Vadu Mangai for a Taste of Summer All Year Round

This recipe is part of the series: The Recipe I Mastered This Year

For me, vadu mangai symbolises summer bottled up for eternity. Years ago, my mother and grandmother came across a big batch of baby mangoes. They were overjoyed, and to accommodate the pickling process, they bought a new bucket!

We had pickle to last us the entire year; it felt like summer was just a spoon away. Last year I tried my first batch of vadu mangai or maavadu with a handful of mangoes. Although the process did give me a sense of how much salt and spices go in, it didn't feel right because the pickle got over in no time. So this year, I got hold of about 3 kilos of mangoes, and pickled them in two large containers. I cross-checked quite a few recipes to make sure my proportions were right. The end result was worth the wait. I too, now have summer bottled up all year.

Recipe for Sharmila’s Vadu Mangai

Ingredients
1 kg vadu mango or baby mangoes
2 tbsp gingelly oil (Indian sesame oil)
1 cup rock salt
15 dry red chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds

Method
Wash the vadu mangai/baby mangoes and dry them thoroughly. The mangoes Must be completely dry before the remaining ingredients are added

Trim the mango stems and place the mangoes in a large container

Add in the gingelly oil and mix well

Add in rock salt and mix well with a dry ladle

Close and set the mangoes aside. Over the next few days, open and stir the mangoes twice - once in the morning and once in the evening. You will notice the water content in the container increasing

After about 4 to 5 days, the mangoes will shrink, and become fully immersed. It is now time to add the spices

Grind the red chillies and mustard seeds to a dry powder. Add this to mangoes and mix well

Let the mangoes soak for 3 days. They have to be opened and stirred everyday.

The pickle will be ready after a few days. The longer it soaks, the better it tastes

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