( A mildly spiced baby raw mangoes pickle ).

Have you ever experienced the growth of a mango tree? If yes, you’ll know how beautiful it is to watch the yellow flowers bloom, followed by the arrival of baby raw mangoes- ‘Bal kairis’ as we call them. The tender leaves of a mango tree have a light brownish green color! I have intentionally placed these beautiful tender leaves in the picture below, along with the regular mango leaves. Can you see the difference? Observing the changing of the leaf color, the baby mangoes growing big and then turning into delicious yellow mangoes- watching a mango tree, in the summer season, is just a treat to the eyes!

Do you know the best part of all this? We can utilize all these stages of raw mangoes and mangoes to make delicious food! Today I am going to share my Mother’s Bal kairi loncha (pickle) recipe on the blog. A few days back, my father got fresh baby raw mangoes directly from a nearby mango tree. As soon as I saw them, I decided to shoot these beauties! My mom helped me with the recipe and so I made this mouth-watering pickle immediately!

In the Marathi language, ‘bal’ means a baby, and ‘Kairi’ means raw mango. Thus, these baby raw mangoes are aptly called ‘Bal kairis’.

Ingredients

For the pickle -

• 7-8 baby raw mangoes (bal kairis)

• 3 tbsp K-pra pickle masala (achaar masala)

• salt for rubbing on the baby raw mangoes

• salt for adding later (if needed)

  For the tempering -

• 1/4 cup oil

• 1 tbsp mustard seeds (rai)

• 1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

• 3 tsp red chili powder (lal tikha powder)

  
  

Method

• Wash the baby raw mangoes thoroughly and soak them in water for 2-3 hours. Discard the water and pat them dry.

• Cut the upper portion of the baby raw mangoes/bal kairis (the part which is attached to the stem) horizontally as shown below.

• Rub this slice on the cut portion of the ball kairi in circular motions. In some bal kairis, some sticky liquid will ooze out after this process. This liquid is called ‘cheek’ in Marathi. Wipe off this liquid. Many people are allergic to this liquid and so removing it is advised.

• Make a vertical slit in the middle of bal kairi, but not till the very end. You will see a small tender seed inside, as shown below-

• With the tip of the knife, gently remove this seed. Discard it.

• Make two more vertical slits at a 45 deg angle to the earlier slit as shown in the picture below. DO NOT CUT TILL THE END. Repeat this process for all bal kairis.

• Rub salt all over the bal kairis and keep them aside for 6-7 hours. You can keep some weight over them if required.

• After 6-7 hours, the bal kairis will have released water and changed color(they turn slightly yellowish in color). Discard this water and pat the bal kairis dry again.

• Rub the pickle masala all over a bal kairi (inside and out) and keep it aside. Repeat for all bal kairis.
  

• In a small kadhai/pan, heat oil on a low flame, for the tempering. Add mustard seeds, when the oil gets hot and let them splutter. Add turmeric powder, and red chili powder, and turn off the heat immediately. Cool this tempering completely and then pour it over the bal kairis.

• Mix everything well gently. Add a little salt if required and transfer the pickle to an air-tight glass jar. Keep the pickle in the jar for at least 5-6 hours before serving it.

  
  BAL KAIRI/BABY KAIRI PICKLE IS READY TO BE SERVED!!

Notes -

• Soak the bal kairis in water to remove any sticky substance from them. The intake of this sticky substance can cause coughing. Do not skip this step.

• You can store this pickle in the refrigerator for 8-10 days.

• After rubbing the masala on the baby raw mangoes, you can transfer them to the glass jar without adding the tempering. Store this in the refrigerator for a month. Remove a little pickle every time you want to eat it, and add tempering as and when required. This helps in increasing the shelf life of the pickle.

• You can add methi seeds, and fennel seeds to the tempering if you like.