Hog Plum or in Bengali as we call it, Aamra is my second most favourite fruit after mango. It is not as popular as other fruits in Bangladesh but Aamra is high in vitamin C and other minerals and often much cheaper. Well, I care about the taste of the fruit, even though I don’t like tangy fruits, but this fruit somehow made a space in my mind. Well, its not totally sour. Aamra has slight tancy and sweet taste with a distinct crunchy texture, which is very unique for a fruit. The most common way to eat Ammra is to peel and dip into salt and red chili powder and consume. Another way is to make pickles and conserve for longer time, as Aamra is a short time fruit, only found during rainy season in Bangladesh.

There are lots of ingredients needed to make this pickle of Aamra. The ingredients are most common to make a Bangladeshi style pickle like dry red chili, garlic, mustard paste, ginger paste, paach phoron, mustard oil, salt and suger, turmeric powder and some tamarind. I have taken this pickle idea from youtube so thank you Elisa’s Cooking Recipes Channel for the pickle recipe.

Aamra or Hog plum looks like deep green egg shaped fruit, with some hard veins and interesting shaped pit inside. The deeper the green is, more unripe the fruit is. When it has slight yellow tint, it means the fruit is getting ripe. Ripe Aamra does not have the texture or taste of raw Aamra. To make the best quality pickle, we must need unripe but mature Aamra.

To begin with, we need to peel Aamra first and then put them in a bowl of cold water and wash thoroughly. It’s because the fruit has some tanin like substances under the skin, so washing after peeling the fruit will reduce the amount of tanin.

After washing, I made a several slits and then rubbed hogplums with salt and chili powder. Making deep slits will help the spices to get inside and make them more flavorful as we are making pickles with whole fruit.

Now its time to make some pickle moshla. As usual, I heated a pan and added paach phoron and dry red chili, roasted them until fragrant and pound in mortar and pestle. I made a course ground as I like them better this way.

Now we will start the main process. I heated mustard oil in a wok and added more chili(whole) , ginger paste and garlic cloves. It is up to you how spicy you want to make, so you can skip chili in this step.

Then I addeed marinated Aamra, flipped them couple of time. They started to change colour as soon as they hit the pan.

After coating all Ammra with oil, I added sugar and tamarind paste. It will take some time to melt the sugar, so I kept stirring until all sugar get dissolved well.

When all sugar are dissolved, I added water and covered the wok to cook the hogplum. It is important to let them cook under medium-low temperature.

After 10-15 minutes of cooking the hogplum covering, I checked if they got soft and water content got reduced. When it was cooked enough, I added the premade pickle moshla(spice), black salt, kashundi and vinegar. I stirred until they are all well combined.

We have to continue cooking until the sauce get reduced and more thick, sticky. You can of course leave cooking when the sauce gets to your desired consistency. I like it not too sticky not too runny, so I cooked until the fruits can be under the sauce.

So, here’s the final look of the hogplum pickle aka Aamrar achar. The inside is still white but cooked and soft. It is best to keep them in fridge for longer shelf life. I am really glad how it turned out, as it was my first ever attempt to make hogplum pickle.

Recipe: Hog Plum pickle / Aamrar Achar

Ingredients: Hog plum – 1 kilo Tamarind paste- 1/2 cup Water – 1 cup Sugar- 1/2 cup Garlic cloves- 5 Ginger paste- 1 tsp whole pach phoron – 1 tbsp Dry red chili – 5/6 pieces Mustard oil – 1 cup Vinegar – 1 tbsp Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp Red chili powder – 1.5 tsp Salt- as needed Black salt- as needed

Instructions: 1. Dry roast dry red chili and paach phoron and coarsely grind them. Set them aside. 2. Peel all hogplums and wash with cold water until all tanins are removed. 3. Make two to three slits on the hog plums. Put them in a big bowl, and coat with chili powder and salt. 4. In a big non stick pan/wok, add mustard oil and heat in medium temperature, add dry red chili, garlic cloves and ginger paste. 5. Add marinated hogplums and coat with spices and oil. Put sugar and tamarind paste. Stir until the sugar gets dissolved. 6. Then Cover the pan and simmer in low heat for 20 minutes. 7. Add coarsely ground spice mix ,black salt and vinegar. Continue to cook until the sauce gets to your desired consistency. 8. Set them aside in a bowl to cool down. Store in refrigerator for 6 months.