Gujarati Mango Pickle



As promised...only to Nic mind you... the recipe for mango pickle. I have adapted the original recipe slightly, you can view it here https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/gujarati-mango-pickle-recipe-methia-keri/, this is the most amazing site for authentic indian recipes and is well worth a visit.

However...come on, you know I can't resist the lure of a good however...if you faithfully follow this recipe I can guarantee two things.  It will be hotter than the furthest reaches of hell and the amount of salt will instantly push your blood pressure to previously unseen heights, I reduced both of these somewhat.

I can't get green mangoes either so I just use the least ripe ones I can get, you lucky Australians can do this properly.

Ingredients:

3 large mangoes - not sure of the weight the original recipe calls for 1kg green mangoes cubed
¾ cup whole fenugreek seeds - these will need splitting in a grinder
½ cup split mustard seeds - I didn't have split mustard seeds so I blitzed some brown mustard seeds
½ cup red chilli powder - you can do ½ a cup if you are hard core, I used about a dessert spoon full. You need the really red chilli powder if you can get it.
2 tablespoon turmeric powder
½ tablespoon asafoetida...this smells really rank but it's pretty amazing stuff
½ cup heaped rock salt ... I wouldn't, I used a tablespoon full and I still think it was a bit much. The Indians really like their salt
3 to 3.5 cups sesame oil or mustard oil..if you can't get these just use what you've got. This time I used light olive oil, I think the last time I used rapeseed oil. I added some english mustard to the oil, it is a bit of a faff but probably worth it. Mustard powder would be better than actual mustard. I just added enough to be able to taste it.
Sterilised jars... you should probably properly sterilise the jars I'm afraid I just washed mine out with really hot water.

Method:

The following recipe sounds complicated but actually can be reduced to, mix your spices together with the cubed mangoes and pour the oil over the top. Leave for 10 -12 days stirring every so often...really, that's it, shouldn't take more than 10 minutes if you already have the split spices.

Grind the fenugreek seeds, this is much easier in a spice/coffee grinder, but if you are a masochist this can be done in a pestle and mortar. Don't reduce the seeds to a powder you want a fairly coarse mixture. Basically you are just splitting them. You may be able to buy split fenugreek which would make this a lot easier.

Grind the mustard seeds but again don't reduce to a powder, you just want to split them. You may also be able to get these already split

Clean and cube the mangoes into about ½ inch cubes and put into a mixing bowl

Add the split fenugreek, mustard seeds, turmeric, red chilli , asafoetida and salt. I am guessing that rock salt is a little nicer but I just used ordinary table salt.  Mix all the ingredients well...now I had a bit of a problem here as the spices tended to gather at the bottom of the bowl and because I was using more than one jar they weren't being distributed evenly. My suggestion here is to add a small amount of the oil and mix as it will help bind the spices with the mango chunks.

Add the mixture to the jars and then pour in the oil. I've never used mustard oil so I've not done the heating and cooling suggested in the original recipe

Make sure the oil is an inch or two above the top of the mixture.

The original recipe says 'close the jars tightly and keep them on your kitchen counter for 10 to 12 days, till the mangoes soften a bit and become tender. stir the jar after every 2 to 3 days with a clean sterilized spoon' which is jolly fine advice, what it does not say however, is that the pickle will begin to ferment. When I made the first batch, I put the jars up on the red shelf in the kitchen...you know the one, Helen got it from the auction, it's over the red sofa.

The colour red is pertinent here as the pickle is also red, the oil even more so,...pray why is this pertinent I hear you ask, I will explain...The whole thing is fermenting slightly which will produce gas which in turn produces pressure and forces the oil to become extremely gregarious and want to make friends with the family...it decided to go exploring out of the confines of it's kilner jar and spread itself over the shelf and the sofa which caused a certain amount of anguish and beating of breasts.

So, in conclusion, do not overfill the container with oil and do not put on a high shelf until it stops fermenting.

Once the pickle is ready you can always add some more oil if it starts to dry out.

In a hot climate I would recommend keeping it in the fridge after you've opened it, in the UK we keep it on the side in the kitchen with no problems

I suspect the most difficult part of this recipe is getting the spices other than that it is dead simple and can be done in about ½ an hour

Enjoy

Charlie

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