Gunda and keri pickle

This is first time I have attempted to make such a complicated pickle. I have seen my Nani and Dadi making this pickle. Over the age everyone became health conscious and stopped eating pickle. Pickle are fantastic if you eat once a while.

This summer I just couldn't resist myself to try out this authentic Gunda and mango pickle with little bit of twist. Twist is I am stuffing gunda with grated mango. Mostly people make gunda and cut mango pickle. When my grand mom started getting old she had trouble biting into cut mango so she started grating the mango and result was astonishing.

Ingredients:
Gunda: 30-40
Keri/ row mango: 2

Rai na kuriya / coarse mustard seeds: 1 cup
Methi na kuriya / coarse fenugreek seeds : 1/2 cup
Fennel seeds: 1/2 cup
Red chili powder: 1 cup
Turmeric: 1/4 cup
Oil: 2 cups (ideally use mustard oil / sarso ka tel. If you do not find you can use sun flower oil as well)
Salt to taste (roughly 1/2 cup)
Hing/ asafoetida : 1tbs

Preparation:
To ease the process I am dividing the recipe into 7 segment.

1. Getting mango ready:
Peel the mango and grate it.

Add enough salt and 3-4 tbs of turmeric and mix well. Keep aside for 3-4 hours.

Mango contains water. This process will help water come out. At the end of 4 hours take mango in one palm and using another palm squeeze out all the water. Do this until all the water is squeezed out of mango. Save the water in a seperate container. Repeat the procedure of remaning mango.

I was amazed with amount of water mango contained.

2. Getting Gunda ready:
1. Wash gunda. Dry with kitchen tissue or tea towel. Remove the top or stem from each gunda.

2. Keep gunda on a grocery bag and punch on the top to break them as shown in photo. Do this gently as you just want to break it enough to remove the seed. Break all the gunda open.


3. Next step is to remove seed from gunda. You can use some plastic gloves or just use a small plastic bag to protect your hand.

I am right handed so I put plastic bag in my left hand. Now take a tea spoon in your right hand and just press gunda to widen up the opening and using tail of the spoon remove the seed. You can use your hands too but you will notice by 4-5 gunda your hands will get really messy.

4. Apply oil in your hands and do this. We are going to apply salt inside of each gunda. Salt removes the sticky gum from gunda and make them clean from inside.

5. I have seen some people leave gunda in mango water (from Getting mango ready step) for 4-5 hours. Some people leave gunda in lime juice over night. The reason why they do it is to keep gunda green in color. If sourness is applied to gunda the color will remain green. Do either of the two. Leave gunda in lime juice or mango water for 3-4 hours. Remove all the water and dry gunda using kitchen tissue.

One of my aunty hates to follow above messy procedure. She boils gunda after removing stem and top without removing any seed for 1-2 pressure in pressure cooker and uses them for pickle. I like my gunda to be stuffed so I have not tried her recipe. But if you are looking for gunda pickle and want a quick recipe. Try to boil gunda and use masala and mix it.

3. Getting masala ready:
You can follow this in between, while you are waiting for gunda and mango to get ready.

Take 1 large bowl. Add methi kuriya, rai kuriya, hing, fennel seeds in it.


Some people like to heat each item in sun for about 4 hours. I struggle to find sun in London. I just dry roasted each item seperately (methi kuriya, rai kuriya and fennel seed) for 2-3 minutes. Mix them in bowl.

Heat oil in a pot. Heat oil till it start to leave aroma. No need to boil it. Pour hot oil in the masala bowl. Everything will start crakling.

Once it settles cover it with lid and allow it to cool off. This might take 30-60 minutes.

In another bowl get chili powder, salt and turmeric ready.

Add dry masala into oiled masala once the oil is cooled off and mix well. If you add red chili powder in hot oil this might make red color to brown and your pickle will look brown. Add salt enough for masala. As we have added salt to mango and gunda.

Masala is ready.

4. Mixing everything together:
Take mango and add it to masala. Taste little. Add extra salt if needed. Mix everything well.
Stuff each gunda with this masala and roll gunda in remaining masala.

5. Storage:
Glass jar with screw top is ideal to store pickle. In the glass jar add gunda in the bottom and on top add remaining mango masala.
Heat 1 cup of oil and let it cool off over night. This oil we will pour into jar next day

6. Next day:
Add the oil in the jar upto 3/4 level. This oil will give extra life to the pickle. This way you can keep your pickle out of freeze and use it for up to a year.
If you do not want to add extra oil and want to enjoy your pickle for long time you can keep the glass jar in your refrigerator. You can enjoy the pickle for 1-2 months.

7. Ready to eat:
After 3-4 days gunda will be ready to eat. By this stage, gunda will be soft and slightly off green color.

Gunda pickle typically goes well with dal and rice or gujrati thali. You can also enjoy this with paratha.