and it is ...Mango-Ginger

Dear Foodies,

Mavadi Allam/InjiManga

Like a few of you have rightly guessed, the pic above is of Mango-ginger/ Mavadi-allam/ InjiManga. It belongs to the Ginger family and has the smell and taste of a raw mango. I must say its a terrific combo of flavors. It was a hard to find root even in Hyderabad, but my father did manage to unearth (;)) them quite a few times at the market and my mom made this simple pickle with it that I learnt to love. This was a last thing I expected to find at the Indian grocery store near my new apartment. They already had veggies I had long forgotten and shoved out of my memory as unavailable in Cincinnati and to find this was a huge surprise and a shock too. I grabbed a handful of them and called up my mom to ask her for the recipe. I am not even sure you need to use a word as big as 'recipe' for this preparation :) Do make it if you get lucky like me, it has one of the most refreshing tastes' you'll find .

From the comments I have noticed that its unclear whether Mango-ginger belongs to the turmeric or the ginger family. Foodie and Madhavi said its from the turmeric family. I did a google search and just got further confused. This was the only website I found that said it is a turmeric. All the others say its a ginger. Mango Ginger's botanical name is Curcuma amada and it belongs to the family Zingiberaceae . Now to make it even more confusing, a few websites state the species name to be mangga and not amada, Wiki doing both (Here and Here) But one thing is certain that turmeric also is from the genus Curcuma. Well if Wiki is to be believed then it is form the ginger family, infact when you look up turmeric, its mentioned as belonging to the ginger family.

Curcuma mangga (mango ginger) is a plant of the ginger family Zingiberaceae and is closely related to turmeric. The rhizomes are very similar to ginger but have a raw mango taste. They are used in making pickles in south India. - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

But no matter what the name, the flower is surely a beauty, no contest there. See for yourself ! Never knew ginger flower's so well !!

Recipe:
2 cups - Mango-Ginger; scrubbed, peeled and diced
4 nos - Green chillies, finely chopped (or per taste)
2 Tbsp - Lime juice (adjust to your liking)
Salt to taste

In a jar add all the above ingredients together and toss. It shud be ready to eat in a few hours :)
I store it in a refrigerator and bring it out only when serving. I think it will last for a month or more, not sure about it though, will confirm it with my mom.

See, I told ya, no "recipe" there. And as you might have noticed, everything is to suit your taste, no hard and fast rules here. My roomie was newly introduced to this cousin of ginger and she loved him ;) My other friends were as thrilled as I was to find this here. Do give it a try if you find some, this pickle has such a refreshing taste that you will munch on it just plain. I love it the best with curd rice or dal+rice. But before all this I had to first stop myself from eating it raw while chopping it :))

This one is for Coffee as the prize for it guessing right, go ahead and Preserve it :))