Know What You Eat: Methumbo is an instant, sweet & sour pickle made by cooking marinated mangoes in spiced up hot oil and jaggery.

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Recipe: Methumbo Pickle | Sweet and Sour Instant Mango Pickle from Gujarat, India

Ingredients

1 C Raw Green Mango, diced
1 tsp Salt, marinate overnight (optional)
1-1/4 C Jaggery (Raw sugar works good as well)
2 Tbsp Oil
4 Cloves
3 inch piece Cinnamon, cut to pieces
4 Dried Red chili pepper
1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds (Methi)
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Cumin seeds
3 tsp Sambhaar Masala ** recipe below
1 tsp Fennel seeds
2 Pinch Asafoetida

Directions

Wash clean peel raw Mango, cut into square pieces add salt and marinate overnight, this is done to quicken up the cooking process as well as this will soften mango and let it loose the water for pickling process.
Heat oil, add mustard seeds, cloves and let it splutter, then add fenugreek seeds, cinnamon, cumin seeds and fennel seeds along with dried red chilies, and hing.
Now add mangoes along with the marinated juice, and cook until it gets tender.
Add 1 C Jaggery and bring it to boil, then simmer it for another 5-10 mins until the gravy thickens a bit.
Add 1 tsp of Red chili powder and set aside to cool.
Pour it in sterilized bottle to enjoy for couple of days, refrigerate for later use.

Tip: Make sure, the mangoes you use are sour mangoes and have to be very raw, they should not have the yellowish pulp, but a greenish pulp. The more raw the mangoes, the longer the shelf life.

Gujarati Sambhaar /Pickle Masala:
Ingredients

2 C Rai Kuriya (coarsely ground mustard seeds)
1 C Methi Kuriya (coarsely ground fenugreek seeds)
2 C Coarse red chilli powder
1 tsp Asafoetida
1 tsp Turmeric powder
2 C Oil
1-1/2 C Coarse Salt

Directions

Heat Oil in a kadia/wok to the boiling point.
Let it cool down
Pour the rest of the ingredients in the completely cooled oil.
Store in an air-tight container.

Note

Do not add the ingredients when the oil is hot, else it will turn black and also the steam will be formed. That will spoil the masala completely.
You can use the above sambhaar recipe to make annual or instant raw mango pickle or pickle of almost any vegetables like carrots, cauliflowers,turnips, grannysmith apple, cranberries etc.