Mango Ginger Pickle - maanga inji oorugai

Last week we went to watch Hidden Figures a true story about 3 African American women who worked for NASA. The story is inspiring, moving and leaves you wondering what happened to the culture of math and engineering education among women in general and black women in particular. Taraji.P.Henson one of the actresses in the movie had said that even though she had gone to college she had not heard about the women before starting to make the movie.

These women are inspiring by not only overcoming the racial prejudice of the time which in unimaginable to begin with besides working in a men dominated field as space engineering and holding their own while also having families. If you have daughters in particular take them to the movie and see how easy it is for some of us today and also to give them the confidence they are no less.

With a new twitter happy thin skinned president in the white house it is good to go lose your self in something that is fun. With the man in the white house who seems more like a school yard bully than a president it is going to be 4 long years. The current occupant is not any less experienced than the previous one who promised a lot of things and ended up doing pretty much nothing. While I am not completely torn and am ready for some of the silliness and political correctness to stop I am not sure how much I can take of the bully and his rants.


If the rallies around the world on the first day of his presidency is any indication he is not a very popular person leave alone a leader. Moreover the news focus is the so called president's issue is with the crowd numbers that came to witness his inauguration as if that matters. This is the person that people elected to solve the problems of unemployment and other serious problems. Seriously?

I for one will be doing a lot of cooking just to immerse myself in something fun and interesting. Now on to the recipe,

I found fresh mango ginger in the Indian grocery store and bought some on a whim. They look like fresh turmeric or thin ginger and have an amazing scent similar to mangoes hence the name mango ginger. My paternal grandmother used to make this pickle and she was pretty much the only one who made this pickle that I knew of. She also added this to her very famous lemon pickle. I wish I had learned how to make these pickles from her. Her method of cooking was very different from my maternal grandmother.

Scrape the skin of the mango ginger and slice them into thin round. Heat oil in a kadai, season and add the mango ginger pieces.
Add in the lemon juice and cook for 6-8 minutes. Add the chili powder and powdered fenugreek and mustard powder and turn off the heat after cooking for 2-3 minutes more.

This is also a very easy and not very time consuming.

Mango Ginger Pickle
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1/2 lb of mango ginger
2. 1/2 cup of sesame oil
3. 3 tbsp of red chili powder
4. 1/4 tsp of mustard seeds
5. a little less than 1/4 tsp of fenugreek seeds
6. salt to taste
7. seasoning: a pinch of mustard seeds and few fenugreek seeds
8. juice from 2 lime/lemons

Method

1. Wash and dry the mango ginger, use a knife to gently peel of the skin and cut into thin rounds.
2. Heat a small saute pan and roast the mustard and fenugreek seeds, cool and powder and set aside.
3. Heat a kadai or wide mouthed pan and heat the oil.
4. When hot add in the mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds and let the mustard seeds pop.
5. Add in the chopped mango ginger and saute for 2-3 minutes.
6. Pour in the lemon juice and salt and let it boil and cook for about 6-8 minutes or so.
7. Add in the chili powder and the roasted mustard and fenugreek powder and cook for 2-3 minutes more and turn off the heat.
8. Transfer to a sterilized glass jar.
Stays fresh for 2-3 weeks and a lot longer refrigerated.

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