This pickle has a special place in our home. It is a traditional Goan mango pickle. The actual recipe is from my mother-in-law, Annie. However it was first written down with required quantities and procedure by my mum, Celine, who was keen on learning how to make miskut from Annie.

Years went by and today this is the recipe for miskut that lives on in our homes. In recent years, my husband has started making this pickle this every Feb / March, when we get raw mangoes.

Ingredients

1 kg raw green mango ( small mangoes – so the seed is still soft enough to cut through)

3 tbsp salt

8 gms turmeric pieces

15 gms mustard seeds

5 gms hing / asafoetida powder

10 gms fenugreek / methi seeds

5 pepper corns

100 gms chill powder

ca. 450 ml mustard oil

Salting the mangoes

Wash the mangoes and dry completely with a towel. There should be absolutely no moisture on the skin before staring the next step.

Cut the mangoes into pieces and mix with salt in a glass / ceramic bowl. Cover the mangoes with a plate that is slightly smaller than the bowl – so that the plate fits inside the bowl & sits directly on top of the mangoes. Place a weight on this to press the mangoes. We use a stone mortar as a weight.

Putting it together

After 3 days, drain out the salt water into a saucepan. Heat the water to boiling point and then remove from the heat and allow to cool. Keep the salt water for later!!

Heat the mustard oil and fry the turmeric pieces using a metal strainer to lower them into the oil. This way you can remove them easily. Empty the turmeric pieces into a small bowl.

Put the mustard seed in the strainer and fry. Empty the mustard seed into another small bowl.

Fry the methi seeds in the same way and empty into the bowl with the mustard seeds.

Allow the oil to cool after frying these 3 ingredients.

Grind the fried turmeric and hing to a fine powder.

Grind the methi and mustard seeds to a coarse mixture.

Put all the chilli powder, pepper corns, and the 2 ground masalas into a clean, dry bowl. Add the mangoes and salt water a little at a time until it is all well mixed.

Use a clean dry wide neck jar. Put the mangoes into the bottle and keep pressing the mangoes down as you fill the jar to avoid air pockets in between the mangoes.

Carefully pour the cooled oil that was used for frying over the mangoes. The oil should cover the top of the mangoes completely.

This pickle is ready to eat in a few months and keeps really well. Remember to keep the mangoes covered with oil at all times and use a clean dry spoon to serve!