Carrots, raw mango and green chillies pickle with mustard (raita gajar, marcha & keri)

A lot of you have been emailing me to ask why I haven't posted any recipes recently. I have been spending a lot of my time chasing bloggers and websites owners who have been using my photographs without my permission and passing them off as theirs. One website even copied my recipe word for word!! Anyway, I am glad to say that most of them have removed the "stolen" pictures and recipe.


This has led me to create a facebook page were any blogger can report copy cat bloggers. If any of you have been a victim of plagiarism, do name and shame those bloggers on this Facebook page. This experience has made to realise that I need to add a large watermark right in the middle of  all my photographs. In my early days of blogging, I hadn't realised that other people could copy and use my pictures. I am now updating all my blog recipes and pictures . I have been spending a lot of time cooking using my blog recipes and updating the recipes and changing some of the photographs. In the coming year - I hope to give my blog/website a facelift. 


Now back to my recipe. This dish is made in all Indian homes and served as a condiment in the main thali. It adds to the flavours of the dishes you have in your thali. Indian thali will have fresh chappatis, puri or any similar bread with 2-3 curries, rice, dalls, chutneys, raita and a sweet dish. Each dish tastes different and adding such pickles, chutneys or papadums helps to balance all the flavours. 


Living in the fens, we get really fresh and sweet carrots straight from the farm so I make this pickle nearly every week. We love this fresh and spicy accompaniment in our thali. The recipe for carrot, chilly and mango pickle is simple and can be made with several combinations. The chilly and carrot is the most popular. Adding raw mangoes to the recipe helps to keep the salad fresh for longer. You can also add raw tindora (Indian Ivy gourd) to the pickle . Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the pickle I had made with tindora!! Different families will have their own version of making this dish. Some like to grind the mustard seeds and use the powder, some may not add the oil. My suggestion is to experiment and find a taste that you like. 


Ingredients: 


2-3 medium carrots 
15-20 fresh green chillies 
1-2 raw mangoes (Use the small ones sold as pickle mangoes as these remain nice and crisp) 
2 tablespoons lemon juice 
2 tablespoons of split mustard seeds 
1 -2 teaspoons of salt 
1 teaspoons of turmeric 
2 tablespoons of cooking oil 

Method: 


1. Peel the carrots but leave the skin on the mangoes if it's not marked. 


2. Cut the mangoes and carrots into juliennes and soak them into cold water for 5 minutes. 


3. De stalk the green chillies and slice them into two lengthwise. If the chillies are long, you can cut them into two and soak them in cold water for 5 minutes. Soaking them helps to remove the hot chilly seeds. 


4. Sieve the carrots and mangoes. 


5. For the chillies, remove the chillies using a spoon. This way, any chilly seeds will be at the bottom of the pan and not get added to the pickle. 


6. Transfer all the prepared carrots, mangoes and chillies to a mixing bowl. 


7. Add the salt, turmeric, lemon juice and split mustard seeds and mix well. 

8. Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil and allow to cool very slightly so that it doesn't splutter when adding to the mixture. 


9. Add this oil to the mixture and stir well. 


10. Adding the warm oil helps to release the flavours from all the spices and also coats the spices to all the vegetables. 


11. Transfer this pickle to a clean bottle and eat after 24 hours. This freshly made pickle can remain edible for a week if kept in the fridge.

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