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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Edamame Filled Potatoes Kachories (Savory Potato Balls Stuffed with Edamame) Air Fried and Deep Fried..Your choice !!

This recipe is inspired by a friend of mine Mrs. T Gala, who makes the best form of these filled with coconut, chopped chilies,  cashew and raisins.  I love her Kachories.  She always makes them for me for appetizers, when I go to her house for dinner.  I decided to make a different version filled with edamame, then I thought let me air fry them and traditionally  deep fry them and see which ones come out better. 

So I made two batches with 5 potatoes each with same filling : Air-fried first batch of 15 and deep fried the next. 
They both came out good but  both need to be served hot as they are crispier when first come out of air fryer and deep fryer.

Ingredients: For outer layer (Shell):

• 10 potatoes (you can make 5 potatoes with half of following filling 5 potatoes yield about 15 Kachories balls.)
• 10 table spoon corn starch or Arrow root. (I used corn starch
• 2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon Asfoetida
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 4 Table spoon of Corn starch  for coating

Ingredients for Filling:

• One 12 oz pack of frozen shelled edamame (you can use frozen green peas if edamame not available)
• 1 cup grated coconut ( I used frozen grated coconut) You can omit this, if not fond of coconut.
• 2 bunches of cilantro
• 2 fresh Jalapeno pepper chopped
• 1 small or 1/2 large sweet yellow onion
• 5 spring onions  

• 1" fresh ginger peeled (I did not use it this time)
• 1/2 cup roasted unsalted cashew 
• 3 table spoon unsalted roasteed peanuts (optional)
• Juice from 4 fresh limes
• 1 teaspoon of black rock salt (kala namak)
• 2 teaspoon of table salt
• 2 teaspoon of mango powder (amchoor)
• 4 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoon of roasted cumin powder 
• Cooking oil spray for air fryer
• Oil for deep frying batch

Method:

• Boil potatoes. 
• While you are boiling potatoes you can prepare the filling.
• Cook edamame per instructions in Microwave.
• Let them cool.
• Chop onions (both green and yellow) and jalapeno peppers in vidalia onion chopper (small cubes)
• Set these aside.

• In a food processor finely grind cooked edamame.
• Add ginger, cilantro and cashews, peanuts, lime juice, cumin powder, salt, sugar and black salt.
• Grind all these together until pesto like consistency.
• If you desire you may leave the cashew to be added in chopped form.
• Transfer this in a bowl and add chopped onions and jalapenos.

• Taste and adjust salt, sugar, lime juice and Amchoor (mango powder) based on your desired taste of sweetness tartness and desired saltiness.
• Make small balls from this paste and put them in fridge while you prepare the outer shell with potatoes and corn starch.

 

• Peel boiled potatoes and mash them with potato masher or ricer.
• Add corn starch or arrowroot, salt, black pepper. Asefoetida.
• Mix everything and kneed in to dough like consistency.

• Divide the dough in to 30 golf size balls.
• (as I mentioned earlier, I made two batches of 15 each, one batch to air fry and another batch to deep fry) 
• Cover the balls with wet cloth.
• Take out the previously made filling balls.
• Press potato balls placing them with finger tips on palm of your other hand in to 3" circle.
• Place the filling in center of this flattened dough.

• Cover the filling bringing the edges together and make a smooth surface ball without any filling coming out.
• Take the corn startch in a plate and  roll coating the ball evenly with corn starch.
• Place these balls on a tray.
• While you are doing this preheat the air fryer at 400 degree F
• Line the tray of air fryer with parchment paper.

• Once all the balls are ready, spray evenly with cooking oil on all the side.
• Placed the coated and oil sprayed balls on parchment paper and air fry them for 10 min or until light brown.
• Take the tray out and carefully turn the balls over and air fry for 5 more min, watching so they don't  turn dark, but maintain nice light brown color evenly.
• Both sides should be nice evenly brown.

Serve hot with Ketchup, Chili sauce or  Cilantro mint chutney (recipe on this blog)

• I made another batch or 15 with deep frying method.
• You make the balls the same way as before and coat them same way.
• This time heat the oil in electric deep fryer at 400 degrees.

• Deep fry them until golden brown on all sides.
• Take them out on paper towel to drain all the oil Serve hot with desired sauces.

• So here they are,  prepared both ways.
• You decide if you are watching calories the air fried taste the same as deep fried.
• Deep fried ones are for you if you want to indulge yourself.
• I must admit the appearance was a little more round and appetizing for the deep fried ones :)

Hints:

• If you only want to make 15, you may only use 5 potatoes and cut the filling ingredients in to half the quantity each.
• You may add chopped cashew instead of grinding them, and you may use golden raisin, but I am not fond of raisin chunks in my fried savory snack.
• You can adjust the heat by adding more or less Jalapenos or chilies.

Enjoy !!

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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