Instant mango pickle

A summer afternoon lunch is not complete without this delicious instant mango pickle in most of the households in south India. It is called maanga oorgai in tamil and maavinkai uppinkai in kannada. It takes hardly ten minutes to prepare this pickle. It is summer here and the groceries are filled with firm mangoes to ripe ones. I got a couple of mangoes to make my all time favorite pickle. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Raw mango - firm - 1 medium sized

Mustard seeds - half teaspoon

Red chilli powder - half teaspoon

Turmeric powder - little

Salt as required

Asafoetida powder - 2 pinches

Oil - preferably Gingily oil/Nallennai - 1 tablespoon

Method:

Wash the mango and pat it dry. Dice the mangoes carefully into fine cubes (one centimeter size). Do not peel the skin.

Transfer it to a mixing bowl.

Mix in red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt.

Top it with asafoetida powder and keep it aside.

For the seasoning, heat oil and add mustard seeds.

When it pops, pour the seasoning carefully on the mango.

Mix well and the instant mango pickle is ready to go especially wtih curd rice.

Wrap it in-between a roti or make a bread sandwich with this pickle. Enjoy anyway you want it. It is such a delightful pickle indeed. The same recipe can be tried with apples too.

For variation, ground roasted fenugreek seeds can be added to this pickle. Just show a quarter teaspoon of fenugreek seeds in heat and dry grind the seeds and add it to the pickle before doing the seasoning. This pickle is my entry to Eating with the seasons - August.