Mangai Thokku

There are many varieties of mango pickle. Thokku is a type of pickle wherein the ingredients look mashed and blended, like a thick paste. Try Mango thokku and you will love it, you can have it with idli/dosa or chappathi and of course curd rice. Also if mixed little with hot rice with one spoon of gingelly oil, it tastes mmmmmmm...

 

Ingredients:

Raw & sour variety mango medium size : 2 (500g apprx)

Dry roasted fenugreek powder : 1 tbsp
Turmeric : 1/2 to 3/4th tsp
Asafoetida/Hing : 3/4th tsp
Salt : 100g apprx
Red chilli powder : 1/2 cup
Mustard : 1 tbsp
Gingley oil : 125 ml

Note : For fenugreek powder, dry roast the fenugreek till it turns reddish, then let it cool and grind it into powder.

Method:

1. Wash the mangoes well and pat them dry. Grate the mangoes. (No need to peel skin). Keep all ingredients ready nearby.

2. Take a thick bottom kadhai. Heat all the oil, add mustard seeds, let it crackle. Then add the grated mangoes, turmeric and saute well on medium flame. Keep mixing it well (down to up..down to up), else mangoes may tend to burn. Saute till quantity reduces to half approximately.

3. Add salt and saute for 3 min (on adding salt, mangoes will lose some water, so saute for 3 min), then add red chilli powder. Mix well. Check if oil is required, if you feel all the oil is absorbed and no oil is to be seen then add some oil.
4. Saute well till quantity reduces to 1/4th (1/4th of the initial quantity). The mango will look mashed and blended with all other ingredients.

Note: But make sure you dont saute too much also. The mangoes should have little moisture left too. It should not look very dry and fried.

5. Add fenugreek powder and asafoetida, immediately switch off flame and mix well.

6. Dont close with lid until it cools down. (Once you switch off the flame and mix well...let it cool for sometime...Then close it half with a lid because it takes hours together for it to actually come down to room temperature. If you close it with lid when hot, then moisture will stick on to the lid and soon water will drip into the pickle which will spoil it soon. So perform this step carefully.)

7. Take any dry air tight container  ( I personally keep the container open under sun for sometime before transferring any pickle into it), and transfer the pickle into it. If required, you can adjust oil/salt/asafoetida.

You can store it in fridge upto 6 months apprx.