Amchur Powder | Amchoor (Dry Mango Powder)

Prepare Mangoes

1. Before you begin ensure to use clean and dry spoons, plates, tray, knife, peeler and grinder jar.
2. Rinse and wipe the raw unripe mangoes completely dry.
3. Peel the skin. This is the toughest part. Use a good sturdy peeler.
4. With the same peeler, peel the mangoes into thin strips or chips.
5. The strips or chips have to be thinly peeled. Peeling the mango flesh is easier than peeling the skin.
6. Spread the thin peeled mango strips on a tray or a large plate.
7. You can also use 2 to 3 trays or plates to make the drying easier.

Two ways to dry the mangoes

1. Sun drying methodKeep the mango strips or chips in sun for few days. Usually it takes 2 to 3 days to dry them in the hot sun of North India. But the time can vary depending upon the sun duration and intensity.
2. Oven methodHeat your oven to its minimum. Place the mango strips in the oven. Depending on the temperature it may take anywhere between 10 hours to 2 days or more.
3. I heated the oven at 60 degrees Celsius and kept the mangoes to dry in the oven for 7 hours each, for three days. It took me about 21 hours for the mango strips to dry completely.In the night, I would keep the tray covered with a muslin in a dry place.
4. After they are dried and dehydrated, the mango strips become crisp and snap easily like a thin potato wafer. As soon as they cool, powder them in the grinder.
5. If you keep for more time after they have cooled, then some of the chips loose their crispness and get a chewy texture. Then, you will have to dry them again in the oven for a few hours till they become crisp.
6. A few chips which may have been peeled thickly, may be thick and not crisp. But if they dry properly, they easily get powdered.

Making amchur powder

1. As soon as the mango strips cool, add them to a dry grinder or spice grinder. Grind to a fine powder.
2. Remove and store Amchur Powder or Dry Mango Powder in a jar. 3 small mangoes yielded 75 grams of Amchoor Powder.
3. Store at room temperature in a clean dry glass jar or a BPA free plastic jar in a cool dry place. You can also store in a refrigerator.
4. The homemade amchur powder keeps well for 6 months and if used and stored correctly can last for more than 6 months.
5. Use Amchur Powder in your recipes, as required.