Shredded Mango Pickle and Peanut Rice ( Manga thokku/verkadalai sadham)

Blogging Marathon Day 2

Talk about runaway hits … this was surely one of those unexpected winners with my children and hubby dearest, .I had bought the raw mangoes at the Indian grocery store with the intent to make the thokku (or shredded mango pickle) It was the weekend and I had been planning Grnad Sweets Pulidharai mix with rice.

But the thokku made in pure sesame oil brought my kids literally (no exaggeration) scurrying to the kitchen with excited enquiries as to what I was making…

And the truth is guys, the pickle does not need to reek of oil for it to taste good – I used minimal oil and it turned out just fine



At the very outset let me say, if I’ve not said it several times already on my blog that I do not use store bought chili powder – just thinking about the redness of it has my stomach burning. All of us in our home react badly to that stuff so for the past several, I want to say at least 10 years, I have NEVER bought that powder to cook anything.

Instead I make my own powders/podis – including for this pickle

Ingredients

2 Mangoes Shredded

15- 25 red dry cayenne peppers (roasted lightly in 1 tsp of sesame oil and ground)

1 tsp Asafoetia

1 tsp of turmeric powder

3 tsp of dark brown sugar (or jaggery)

4 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp of mustard seeds

3-5 tsp of salt (depends on how sour your mango is)

Preparation of Pickle

First heat 2 tbsp of oil and add the turmeric powder and pop the mustard seeds and add the asafetida

Next, add the shredded mangoes and turn it in the oil

Keeping the flame in high, continue turning the mango for a minute or two

At this time add the salt and the sugar

Then reduce the flame and allow the mango to cook

You will see the natural waters of the mango bubbling and slowly evaporating

As the mango cooks the oil that is already in it will surge and the mango shreds will soften and start clumping together

This is a good thing J

The other thing you’ll notice is the redness of the ground chilies will also get more prominent.

Taste the pickle to see if the mango is cooked – Switch off stove

Then add the remaining 2 raw tbsp of sesame oil and mix it in.

Allow pickle to cool before refrigerating

For the rice

Make 1 cup of basmati rice in a cooker. Take a handful of roasted peanuts and crush them into a fine powder in a coffee grinder.

Layer the rice and the thokku and the powdered peanuts and mix in with a fork making sure all the rice has been mixed in with the pickle.

Serve Hot or warm with pappad/appalam or chips and raita.

The shredded Mango

The chillies fried before grinding

Added to the Mango

Notice change in texture and color - starting to look more like pickle!

The rice

And voila :)

Bhagi Pavani Champa, Padma, Sowmya, Gayathri, Harini, Minu, Meena, Priya Suresh, Rujuta, Saraswati, Santosh, Savitha, PJ, Shobana, Smitha, Priya Vasu, Usha, Veena, Jayashree M, and Srivalli, who has started this wonderfully challenging event :)

Priya Mahadevan,

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