Burong mangga

Green mango left in brine for a week, which ferments rather than pickles.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 kg very green mangoes, peeled and in thick wedges
• 80 g salt, for the brine
• 1 litre water, boiled and cooled
• 4 siling labuyo, left whole

Method

1. THIS IS A FERMENT, NOT A VINEGAR PICKLE. There is no vinegar in the list: the sourness comes from what happens in the jar over a week, and that is a different and deeper sour.
2. Use mangoes that are HARD AND PALE GREEN, with white flesh. Any yellow at all and they turn to mush in the brine.
3. Dissolve the salt in the cooled boiled water. It should taste unpleasantly salty -- that is what keeps the wrong things from growing.
4. Pack the mango wedges and chillies into a clean jar and pour the brine over so everything is SUBMERGED. Anything above the surface will spoil, so weight it down with a small bag of brine.
5. Cover loosely -- gas needs to escape -- and leave at room temperature out of the sun for 5 to 7 days. It will cloud and smell sour and faintly fizzy. That is correct.
6. Taste from day 5. When it is sour enough, move it to the fridge, which effectively stops it.
7. Eaten as a side with grilled fish and rice. It keeps a month cold.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes