Pickle on a whim

With the summer coming to a close , it was time to make mango pickle before the first rain shower. I was in two minds whether or not to bother with making pickles but when I went to Bhaji Gulley last Friday and saw two Gujerati matrons haggling over the price of mango, I got inspired and in a moment of  inspired foolhardiness,struck a bargain for 10 kg of raw mango!

The enormity of my folly struck me only half an hour later while  lugging back the cut fruit : not only did I have no time to spend pickling and preserving the mango but I didn’t even have enough suitable pots!

I solved the problem of the small pots by dividing up the fruit . I steamed 4 kg of mango in two separate pots which meant that they weren’t evenly steamed. Similarly I divvied up the 4 kg  of raw mango into two different vessels and rubbed them down with salt and turmeric so that the excess water could be squeezed out. I then mixed up the spices and let them sit a while till the hot oil cooled down. I did have another option  – making  the pickle in my bathing bucket but would have meant bathing in a stained bucket and smelling like a pickled mango myself!

Since I had to do the operation in batches, the next four hours I had mango all over the kitchen as I prepared for the preserves and pickles. But my problems didn’t end with that.

I realised that I didn’t have any jars to store them in! Thankfully Mohan Metal Mart at Nana’s Chowk opens at 8 and I quickly rushed there to buy some jars. Then of course I washed them and sunned them before filling them up with pickled mango.

So it was a weekend that was eventually well spent but I’ve learnt one thing :

“Proper planning prevents you from getting into a pickle.”

Unishta

Ciao