Irrespective of the variety of instances I fail on the job, uncooked mangoes beckon each summer time.
| Picture Credit score: Illustration: Satheesh Vellinezhi

My pal and I’ve been discussing mango pickle. The pickling bug has hit her and he or she thinks I might know extra about it – I don’t – as a result of I’m from avakaya land and he or she is certain I’ve made it myself. My disgrace at failing at pickling is proportionate to its legendary lengthy shelf life —the humiliation of flopping two years in a row has not left me. Nor has the pickle bug. All this messaging with my pal is tempting me much more, however I’ve informed her I’m resisting.

Preserving summer time in a jar is less complicated mentioned than carried out. Have a look at the quantity of recommendation obtainable. The juiciest mangoes are the perfect. Search for fibrous ones. Wipe, air-dry. Solar-dry the whole lot. Get the smallest mustard seeds. The massive seeds make the perfect mustard powder. Roast. Don’t roast. Powder. Don’t purchase from the shop. Make sure the cleanest, driest arms, utensils, and equipment. Soak, dry, lower, dry. Combine oil and spices utilizing arms, not ladles. Add salt. Don’t add an excessive amount of salt, you may all the time add it later. Relaxation (the pickle, not you) for 3 days. Stir as soon as every day. Go away it alone for 4 days.

Within the absence of omniscient and cherished grandmothers, like all fashionable girls, I turned to YouTube.

I do not need the particular knife that may lower by the mango’s endocarp, the arduous portion that incorporates the seed. For the basic avakaya, every bit has to have a little bit of it hooked up for the pickle to final. I attempted the maagai, which includes curing lengthy, salted items of mango for just a few days; a grated selection; and the chhundo, a sweet-spicy jammy affair that wanted to be sunned for days.

The outcomes had been diversified. In a single, the flavours didn’t meld. One other didn’t yield pickling liquor, remaining dry even on the third day. One even smelt yeasty.

Firefighting measures: Add extra oil. Decrease expectations. Foresee fungus. (And voilà, snow-white fungus raises its furry head!)

Purchase extra mangoes. Maintain on to curtailed expectations. The bug is alive and kicking, however now there’s the heroic resolve to by no means say die, whereas battling low shallowness and unsettling introspection about why I failed even at such mild challenges. Why was I taking them on? As a result of I used to be refusing to face greater ones? By no means thoughts all that, I couldn’t wait to see the tip outcome.

The maagai turned out salty and inedible. With my weak head for maths, I had most likely tousled the proportions whereas adapting the recipe to a smaller variety of uncooked mangoes. The blazing solar refused to scale back the sugar within the chhundo to the promised one-string consistency even after every week. Uninterested in trudging as much as the terrace, I started sunning it on my shady window sill, telling myself I actually wanted to loosen up. The third pickle product of grated mango died, desiccated and sun-stroked. After every week, I reclaimed the chhundo from the window and cooked it down in my kitchen. It was ok. However it being sugar and all, I hardly ever ate it. After I opened it just lately, it was smelling distinctly of spirit.

By no means once more, I informed myself. Why do I would like all this mess after I by no means run in need of family-made pickle? And I caught to my resolve. Until my pal messaged and despatched movies. Nope, I informed her, I’ve tons to get by.

Then I acquired on to the Web and ordered some extra from some home based business. Then I purchased some white sesame to attempt a model I had noticed on YouTube final 12 months. I actually ought to attempt my hand at it.

csravanthi@gmail.com