Welcome to the land of Telugu and the Chillies. The pickles
of Telangana are as famous as the Pride of the Telugus
themselves. The range of pickles found here are just amazing,
any vegetable or meat can be converted into a pickle. The
ingenuity of the people here is such that they make pickle of
egg, and believe me its delicious!!
Today it’s just about impossible to disassociate the spicy
pickles from the Andhras. No self respecting Andhrite will ever
say that he never had the famous "Avakai", one of the
best known variety of mango pickles.
Summer is the time when most households are busy with the
preparation of pickles for the year. Mouth-watering aromas of
raw mangoes, hot oil, chillies and a variety of spices float
around the household. The pickles are first allowed to marinate
for a couple of days before the final adjustments to the
seasoning are done. It’s then that these pickles are stored in
special ceramic jars.
The preparation, storage and the taking out of the pickles is
almost a ritual. Not every one is allowed to touch the jars
holding the pickles, only the lady of the house or some other
members are allowed to touch it. In fact the scientists have
found an old wives tale that pickles spoil if handled by one and
all, true.
The recipes of the pickles differ from one household to the
other; the recipe of the avakai (mustard flavored) is
given below :
