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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Maagaya - Mango pickle, no recipe, only pictorial!

I am deviating today from usual posts in that I only have a pictorial  for you but no recipe. I promise this is not a teaser (not for long atleast), I will get the exact proportions soon and update the post.

Coming to maagaya - it is a pickle made from sour green mangoes, peeled mangoes are cut into thin strips (almost like gratings), salted and sun dried. Fried mustard, fenugreek and red chilies make up the masala. Oil is heated and then brought back to room temperature before it is added to the pickle. The maagaya is preseved in porcelain pots called "jaadis" to last until the next pickle season. There are various ways of enjoying a maagaya pickle. We love this more than avakkaya or avakkayi at home (I know, it is a sacrilege to say what I did just now :-), but it is personal preference). Amma makes delicious maagayi pachadi from the preserved maagaya by grinding maagaya with green chilies and raw onions and mixing with yogurt. It is a standard side dish for pooris at our home.

The reason I don't have the recipe or in this case proportions for maagaya is that I didn't make the maagaya shown below. The pictures are all from back home from the kitchen of the queen of pickles and pachadis in our family. BH's atta carries on the tradition of summer pickles that has been in the family for generations and no matter what her health conditions are or how hot the summer is, she still prepares these delicious pickles every single year. Having eaten her pickles, I can honestly say she makes some of the best maagaya, gongura and avakkaya (without garlic for me). We got these pictures from dear atta and mamaiah when they made the pickles couple of weeks back and temperatures were soaring at 95F. Thank you both for sharing the pictures on the blog.

Here is pictorial of maagaya making from atta's Rajahmundry home. 
Cleaned, dried, mangoes being peeled. Notice the gadget on the right which will be used to scrape mangoes into thin slices

It takes 3 generations of people and a helper to make the pickle :-)

Cut mangoes spread in wide plates, mixed with rock salt and turmeric

After being Sun dried, mangoes are mixed in masala and drenched in oil

They go into the porcelain jaadis and used throughout the year

Yummy maagaya, ready to be used



8 comments:

  1. wow real traditional Maagayi with nice pictures. it is mouth watering tasty and hot like summer sun mpchhhhhhhhhh!!! goes with rice, poories or just like that.thanks for this wonderfull Blog today.

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  2. pickling is done at my place too..love maagaya..looks delicious

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  3. Enjoyed well the procedure of Maaagaay.It is a less harmful
    one than Aavakai.
    STATUTARY WARNING
    Eating pickles is injurious to health.

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  4. Reminds me of everything summer to me! My pickling session starts this week

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  5. Thanks Akila.
    @Kannada Cuisine - I agree, look forward to your pickle recipes soon. I am planning to post a few more this season too.

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  6. Jaadi reminds me of grandma's house. As kids we would sneak into kitchen and get the jaadi down when grandma was sleeping. The fun was in eating the raw mango chunks after washing out the pickle masala.

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