• The write up to this recipe has further information on ingredients and substitutions which can help in making this pickle.

  Quantities specified in Ingredients are approximate, as explained in the write up post.

Preparation

• Wash and dry the fresh mango ginger roots with a clean kitchen towel. Peel, after cutting away the nodes on the sides. (Some of the nodes/protrusions may be too small to peel). See the write up to this recipe for more on preparing the mango ginger.

  If you wash the peeled mango ginger to remove any brown spots or bits of peel remaining, ensure you dry them really well with a kitchen towel. We don't want any moisture in the pickle as that would affect its shelf life.

  Slice the mango ginger into thin round slices, keeping the thickness uniform.
• Split 2-4 green chilies vertically and then into smaller inch long slices for convenient serving. The number of chilies used depend on your 'heat' appetite.

  Squeeze the juice of 2-3 lemons till you get about 60 gms/ ¼ cup of lemon juice. Squeeze some of the juice from the remaining lemons without draining them completely. Slice these lemons into chunks, with some juice still in them.

  Wash and thoroughly pat dry the fresh green peppercorn.

To Make Mango Ginger Green Pepper Pickle

• To a clean dry jar, add the slices of mango ginger, stalks of green peppercorn, lemon and chili slices. Shake the jar so that the ingredients mix well.

  Add a little salt to the lemon juice, stir well. Taste and add a little more if required.

  Pour the lemon juice over the mango ginger and other ingredients.

  Cover with a lid and again shake well.

Tempering (Optional)

• Heat gingelly oil (nalla ennai/ til oil/ Indian sesame oil) in a small pan or tadka ladle/ tempering ladle. If not using gingelly oil, any vegetable oil with a mild flavour such as sunflower oil, may be used. Mustard or coconut oil would give a very different flavour profile to the pickle.

  Add mustard seeds and after they crackle, pour the tempering over the mango ginger pickle. Cover and set the jar aside for about an hour or two and then place in the fridge.

  The mango ginger green peppercorn pickle is best eaten after a day from preparation, as the flavours come together and balance in this time.
• The mango ginger green peppercorn pickle stays fresh if refrigerated and if no moisture is allowed to enter the jar, for at least a week or two. Using a clean dry spoon to remove the contents helps. The pickle makes a delicious accompaniment to a variety of dishes such as curd rice, dal, rasam or khichidi.