Amba Achara

Amba achara/ ଆମ୍ବ ଆଚାର...  Tangy and flavourful mango pickle. Achara/ Pickle/ Achar a popular condiment of Indian cuisine..it's gives the right amount of sourness and the flavour to the meal. Made this achara before this lock down happened..when we were on our selfisolation phase..Now I m like thanking myself to have made this in right time, this achara is definitely going to help in this minimalistic cooking period..

Let's go into the deep process of pickling...how pickle was introduce to our cuisine..

Pickling is an ancient process of cooking for storing food.  Homemade Indian pickles involves various process, first chopping vegeatables,then sun drying them with plenty of salt n turmeric . Then mix them with plenty of spices and and coat them in mustard/ sesame oil. After that the storing time, pack them in jars and put them in the sun for several days,if needed. These are  are known to stay good for months  without any  need for refrigeration. 

Ingredients:-

Raw mango - 1 kg

Mustard oil -2 cup

Salt - 250 gm or as needed

Jaggery powder - 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder- 2  tbsp

Rred chilli powder-2 tbsp

Hing/Asafoetida - 1tbsp

Blackpepper - 2 tbsp

Saunf/Fennel seeds- 2 tbsp

Kalonji /Onion seeds - 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 3 tbsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1tbsp

Method:-

1.Washed the mangoes and them dried and cut into 1/8th pieces.Make sure that everything you use is dry and has no moisture.

2.Sterilize your jars in which you will store the pickle and also dry properly.

3.After washing, chopping and discarding the seeds, coat the mango pieces with some slat n turmeric and dry them for atleast 1 day. 

4.Lightly roasted saunf, and fenugreek seeds and grind them into fine powder. Roast the mustard seeds& black pepper and lightly pound them.

5.Now mix together salt, red chilli powder, kalonji,hing ,Jaggery powder along with the coarse spice powders.

6.Heat the  mustard oil  in medium heat till it reaches the smoking point,put some hing onto this. Then switch off .

7. Let the oil cool down. Then add the mangoes and the spices into this  mix well.

8. Let the oil completely cover the pickle.

Put in a ceramic or glass jar.

9.Keep it in the sun again for 4-5 days.

Your amba achaar is ready to use.