Quick Raw Green Mango Pickle in USA

I love Indian Pickles, which is known to all of us as Achar in Hindi.  Basically South Asian pickles (or achar) are pickled foods, native to the Indian subcontinent, made from a variety of vegetables and fruits, preserved in brine, vinegar,  or edible oils  along with various Indian spices. Although the origin of the word achar is ambiguous, there are two views of the etymology of the word. One is believed to be Hindi  while the other Persian.

According to Mohsen Saeidi Madani, Indian-style pickle is called achaar in Hindi. While, other sources claim the word achār to be of  Persian origin. Āchār in Persian is defined as ‘powdered or salted meats, pickles, or fruits, preserved in salt, vinegar, honey, or syrup. Although varies by regions within the Indian subcontinent, some of the notable ingredient uses are limes, lemons, mangoes, ginger, eggplants, carrots, cauliflower and even bitter melan and other ingredients are used, but the decisive ingredient is the Chili pepper. 
In India, there are two main types of achaar, one is made with mustard oil, mostly used in North India, while in Gujrat they use peanut oil and in south India sesame oil.  While the other is without oil. Lime pickle is made by putting the achaar in the salt 
Homemade pickles are prepared in the summer and are matured by exposing to sunlight for up to two weeks.The pickle is kept covered with muslin while it is maturing.

Despite using the same main ingredients, the differences in preparation techniques and spices can lead to a wide variation in Indian pickles. A Mango  pickle from South India may taste very different from one made in North India—the southern states prefer Sesame oil and tend to produce spicier pickles, while the northern states prefer Mustard oil. 

As we all know the raw mango or green variety that we get here in USA is not as sour as what we get in India.  This time I found frozen cubes of green Mango at our local Indian grocer.  It was about 12 oz pack, half of which I used for something else.  The other half I put it back in the freezer. Today when I was looking for something I found this and thought let me make a quick aachar that can be consumed in few day.  As I said I love acchar and sometime I  have my chapati just with acahar, it brings back nostalgic feeling of my childhood...

In India they make pickle in bulk, but here I just like to make it in small quantity that can be consumed fresh without having to wait for it to be maturing.  (I had posted Red Chili pepper a while ago)
My dearest mom always used to send me a home made spice mix of salt, red chili pepper powder,   crushed mustard and fenugreek seeds. Which I always keep handy, but you can buy this mix at Indian grocers.

Ingredients

• 6 oz of frozen green mango cubes
• 1 tablespoon of spice mix for achar which is basically mix of salt,  ground red  chili pepper , and crushed mustard seeds  and some crushed Fenugreek seeds
• 1 table spoon of  Medium hot ground chili pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt (if achar mix does not have salt you can add 1 tablespoon of salt)
  

• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of asfoetida
• 1 table spoon of coarsely ground Sauf (Fennel seeds)
  
• Lime juice from 1/2 or 1 lime (depending on how tart you want your pickle)
• 1/4 cup of oil (I used Mustard oil and vegetable oil mix)
  

Method:

• Take six oz of frozen green mango cubes from freezer and place  them in a glass bowl and  microwave for 4 min on high power (uncovered).
• Take  it out of microwave stir and then microwave for additional 2 min to desired softness makes and  sure they don't dry out.
  
• Add all the spices, salt and lime juice.
• Toss with a spoon so everything is well incorporated. 
• Heat the oil in small sauce pan and pour hot oil over the spiced mangoes.
• Let it cool completely and then put it in a jar.
• You can mix it several times, and can put it in sunlight covered with  muslin cloth, but this step is optional.

Hint: 
You can have it out at room temp for one week easily but if not consumed quickly you can store it in fridge.
Another version I make is Hing Keri (recipe on this blog) which also very delicious, but you have to like the pungent smell and taste of Hing (asfoetida) In that I would just put salt red chili pepper powder, and hing without oil and without achar spice mix.

Aachar information source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_pickles
https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-Sh
areAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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