Making Amchoor Powder @ Home

Amchoor is dry mango powder , a very intrinsic component of north Indian cooking ....any simple curry or stir fry can get an added zing with a finishing dash of amchoor powder. It is also used for chutneys and some pickles too , like the famous bhari mirch ka achar ( red Anaheim chilies stuffed with a hot n tangy spice mix n pickled ) .

My grandmother used to bring dried raw mangoes from the village which was actually dried when the raw mangoes were in surplus ( we had mango orchards back home)....raw mangoes were peeled and cut into 4 parts with the stone , just discarding the inner seed , it was dried and preserved for the whole year .........it is called 'aam ki kaliyan' as it has a bud like appearance after drying............(it is still available in some wholesale markets and some people buy it to get pure amchoor at home)......mangoes dried in this way was pounded in mortar n pestle to get amchoor powder, it was really labor intensive and the powder was a bit darker in color ( due to slow drying ) and was not very fine.......

A part of my brain belongs to my grandmother's generation and i am the one person from my whole extended family who tries to do such things at home in these modern times ...still.....

I make amchoor powder at home simply because the store bought one is not good enough , you will see the difference once you make it at home . I make a wet preserve of raw mangoes too for different recipes (especially chutneys and pickles) and will post later about that ...........

Making this powder is not at all labor intensive if you make a small quantity , a tiny quantity of this homemade powder lasts long ............i usually make powder of about a kilo of raw mangoes which yields about a cup of amchoor powder and this , to your surprise , is equivalent to 4 packs( 100 gm) of amchoor powder ...this quantity lasts the whole year in my kitchen and if you need more than this you can conveniently make it twice......it will be easier to handle and grind in smaller quantities.

This time i took just 500 gm of raw mangoes as my previous year amchoor had finished n i needed some for the chhole i was so craving ........yes making this amchoor is that easy especially in this Indian summer heat when the drying was done within a day of sun drying , fast drying the raw mangoes gets you lighter colored amchoor and is convenient as you have to sundry it just for a day.........see how....

Using a potato peeler , peel the green skin of mangoes and discard the peels.

Now using the same potato peeler , work on the white flesh and peel strips of mango flesh .......i used two large mangoes and it took about 10 minutes ....discard the stone.

Keep the strips in a sieve or a shallow basket and sun dry till the strips get completely dry , you may want to turn the strips in between for faster drying and to prevent the thin strips from sticking together.......... it will look like chips and will sound crisp after drying........

Stuff it all into the grinder of your mixie and whiz n zap.........awesome amchoor powder is ready...

Use this powder carefully.......you need only 1/4 the amount as compared to the store bought one..........isn't it easy and quick ...it takes only 10 minutes to peel and a minute to grind in the mixie.

#amchoor #mango #aamchur