Sweet and Sour Mango pickle with Nigella seeds

 

 

 

 

Hello my dear readers and fellow bloggers and wonderful people of planet earth! How are you all doing this Monday night? For a fact I can tell you that the week had started with quite a bang for me. My baby is still down with the flu and Mr R is down with a horrible cold. So the weekend was basically me taking care of two babies 😉

Some time I look back at when I would go to office every morning and I still remember how I would wish that there would be a day that I don’t have to go to work. And now here I am, a stay at home mommy and I some times I really do think it was easier to just pick up my bag and go to work. Many mommies tell me that some how everything just falls into place. But I just can’t imagine leaving my little son for a whole day. And honestly I would never be able to give my 100% to work or to being a mommy. That’s why I totally look up to all mommies who manage to handle it all. But like I tell Mr R, there is not a single moment I would trade or give away from all the moments I have had with my family and I will build with them. You just can’t put a price tag on it.

When I tell my friends from college and school that I am a stay at home mom, they act like I have the best life ever! “Oh that means you can sleep however long you want and you do not have to worry about targets and you can go to the gym and look good and all that!” Yes I can do all that. But here’s the thing, I can go to the gym every day, but I stay at home for my child, not for me. I can get up late, but wait till you have a baby, cause your baby decides when and how long you sleep. And yeah I do have targets! I do have goals. Yes they have changed over the years but that’s what makes them tougher and harder and much more satisfying. The bottom line is that the grass is always greener on the other side.

When you work, you want an off. When you don’t work, you want to work. When you have a hobby, you want time to make it your living. When you make a hobby your living, you want just a regular 9 – 6 job. It never ends.

So until you learn to live in your skin, walk in your shoes and pull your socks up and get with the program, you are just going to compare and compare and compare. Eventually leading to hate or just a mental break down. So stop.

Stop and look at the bright side of things. Learn to appreciate everything in life. Big, small, tiny, fat, beautiful or ugly. Every thing has its purpose and every body should be respected for the choices they make. Cause until you walk a mile in my shoes, you will never know why I like to wear them in the first place 🙂

Now on a lighter note, just like how life is full of sweet and sour, I present to you my sweet and sour mango pickle.

Kalonji Aur Aam Ka Achar

Ingredients –

• Mango – 4 large (Slight ripe but still sour) chopped into small squares
• Kalonji/ Nigella Seeds – 2 tsp
• Jeera/ Cumin Seeds – 2 tsp
• Salt – 1 tbsp
• Jaggery – 1 cup
• Oil – 1 tbsp
• Asafetida – ¼ tsp
• Water – 1 cup

Instructions

• In a heavy bottom pan, heat oil till nice and hot. Then add cumin sand nigella seeds. Once they being to crackle, add the asafoetida.
• Then add the Mangoes and water
• Let the mango cook in the water along with the spices
• Once the mango is cooked and soft, add jaggery
• Let the mango continue to cook in the jaggery water. This should take around 15 mins on low heat
• Then add salt
• Let it simmer for a few more minute till the mango mixture begins to thicken
• Turn off the heat and let the mixture rest till it  cools completely
• Transfer into a pickle jar and your Mango sweet and sour pickle is ready!!