Maanga inji (Mango ginger) pickle

I recently attended my school reunion. It has been 15 years since I passed out of school and though I am in touch with most of my friends through email,phone or facebook, I have not seen some of them for this entire period of 15 years. It was a lot of fun to see how much people have changed. One thing I noticed is that most of the girls seem to be pretty much the same except for weight gain, but the guys have changed in ways that have made them unrecognizable. Guys who once had a full crop of thick, black hair have now become almost completely bald......super thin guys now have paunches and no necks. Despite the physical changes, I noticed that our basic traits haven't changed much. If anything, people only seem to have become nicer. All in all, it was a fun meet.
I was in my hometown only for two days to attend this meet, but when I came back, my parents made sure I carried back some stuff that my father has been growing in the back yard. Kavathu is one of the vegetables I brought back.(Try as I might, I am not able to find out what it is called in English. If anyone knows, please do leave a comment) and I used it to make poduthuval(in this post) and thalagam (which is going to be my next post).
One of the other things I brought back with me is manga inji (mango ginger). Despite the name, this rhizome is related neither to ginger nor to mango. It belongs to the same family as turmeric. It looks like ginger but when cut, it smells like a raw mango. In a previous post, I have made a pickle using mango ginger, green peppercorns and lemon.
This time round, I wanted to try out a different pickle and this is what I did.

What you need:
Mango ginger - 1 cup, peeled and cut into small pieces
Red chilli powder - 2-3 tsp or to taste
Salt
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Gingely oil - 1/4 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Add the red chilli powder, salt and asafoetida to the cut mango ginger. Mix well. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds to it. When the seeds pop, pour this over the mango ginger. Mix well. Store in a clean, dry, airtight container.
This pickle can be used immediately and goes well with rice.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Ayeesha,Soumya and Reva are cooking.