Vadu mango pickle recipe, Maavadu pickle

Updated on March 31, 2022 by Raks Anand 33 Comments / Jump to Recipe

Vadu mango pickle is baby mangoes in a brine of salt, chilli and mustard. This is my way of making small batch of vadu manga at home.

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Storage
Instructions
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Maavadu / vadu manga/ vadu mago is nothing but baby mangoes. A specific variety of this tender mango is made pickle, the ever popular “vadu mango pickle”.

Mom makes more like the neer nellikai, which is also my most favourite.

I like the water more than the nellikai/mango. It tastes great with more sadam/ thayir sadam. I can live with it!

But this way of authentic maa vadu pickle I learnt from my MIL. She has this recipe in her handwritten cookbook, which she shared me over the phone and I tried it successfully for the first ever time in my life.

And every day when I open the jar of this pickle the whole space is full of the pleasant mango flavour along with the spices! Wow! Too much!😀.

I know there are many other recipes and methods. This is how I learnt and want to share with you all.

I clicked these pictures just after one day I prepared, coz the baby mangoes where photogenic and actually I was too much enthusiastic to click it, cant wait until it gets soaked.

However the picture below has been shot only after one week, just to show the looks of the shrunken, well soaked maavadu.

Anybody remembering any tamil song now as you read this post?😉

Storage

Vadu manga pickle usually do not need refrigeration. The amount of salt, oil and spices will preserve it from spoiling.

But since I add water, I keep it refrigerated for safer side. Even in the updated method I do not add water but yet keep it inside.

Make sure to refrigerate only atleast after couple of days or until the mangoes are shrunken and leaves out water.

This way it gets pickled easily. If you put inside fridge earlier, it will take long time to leave out water and absorb the salt and spices.

But make sure to toss well couple of times. I also keep in sun until it is well soaked.

My suggestion and what I do - First couple of days I leave it outside. Shake 2-3 times a day.

After that, day time - I keep it in sun and toss well couple of times. After sun goes down, I refrigerate.

Repeat this until my baby mangoes are shrunk and leave out lots of water.

After that, I transfer to another container and keep refrigerated always.

Alternate method

Here's another method I followed recently. Clean maavadu without moisture and coat with sesame oil.

Firstly, add rock salt. I added as such, but for the baby mangoes to quickly release water, please powder and add.

Secondly, add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds powder (Indian black mustard, powdered in mixie), ¼ teaspoon roasted and powdered fenugreek seeds powder (vendaya podi), ¼ teaspoon Turmeric and 2 tablespoon red chilli powder to it.
Adjust spice according to your spice level and the variety/ brand. Mine is mild spice and bright red in color. So added more.

Shake well to coat all. Do this 2-3 times a day.

After ten days it will be ready to consume. See above for storage instructions.

Instructions

Choose fresh, roughly same size of baby mangoes/ vadu manga.
Wash firstly and remove the stalks if any.
Pat dry completely in a clean kitchen towel and dry in the shade for making sure it has no water.
In a porcelain bowl or glass bottle, big enough to hold the manoges, transfer the mangoes and pour oil.
Mix well so that the oil coats all the mangoes completely.
Meanwhile, roast the items given under ‘To roast and grind table’. Add asafoetida powder towards the end. (I used the solid ones).
No need to roast the turmeric. Roast until the mustard starts cracking. Do it in medium flame. Cool down and powder everything along with salt.
Then add ¼ cup boiled & COOLED water and grind it to a paste. Add it to the greased baby mangoes.
Mix well with a spoon or if the jar has lid, shake it well so that the spicy sauce coats every mango.
Toss 3-4 times a day so that it gets soaked evenly. For first few days, the salt makes the mango ooze out water and the mangoes will shrink little by little and the water quantity also increases.
The below picture shows 2 days old soaked mangoes. But it takes atleast 1 week to get completely shrunken.

Serve with sambar/ rasam sadam ( I don’t do this, but have heard it will be good) or classically with the thayir sadam, my personal fav😍. Spicy and flavourful, simply a treat every single time you eat/lick it!

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