Mango Thokku
Mango Thokku is a South-Indian style instant pickle made from grated raw mangoes, cooked with turmeric, chilli powder, fenugreek powder and jaggery
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups Grated Raw Mangoes 2 medium sized mangoes, peeled and grated
- 4 tbsp Gingelley or Sesame Oil
- 5 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- 3 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 2 tsp Jaggery grated
- ½ tsp Roasted Fenugreek Seeds Powder
- ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
- ¼ tsp Asafoetida
Instructions
- Wash the mangoes and pat them dry with a cloth. Peel the mangoes.
- Grate the mangoes in the largest setting of the grater. This should yield around 2.5 cups of grated mangoes. If the yield is less or more, adjust the other ingredients accordingly.
- Take a heavy bottom kadai and heat 4 tablespoons of gingelley oil. Add the mustard seeds and once it sputters, add the asafoetida.
- Now add the grated raw mangoes and 1 teaspoon of salt and mix well. Let it cook on medium flame for around 5 to 7 minutes. Keep stirring in between.
- Meanwhile, if you do not have fenugreek powder, you could dry roast the fenugreek seeds, let it cool down and grind it coarsely.
- Once the mangoes become translucent and the quantity slightly reduced, add turmeric powder and the remaining salt. Cook for couple of minutes on medium flame.
- Now add the chilli powder and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes or until the oil starts separating. Continue cooking on a low to medium flame while stirring in between.
- When you start seeing the oil to separate from the mangoes, add half teaspoon fenugreek powder and two teaspoons of grated jaggery and cook for one more minute.
- Once the oil separates out completely, turn off the stove.
- Cool the thokku before transferring to a clean glass or ceramic container. You can refrigerate it for a longer shelf life.
Notes
- Use gingelley or sesame oil for the best flavour and taste.
- Try not to use the mangoes which are too sour. This recipe also works great for the raw mangoes which have just started turning slightly sweet. You could reduce the amount of jaggery accordingly.
- Jaggery is used to balance the sourness from the mangoes, however you could skip if you don't like it.
- I prefer using Kashmiri Red chilli powder to get the bright red colour. However if you are using the regular chilli powder, scale down the quantity accordingly as Kashmiri red chilli powder is mildly spiced.
- Add the fenugreek powder only towards the end and not along with the other spices while cooking. Cooking fenugreek powder for long could make the thokku bitter, hence it is added at the end.
- If you see that the thokku is drying out on the top when stored in the fridge, give it a mix with wooden spoon once in a while, so that the oil is uniformly coated on the top layer too.