Summer and Pickles - Part 3

No, still not tasted, have to wait couple of more days.

Day 2 was just mixing everything up and making sure oil was plenty, which it turned out to be.

I also thought I would go ahead and make thokkudu pachadi. The pieces of mangoes were mixed in salt and turmeric and left overnite. Next day, separated the pieces and oota (liquid part) and dried in sun for couple of hours. The mistake I did was entrust my hubby with the task of taking the utensils to roof top and bringing them back, some pieces went missing on the way !!!!!! The salted mangoes and dried pieces are very very tasty. Anyway mixed it with all the ingredients and kept it aside. Have to wait a day before tasting, waiting is such a cruel task .........

 

Summer and Pickles - Part 2

This year taking advantage of the fact that my parents are in USA, visiting my brother, I decided to take the plunge. Added to this was the fact that my mil made pickle when my hubby was in London, so he missed out on all the fun. Further, my brother challenged me to make avakai as good as my mom's and then he would accept me as a good cook !!!!! Challenge accepted.

So on a fine Saturday morning of May, my hubby and me set off. We went to Monda market (a wholesale market for fruits and vegetables in Secunderabad area). Bought mangoes, got them cut (there are people there who cut it there), bought ingredients - mustard powder, chilli powder, salt and oil. Had breakfast on the way back and reached home, all excited and enthused. Each piece has to be cleaned individually, which took almost an hour. Then the mixing of the ingredients. 

 

Turns out I don't have any big enough vessel to store the pickle. Parents duplicate key comes in handy, raid their kitchen for the appropriate vessel. 

Well there all done, now the waiting game begins. You too wait along with me for the results........

what next??

Summer and Pickles - Part 1

We all have fond memories of summer. Mine revolve around going to visit my grandparents and having fun with cousins. 

Of course, mangoes and pickles. I don't know about other states but in Andhra Pradesh, pickles are the lifeline. Pickle has to be included in every meal. And preparing pickles is an art by itself. Every summer all the households turn into small scale industries. Majority of our pickles are mango based and summer is the season for mangoes. And such varieties in mango pickles - avakai - multiple sub-types, magai, menthikai to name a few. My grandparents had 4 mango trees in their backyard. So come pickle season lots of hustle bustle. Getting men to pluck the mangoes - it should not fall on the ground else they crack, another set to cut the mangoes into pieces - all should be similar and should have seed on them there are special knives for that, ladies to grind (using mortar and pestle) the mustard seeds and red chillies, and my grandmother for the final mixing of all the ingredients. We kids used to run around very busy and even the little work entrusted to us was of utmost importance !!! Of course the waiting period. After the initial mix, there is the inevitable waiting for the taste to set in before we could eat it. Of course there were raw mango pieces, soaked in salt and turmeric and dried in sun, which could be eaten now and then. Ah, those days.

Later as we grew older, summer vacation were gone, busy with studies and then jobs, no one had time to go for the avakai manufacturing. But then pickles used to arrive at home without fail. I don't remember when my mother started making pickles but grandmother's pickles got replaced by mom's pickles and then supplemented by my mother-in-law's. 

My first tryst with avakai was when we were in London. Somehow, we managed to lay our hands on raw mangoes. We were in a temporary, paying guest accommodation. I managed to grind mustard seeds and made a temporary ava baddalu. What a sensational hit it was!!!! But later somehow I didn't get a chance for repeat performance. We returned to India. My hubby became very involved in my mil's small scale industry. Going to market with her, to buy all the ingredients, and then mixing avakai (he is interested only in avakai no other variety). We used to help my mil but never full fledged effort. Then my parents shifted to Hyderabad and there too it was the helper position that was accorded to me.

(to be contd...)