Mentaavakaya - మెంత్తావకాయ - Methi Spiced Mango Pickle - Andhra Recipes - గాయత్రి వంటిల్లు

Preparations:

Wash mango. Before washing remove the top portion of the mango with a knife. After cutting the top portion, observe that water like juice exudes from the mango (SONA). This juice is sticky. Wash mango well to remove the sticky SONA. Wipe the mango with a dry cloth & keep it aside to dry completely. When the mango is dried well cut it vertically from the centre. Remove the inner portion of the seed (JEEDI) with the knife or with a spoon. Cut the mango into medium sized pieces and spread them in a plate. Place this mango pieces plate in sun and dry for one hour.

Prepare mustard powder. Spread mustard seeds in a paper plate and place this plate in microwave oven. Dry roast the mustard seeds for 45 seconds or till you hear the mustard seeds crackling sound. Remove the plate from oven and cool the mustard seeds. If not using the microwave oven sun-dry the mustard seeds for one hour.

Dry roast the fenugreek seeds to make powder. Heat a pan and add the fenugreek seeds. Fry the seeds on low flame stirring continuously. Stirring the seeds while frying ensures even browning of the seeds. Fry the seeds till they turn brown and take them into a plate & cool. Take a dry mixie jar and add roasted mustard seeds and roasted fenugreek seeds. Grind the seeds to a coarse texture and take this powder into a bowl.

Method:

After one hour of sun-drying the mango pieces cool them in shade for 5 minutes. Keep all the things like a ceramic bowl, mango pieces, oil, mustard-fenugreek powder, salt and red chili powder ready before preparing the pickle. Take a wide bowl and add mustard-fenugreek powder, red chili powder and salt. Mix the spices well. Take 45gms of oil and add little oil to the mango pieces. Mix well to coat all the mango pieces with oil. Add the oil coated mango pieces to the spice mix. Add the remaining oil and mix all well. Take a dry ceramic jar and add the prepared pickle to it. Cover the jar with a lid and place this jar in a dry place for one day. After 24 hours observe that the pickle is wet with juice oozed out of the mango pieces. Mango pieces when mixed with salt oozes out juice. Mix the pickle well & transfer it to a small jar. Add 30gms oil above the pickle and ensure the oil forms a layer above. Keep this pickle jar aside in a dry place. After two days the mustard-fenugreek loose bitterness with the mango juice and the pickle tastes good. Serve the pickle with hot rice or curd rice. It can also be served as an accompaniment with dal rice.

Points to Notice:

Remember that this pickle is prepared as a temporary pickle which cannot be preserved all through the year. The reasons for not able to preserve this pickle are:

1. Quantity of salt used in this pickle is less when compared to the regular preserved pickles.

2. We are not using fully matured mangoes while preparing this pickle. Shelf life is less for not fully matured mangoes as there will be lot of moisture in them. In a fully matured mango, seed will be formed. The mango pieces when cut along with the seed (TENKA) retain their shape.

Before washing the mango, cut the top portion and clean the SONA (water like juice coming out from the cut end).

Here in this recipe we are dry roasting the mustard seeds in a microwave oven. For those who do not want to use microwave oven, sun-dry the mustard seeds for one hour. Intention is to make the mustard seeds free of moisture before making a powder.

Make a slightly coarse powder of mustard-fenugreek seeds—fine powder will not taste that good taste wise and looks wise. So do not sift the powder to obtain fine powder—coarse textured powder will be fine for this recipe.

We are sun-drying the mango pieces for one hour. As this is a temporary pickle, we are using less salt. So sun-drying the mango pieces will evaporate some moisture from the mango pieces which will be balanced with the amount of salt used.

Oil coated mango pieces when mixed with dry powdered spice mix, the powder sticks to the mango pieces. The salt in the spice mix when mixed with the mango pieces acts as a preservative to each mango piece thus prevents fungus formation. Also the salt when mixed with mango pieces brings out juice from them.

In pickle preparations, oil and salt are the main preservatives.

Adding 30gms oil at the end forms a layer above to preserve the pickle.

Remember, in regular preserved pickle we use more salt, more oil and fully matured mangoes. In temporary pickles we add less salt, less oil and not fully matured mangoes. So the shelf life of temporary pickles will be less. So prepare in small quantities and enjoy the pickle as long as raw mangoes are available in the season.

Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

103 Recipes you may also like to watch