, the few recipes I know using raw mangoes are either murabba, chutneys or chitranna. Pickles of course I thought was something for my amma n ajji to try their hand at. But AmAr bought 4 of them & told me to make them for Ugadi this year. Phew, the first thing was how on earth would I make pickles in so less time & without any one around, I thought I would surely mess up. But, after searching online, I found that it was not so difficult to make Mango pickles. They needed just one or two days of attention unlike the Lemon pickles. Konege Shankadindhane teertha togonde. Source my mum. After taking down the recipe from her I made these pickles.

While I was roasting the fenugreek & mustard seeds, the wonderful aroma that was making me nostalgic was just great. I was remembering amma, aunty & ajji making it during later summer & storing them in huge upinnakayi (pickle) jadis (jars). One such jadi can be seen in Padmajha Suresh's Seduce Your Tastebuds blog. I will ask someone to send me the snaps of the jadis back home along with Totapuri mangoes.

Amma told me to leave the salted mango pieces at least for a day so that the salty juice that is collected in the process would be enough to make the pickles the next day. So I actually started the process on the 25th of March.

Ingredients:-
4-5 raw mangoes
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
1 tbsp mustard seeds (for the powder)
2 tsp mustard seeds (for the seasoning)
¼ tsp asafoetida
2 tsp turmeric powder
3-4 tsp hot & spicy red chili powder
Salt
Oil

Method: -
1. Dice the mangoes into small pieces with the skin. Discard the seed. The mangoes have to be raw. Ripe mangoes will not taste good.
2. Take the mango pieces in a clean dry mixing bowl.
3. Sprinkle enough salt & mix well so that each mango piece is coated with salt.
4. Cover the mixing bowl with a lid & let the salted mango pieces sit over night.
Salty juice from the fruit pieces would be left behind the next day. Don’t discard it.
5. Dry roast, fenugreek seeds & mustard seeds on medium flame.
6. When the fenugreek seeds turn reddish brown or when the mustard seeds begin to crack, remove from flame.
7. Let the mixture cool down before transferring it to a grinder.
8. Grind the mixture to get fine powder. Keep aside.
9. In a pan prepare the seasoning, by adding 4-5 tsps of oil & mustard seeds.
10. When the mustard seeds crack, remove from flame. Allow it to cool down for a minute or so.
11. Then add turmeric powder & chili powder. Mix well, preferably with hands.
12. To this add the fenugreek & mustard seeds’ powder. The aroma is ever lasting in your memory if you are trying this for the first time. :)
13. To the pan, add the salted mango pieces along with juice to the pan. Mix well so that the masala coats each piece.
14. Transfer the pickle into a dry air tight container & pour 2 -3 tsps of oil over it.
15. The pickles can be used after 5-6 hours.