Avakaya - The king of pickles

This post is very special; its written by my mother and features the recipe for preparing Avakaya or mango pickle, the ubiquitous part of any Andhra meal. The first part (the recipe) contains her words verbatim. She put a lot of effort into not making it look like just a recipe which is really great; it's her first blogpost! The second part includes my experiences with Avakaya; sure to be mouth-watering.

The recipe - The season of summer is special for making pickles, rice papads and fruyams, which we generally call 'vadiyalu'. The entire family would be engaged in some activity to make use of solar energy. We get good quality of raw mangoes of the right size during end April and early May. Here is our recipe for making the delicious pickle Andhra special Avakaya. 

Ingredients required are basic starting with good mangoes. The other ingredients are mustard powder, good quality chilli/mirchi powder, salt, fenugreek seeds, and sesame oil. Making avakaya is quite simple if you have all these items. The recipe here is for 15 mangoes.They have to be washed nicely and wiped well with a dry coth. All the mangoes should be cut into pieces; each mango can be cut into approximately 12 pieces. The seed should be removed and while cutting care has to be taken that the thick outer shell of the seed remains attached to the piece. The cut mangoes are readied this way.

Our yearly ritual of making Avakaya in the month of May

Preparation. Mix well 150 gms of mirchi powder, 125 gms of mustard powder, 100 gms of salt, and 1 table spoon of fenugreek. Now the actual procedure of the pickle preparation starts. In a porcelain jar add some of the mango pieces, a portion of the mixture of the powder mentioned and some sesame oil. This forms one batch. The next layer, repeat the same and batch by batch complete adding mango pieces and powder coating with sesame oil. After adding all the cut mango pieces and the powder mixture, add the remaining oil. Total oil generally used in this process is 750 ml. Upon completing this process the jar has to be kept in a dry place. After three days, the mango pieces and the mixture has to be mixed again. Add oil if it seems less; always the oil layer should be on the top layer of jar. Now avakaya is ready. Fourth day onwards the pickle is ready to be eaten with hot steaming rice! Enjoy!

During my field work in the Eastern Himalaya, hunger was the only motivation to prepare food, which had to be prepared over fire. On really lazy days filled with rain, hunger, solitude, and homesickness, I would cook some rice and eat it with the Avakaya from home with some cut onions added; it was bliss. Overall, food links us to memories of home and of travels; its a gastronomic ticket to travel anywhere in the world!