I stumbled upon these beautiful fresh red chillies at the supermarket yesterday. It looked so fresh and alluring, I just had to buy some! I will figure how I’ll use it later, I thought. (Going overboard shopping for groceries is one of my biggest problems. I love having my pantry well stocked, but now it is quite overstocked because I go on buying things and just don’t find enough time to make everything I want). Anyway, getting back to the fresh red chillies – I decided to pickle them.
A while ago a friend had given me a lovely recipe for a stuffed green chilli pickle. So I thought I’ll work with the red chillies on similar lines.
Stuffed red chilli pickle with raw mango:
200g Fresh red chillies
100g raw mango, sliced
100 ml sesame oil or mustard oil (if you like the pronounced flavour)
Aesofetida, a pinch
Stuffing:
1 tbsp Mustard
2 tbsp Fennel seeds
1 tbsp Cumin
1 tbsp Nigella seeds
1 tsp Fenugreek
2 tbsp Dry mango powder (amchur)
3-4 tbsp Salt
2 tsp Turmeric
2 tsp Red chilli powder
Juice of 1 lime
- Wash and dry the chillies.
- With gloves on, trim the stem and deseed the chillies. Reserve the seeds to be used in the stuffing mixture depending on the how hot you’d like your pickle to be.
- Slice the raw mango.
- Mix the stuffing ingredients together along with the reserved seeds
- Fill in each of the chillies with the mixture
- Stir togeter the remaining mixture and the raw mangoes
- Heat the oil. Add a pinch of aesofetida. Pour the hot oil over the pickle.
- Let the flavours meld for a day; after which it’s ready to eat!
What I also did was thrown in the lime wedges too after extracting the juice. If you want to consume it within a few days, a little oil will suffice. Whereas, if you want to use it over some time, you need to increase the oil and keep shaking up the bottle from time to time. Incidentally, the first five ingredients of the stuffing make up the Bengali 5 Spice.
The strong, spicy, salty and sour flavours can spruce up any dish; be it Indian or otherwise.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I tasted it and it was the best pickle I’d ever had! It was just a mix of so many flavours which were all sharp and pungent…very good!
o that brings back so many memories… where did u find the raw mango in this season…. i absolutely love all the ingredients in this pickle… suffice to say i shud b making some soon too… so what do u like more raw or ripe mango? I never can decide!
Oh there are quite a few local vendors who have them. They are obviously not that big, but i just couldn’t make my pickle without the raw mango!
Raw and ripe – both varieties are always welcome!
You know what’s really appealing about this pickle is that it’s so vibrant. The bright red and green looks so delicious.
I can imagine… incidentally (to tune in with ur usage of 5 spice) my mom is Bengali… do u have any bong in ur veins too? I love home-made chilli pickle, the fireier the better!
p.s. thanks for the comment
p.p.s they’ve improved the quantity a bit now, hope your next visit is on a good day!
No Bong influence of any sort
I had been wanting to make this pickle for ages now, and after seeing this, I finally made it. I first tasted it in a friend’s lunch box – she bought back a ready made version from India and my – was it good!
I just made a variant of this without mangoes – unfortunately I put too much lime juice this time:( The next time around, I am following the recipe verbatim. Somehow, I don’t think mine will taste as good as her store bought version though…
I keep away from bottled stuff as much as I can, especially when it’s not to difficult to try and replicate it with a little extra effort. The results may not always match, but I’m happy to stay away from all the preservatives!
Initially, even I thought of adding extra lime, but then the amchur would add that extra zing, so I refrained.
Love this recipe…just like the recipe I’ve always looked for. YUM!!