Maagaya (sun-dried mango pickle)

About this pickle

Maagaya is the mango pickle for people who want the masala inside the fruit, not just around it. Instead of cutting raw mango with the stone as for avakaya, the mangoes are peeled, sliced and dried in the sun before they go into the pickle. Drying draws the water out, so the slices turn dense and chewy and soak up the chilli and spices all the way through. The taste is more concentrated and more salty-sour than avakaya, and the heat is 3 of 3 on our chilli scale. The drying step needs time and strong sunshine, which is why maagaya belongs to the height of the mango season, and why a jar costs a little more than our other pickles: it takes more fruit to make the same weight. Because the slices have no stone, every piece mixes cleanly into rice, and there's nothing to work around.

How to enjoy

• Tear one slice into small bits and mix it through hot rice with ghee.
• With curd rice: chewy, salty slices against cool curd.
• Chop finely and fold into a plain dal or khichdi.
• Chop a slice into a chapati roll with sliced onion.