Tikho Mitho Murbo|Spiced Up Mango Jam

So I promised you all that the month of April will be dedicated to pickles and conserves/preserves. So here I am , with yet another simple Mango Jam recipe.

Generally a fruit jam is supposed to be sweet with the hint of tartness depending upon the fruit used. I have already shared a simple Mango jam or Murraba recipe  here. But this has some basic spices that are normally used in Mango preserve. Something went wrong and I ended up making this spicier version. Interested in hearing the story behind it? I will share it anyways 😉

It so happened that I got unripe mangoes to make mango preserve, in Sindhi style ( Ambh jo Murbo). I just measured out the ingredients to make that preserve and went ahead to make syrup for the same. I should have first peeled the mangoes. Now as the syrup was getting ready, to my horror the ‘unripe mangoes’ have turned into ‘almost ripe’ partially due to the extreme heat of summer and also thanks to my absent mindedness that I left the bag of mangoes very close to my MW/Oven, that was working back to back for cooking food for two lovely guests. And I so very much wanted to serve them a sweet mango pickle.

Since the Sindhi Style sweet pickle (preserve) that I am soon to blog about, needs firm chunks of mangoes, it was not possible to make it with mushy mangoes. Well , making  jam (Mango Murraba) was easiest option but then the spicy syrup was already made. Going to market to fetch the unripe mangoes was out of question since we were expecting guests and hence I just grated the mushy mangoes  to get almost the pulpy stuff. Mixed it with the spicy syrup and continued to cook it on low flame while I got busy to cook dinner . The story ends here, and by the end of it, we got a spicier, tangy, sweet, delicious mango Jam.I named it Tikho Mitho Murbo.Tikho = spicy, Mitho = sweet, Murbo= Jam/preserve…I couldn’t think of any better name. Any suggestions for an apt name for this recipe are more than welcome :-).
And oh BTW, my desperate measures to serve our guests the sweet pickle, made me so anxious and nervous that I completely forgot about it while laying the dinner on table ! I realized it only when they left. Real Bummer :-/

Anyways here is the recipe …..

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Tikho Mitho Murbo|Spiced Up Mango Jam

Spiced up Mango jam Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 kg Raw mangoes (Raw, firm, Totapuri or Rajapuri variety)
• 1 kg sugar (or 1.25 kg if you want it more sweet and less tangy)The proportion should be 1:1 (or 1: 1.25) of mangoes:sugar(in kg)
• Green cardamons 6-7
• Nigella Seeds (Kalonji) 3 tsp
• Black pepper corns 2 tbsp
• Bay leaves 2-3
• Cinnamon stick ½ inch piece (optional)
• Red chilly powder 2-3 tsp
• A glass of water
• Lemon juice 2 tbsp

Method

1. Wash, pat dry and peel mangoes.Grate them with a manual grater.
2. In a thick bottomed pan or vessel, mix sugar and water (water should cover the sugar, so adjust the amount of water you need)
3. Heat it, while mixing at frequent intervals till sugar dissolves completely
4. Now add lemon juice.It will help to avoid crystallization of sugar.
5. Skim off any grey foam that collects on the surface.
6. Add the grated mangoes, and rest of the ingredients and mix properly.Beware of the spluttering.
7. Let it boil for few minutes and then put it on medium flame .
8. Keep on stirring carefully at regular intervals. It will take almost 50 to 75 minutes to be cooked properly.
9. When the mixture reaches a consistency similar to that of easily spreadable jam, it is supposed to be done
10. Let it cool properly and store it in sterilized*, airtight glass containers (jars)

Notes

To sterilize the jars, wash the glass jar well and let these boil for around 15 minutes in hot boiling water.Carefully pick the jars out of the hot water and wipe with clean kitchen towel.Fill these immediately with pickle/jam and secure the lid. The shelf life of this Jam is 4-5 months without refrigeration and about a year if stored in refrigerator, provided that no wet spoon is used to take out portions from the jar and that the lid is secured properly.

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