Avaka Mango Pickle | Avakaya Pachadi – How to prepare it in Authentic Andhra Style
The very thought of Avaka mango oorugai / pickle makes me drool for it. Not only me, anyone who likes pickle drool over this pickle. Preparing it in authentic style makes it even more tastier and enables it to stay for long time like for couple of years.
The traditional method for making the masalas involves traditional mortar and pestle of big size, in which you can crush more than a kg of ingredients; Not just crushing, you could make those ingredients to powder.
Sample image of traditional Indian mortar and pestle (named Ural & Ulakkai in Tamil, Rolu & Rokali in Telugu) is shown here.
For making this pickle, the red chilli is dried out in the sun, then crushed to coarse powder using this traditional Ural. Mustard and Salt to crushed the same way.
As times changed, we got shifted to electronic appliances now. But, I bet you the taste of making this pickle in the traditional way is not comparable with any other method. If you still have these olden days kitchen appliances, do make use of them for this recipe.
Using sea salt / rock salt for this is a must, make sure to grind it. Using the store bought powdered salt may make the pickle leave more water at the bottom, thus leading to early spoilage.
Selection of raw mango for avakaya pickle is also most important. For avakaya pickle, we need to cut the raw mango through its kernel. So, we need to buy raw mango which is meant for avakaya pickle. The skin of this raw mango is thin, so that it tastes good in pickle.
However, if you ended buying a raw mango which has thick skin, you can peel of the outer skin slightly using a peeler before cutting it for pickle.
If the raw mango you bought is turning to yellowish color, that means it started ripening. Do not use them. Use only fresh unripe raw mango for this pickle.
Required Ingredients:
Raw mango – 1 1/2 kg
Coarsely Ground red chilli powder – 3/4 cup
Coarsely ground mustard powder – 1/2 cup
Ground sea rock salt – 1/2 to 3/4 cup, as required
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Garlic cloves – 1/4 cup, no need to peel
Groundnut oil – 1 1/2 cup
Preparation Method:
- Wash and dry wipe the mangoes. There should not be any wetness in mango when you cut it.
- Cut the raw mango through its kernel, remove the inner seed, and its layers.
- Cut into smaller pieces along with seed’s outer shell which is attached with fleshy part of raw mango.
- This requires lot of efforts as its difficult to do with knife. If you can’t do it, you can ignore this step and cut into small pieces.
- Take cut raw mango pieces in a big bowl or casserole.
- Add red chilli powder and mix well.
- Add ground mustard powder, ground salt, fenugreek seeds and mix well.
- Add garlic cloves and oil. Mix well.
- Transfer to glass jar and cover it.
- After 3 days, give it a nice mix, then check the taste. By this time, all masalas must have blended well. You can taste now and see if it matches your taste. If salt or red chilli is required you can add and mix well.
- Keep the oil level 1 inch on top of the pickle, so that the pickle stays good and does not get spoiled soon.
- Give it a week time to get little soften before you start using it.
- You can enjoy this delicacy along with all south Indian foods, chapathi and roti too.
Stepwise pictures:
- Wash and dry wipe the mangoes. There should be any wetness in mango when you cut it.
- Cut the raw mango through its kernel, remove the inner seed, and its layers.
- Cut into smaller pieces along with seeds outer shell which is attached with fleshy part of raw mango.
- This requires lot of efforts as its difficult to do with knife. If you can’t do it, you can ignore this step and cut into small pieces.
- Take cut raw mango pieces in a big bowl or casserole.
- Add red chilli powder and mix well.
- Add ground mustard powder, ground salt, fenugreek seeds and mix well.
- Add garlic cloves and oil. Mix well.
- Transfer to glass jar and cover it.
- After 3 days, give it a nice mix, then check the taste. By this time, all masalas must have blended well. You can taste now and see if it matches your taste. If salt or red chilli is required you can add and mix well.
- Keep the oil level 1 inch on top of the pickle, so that the pickle stays good, does not get spoiled soon.
- Give it a week time to get little soften before you start using it.
- You can enjoy this delicacy along with all south Indian foods, chapathi and roti too.
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