Raw Green Mango and Indian Goose berry Pickle (Amia and Amla Pickle) in USA

If you recall the last recipe I posted was of Raw mango pickle, which I made out of frozen raw green Mango here. Well,  I ran out of it within two weeks.  When I went to look for another pack of frozen raw green Mango, I could not find it but they had fresh green raw mango, then I saw frozen Amla (Indian Goose berry) slices in freezer. I used to love Amla achar that my mom used to make it in India.  However it is a long process due to typle biter and sour taste of Amla you have to treat it before making the pickles. So when I saw the frozen Amla, I thought to myself let me try the same recipe with Amla and raw fresh Mango

Amla, better known as Indian Gooseberry, is widely used in the Ayurvedic medicine system of India.  Amla is extremely rich in vitamin C, having thirty percent more than oranges. It’s packed with many vitamins, minerals, tannin and other helpful nutrients. This herb is a very powerful antioxidant, preventing damage from free radicals that cause cell oxidation. Antioxidants are important for anti-aging and preventing diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.   Amla also works well for inflammation. It is a good anti-inflammatory for joints especially. This potent herb is also used to reduce fevers, strengthen the heart, control blood sugar, treat urinary tract infections and improve eyesight.

Here a picture of Fresh  Indian goosberrry.
The tree is small to medium in size, reaching 1–8 m (3 ft 3 in–26 ft 3 in) in height. The branchlets are not glabrous or finely pubescent, 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) long, usually deciduous; the leaves are simple, subsessile and closely set along branchlets, light green, resembling pinnate leaves. The flowers are greenish-yellow. The fruit is nearly spherical, light greenish-yellow, quite smooth and hard on appearance, with six vertical stripes or furrows.
Ripening in autumn, the berries are harvested by hand after climbing to upper branches bearing the fruits. The taste of Indian emblic is sour, bitter and astringent, and it is quite fibrous. In India, it is common to eat emblic steeped in salt water and red chilli powder to make the sour fruits palatable.

There are many ways to make Amla pickle but I used to same recipe that I used to make the achar from frozen green Mango

Ingredients

• 10 oz of frozen Amla slices
• 1 fresh green raw mango
• 2 tablespoon of spice mix for aachar which is basically mix of salt,  ground red  chili pepper , and crushed mustard seeds  and some crushed fenugreek seeds
• 2 table spoon of  Medium hot ground chili pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon of salt

• Lime juice from 3 limes (depending on how tart you want your pickle as raw mango here in USA is not as tart as in India, however the frozen pack of raw mango was from India so the tartness is good in the frozen pack)
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (best to use mustard oil but it is not for everyone's palate, it takes a while to get accustomed to its taste)

Method:

•  Wash and cut the raw mango in to small cube
• Take 10 oz of frozen amla slices from freezer and place  them in a glass bowl mix with mango cube and  microwave them  for 6  min on high power (uncovered).
• Take it out of microwave and stir and place it back in microwave to cook for additional 2-4 min to desired softness.
  

• Take  it out of microwave, let it cool.
• 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.

Hint: 
You can have it out at room temperature for one to two weeks easily but if not consumed quickly you can store it in fridge.

Information on Amla source : http://www.herbslist.net/amla.html and Picture and more info on Amla as whole fruit courtsey of : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllanthus_emblicahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License


Rest of the Photos and Recipe by Surekha

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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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