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Khatta-Mitha Achaar
Ingredients: 1 ½ kg totapuri mangoes; 1 ½ kg sugar; 8-10 cloves; 2-3 pieces of cinnamon; 4-5 bay leaves; 20 pepper corns; 4 big, black cardamom (remove skin and use only seeds); 5 whole red chillies; 1 tsp black onion seeds; 1 pod garlic (peeled); ¼ piece of 1 nutmeg; jalantri — a few leaves; 8-10 dry dates (deseeded & washed); 750 ml water; 1 tsp vinegar & 1 tsp sodium benzorate.
Method: Wash and peel the mangoes, cut into medium-size pieces. Keep them aside. Boil sugar and water in a heavy bottomed pan. Add 1 tbsp milk (to remove scum) Turn off the flame & sieve the syrup in a muslin cloth when it is of one-thread consistency. Then add mangoes. Cook on a medium flame. After 10 minutes reduce the flame and add salt, go on stirring the mixture so that it does not stick to the pan. At every 10-15 minute interval add each ingredient — red chilli powder, peppercorns, onion seeds, dry dates, garlic, cardamom seeds, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves and, finally, red chillies broken into 2-3 pieces. Remove from fire. Cover with a clean muslin cloth and keep aside. When cool, remove the cloth. Add vinegar and sodium benzorate dissolved in water. Then bottle in a clean glass jar. This pickle lasts for a year.
Tangy Mango Curry
Ingredients: 2-3 ripe Badami or Alphonso mangoes; 5 tbps oil; 2 tbps heaped gram flour; ¼ cup kokum washed and soaked in clean water for 15-20 minutes; 1 tsp mustard seeds; ¼ tsp hing; 2-3 tsp red chilli powder; 1 tsp turmeric powder; 1 tsp methi seeds; 1 tsp jeera; 5-6 green chillies; a few curry leaves, 1 inch piece ginger grated; 8-10 ladies finger (trim edges, make a slit lengthwise); 10-12 cluster beans; salt to taste; a handful of mint & coriander leaves for garnishing.
Method: Soften the mangoes by rolling them on the kitchen platform. Cut the eye of the mango and squeeze out the pulp. Keep this aside. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add mustard seeds. When it splutters add gram flour, sauté for a minute. Then add jeera, methi seeds, curry leaves, hing and ginger. Keep stirring till the flour becomes dark orange in colour. Now add cluster beans, ladies finger, red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Then add the mango juice, kokum, salt to taste and 1 cup water. When it boils, reduce the flame, cover and cook for 30-45minutes. Garnish with mint and coriander leaves. Serve hot with steamed white rice.