ఆవకాయ: Aavakaya- Green mango in mustard-chilli marinade

INGREDIENTS

3 Mangoes (medium size)
3 cups Aavalu/mustard seeds
1 cup chilly powder/karam (if you want little spicy add more)
1/2 tbs fenugreek/menthulu
1 cup salt
2 1/2 cups gingely(sesame) oil/nuvvula nune

PREPARATION

Clean mangoes and wipe with cloth.
Cut the mango into half and remove the seed from inside. Now, cut the mango into small(desired) size pieces as shown in the picture.
Make powder of mustard seeds.
Mix mustard powder,chilly powder and salt.
Add oil into the mixture .
Take small amount of mango pieces and little amount of mixture and mix well.
Take this into a glass bottle and do the same with all the pieces.
Now close with tight lid.
Mix well again on 3rd day.
Your avakaya will be ready to eat after five days.


This is our family favorite dish. This will go with rice, breakfast and snacks.
This recipe I learnt from my mother-in-law.

ఉసిరిగ ఆవకాయ: Vusiriga avakaya- Indian gooseberry pickle

INGREDIENTS:

Vusiri kayalu/Indian gooseberry-----10 big
Kaaram/Red chilly powder-1/4 cup
Mustard seeds/Aavalu------1/4 cup(powdered)
Fenugreek/Menthulu-------- 1/2 tsp(powdered)
Salt--------------------------------Little less of 1/4 cup
Oil------------------------------1/2 cup
Lemon juice----------------------1/4 cup

SEASONING:

Aavallu---------1tsp
Heeng/aSafoetida--1tsp

METHOD:

1.Clean vusirikayalu .
2.Heat little oil in a pan and add vusirikayalu.
3.Fry them until became brown and let them cool.
4.Take a bowel mix all ingredients and keep aside.
5.Heat oil in another pan and add mustard seeds, when it splutter add heeng
and let it cool.
6.After cooling add vusiri kayalu and oil to the mixture and mix well.
7.Add lemon juice and mix it and close with lid.
8.After two or three days it will be ready to eat.

In India we use to store in shelf, but in U.S. we are preparing with
frozen vusirikayalu. So we must store in refrigerator.

Enjoy with hot rice.

దోస ఆవకాయ: Dosa avakaya- Yellow cucumber-Mustard-Chilli-marinade

INGREDIENTS
1.Dosa kaayalu / Yellow Cucumber

2.Red Chilly powder...............3/4 cup.

3.Mustard powder...................3/4 cup.

4.Salt...........................................1/3 cup.

5.Oil.............................................3/4 cup.

6.Fenungreek powder...............2 tsp.

METHOD:

1.Take hard, firm and yellow Dosakaayalu.

2.Taste one piece while cutting them in to small pieces. Because they can be bitter some times. cut all and keep side.

3.Measure Chilly powder, mustard powder and salt, as given above.

4.If mustard powder is not available, you can make it at home. Take little more than a cup of Mustard seeds, keep them in sun to be little hot. Suppose no sun, heat them on stove, putting them in a thick bottomed vessel. Just heat enough. and put it in the grinder and make fine powder.To take out skin part of the powder, sieve it. At the bottom you get fine powder.

5.Now mix all three powders together, taking them as in the measurements.

6.Put 1/2 oil into the mixture mix well. Add fenungreek powder too. mix wee again.

7.Add the Dosakaaya mukkalu (pieces). Again mix well.

8Add rest of the oil and cover it for 24 hrs.

9.Depending upon the taste of Dosakaaya, if it is not enough sour, you can put 2 t sp of lemon juice in it mix well. or another choice is to use, 1/4 t sp of citric acid. this keeps the pickle for long time.

10.This makes a big 1/2 kg bottle.

11. This is often made in telugu houses.

ముక్కల పచ్చడి- Mukkala pacchadi: Green mango-mustard-chilli marinade

Serves: Fills a 1 litre bottle. Preparation time: 1 hour including preparation of ingredients. Marination takes three days. 


Ingredients:

2 large Green Mangoes (5 '' in length) 
1 heaped Tbsp Salt 
3 heaped Tbsp Mustard seed powder (Avapindi)
1.5 heaped Tbsp Red Chilli powder
1/2 level Tsp Turmeric 

Tempering:

1/3 cup Sesame oil (Til ka teyl, Nuvvula nuné)

4 Dry red chillies- broken into tiny pieces

1 Tsp Mustard seed

1 level Tsp Fenugreek powder 

Method:
1. Wash  green mangoes and pat dry. Dice into 3/4'' cubes. Discard the seed. 
2. Take a large mixing bowl. Add the diced mangoes. Add the Salt, Avapindi, Turmeric and Red chilli powder. Mix well. Set aside. The salt draws juices out of the mango and the mango marinates in the resulting Avapindi-Turmeric-Salt-Red chilli sauce. 
3. Heat the Sesame oil in a Tempering ladle or wok. Add the Dry red chilly pieces and roast until they brown & give off an aroma. Add the mustard seeds, they will splutter. Switch off the heat and add the Fenugreek powder. Let this tempering cool.
4. Pour the cooled tempering over the mangoes in the mixing bowl and mix well. 
5. Bottle into a clean dry glass jar. Let it stand still for three days. Mix well on the third day. 
6. Refrigerate. 


Goes well with hot rice. 

Precautions/Suggestions:
1. The ingredient meausures mentioned in this recipe are standard cooking measures. Hence, 1 heaped Tbsp of cooking measure may be upto 2.5 Tbsp of an ordinary cutlery tablespoon.
2. Avapindi sometimes turns bitter if left standing. Hence, powder mustard seeds just before you want to make this pacchadi.
3. Make sure that the tempering cools properly before adding it to the mangoes. Hot/warm oil can make the Avapindi turn bitter. 
4. Small Indian green mango cultivars are best suited for this recipe since they are sour. If the green mango is not sour enough (a common drawback with the large green mango cultivar available in N.America), you may add some Citric acid powder (one or two pinches is enough, depends on the mango. It imparts an artificial flavour so be careful not to put too much.).
5. If you do not have Fenugreek powder: Roast whole Fenugreek seeds until they turn dark brown-black. Let them cool and then powder them. Add this pre-roasted powder to the cooled tempering from step 3 and mix into the mangoes.


Variations:
This same recipe can be replicated with Dosakaya or firm red tomatoes instead of green mango, it is then called Dosakaya mukkala pacchadi or Tomato Avakaya respectively.


Trivia:
This is Manju pinni's recipe. Even the photo is of Manju pinni's Mukkala pacchadi which she made for us. 
Since this recipe uses Avapindi, it is a close cousin of Avakaya, Krishna grades it to an almost 'A', all other pacchadis are inferior B graders in his eyes ;-) 
I have memories of my mom making green mango mukkala pacchadi and Tomato Avakaya, she would eat it all by herself since we kids weren't fond of pickles. Her colleagues tasted some of her Chilli & Tomato pacchadis and told her that they'll sell like hot cakes if she bottled some & tried selling it!!

పెసర ఆవకాయ: Pesara avakaya- Green mango in Mung bean-mustard-chilli marinade Pickle

INGREDIENTS

3 Mangoes (medium size)
2 1/2 cups pesarapappu/moongdal
1/2 cup chilly powder/karam (if you want little spicy add more)
1/2 cup mustard seeds/aavalu
1/2 cup salt
2 1/2 cups gingely(sesame) oil/nuvvula nune


PREPARATION

Clean mangoes and wipe with cloth.
Cut the mango into half and remove the seed from inside. Now, cut the mango into small(desired) size pieces as shown in the picture.
Make powder of moong dal and mustard seeds separately.
Mix moong dal powder, mustard powder,chilly powder and salt.
Add oil into the mixture .
Take small amount of mango pieces and little amount of mixture and mix well.
Take this into a glass bottle and do the same with all the pieces.
Now close with tight lid.
Mix well again on 3rd day.
Your avakaya will be ready to eat after five days.
,pickle,manju,mango

This is our family favorite dish. This will go with rice, breakfast and snacks.
This recipe I learnt from my mother-in-law.