Sweet Mango Pickle - Amma's Recipe

This sweet mango pickle takes me places. It takes me to places that I lived as a 12-year old, in a house that had a huge kitchen, the time that we had the hottest summers in Kottayam and the baths we used to take under the backyard tap in the dusky evening light. The hot dosas for dinner and this sweet and slightly sour pickle that complemented the dosas like not even coconut chutney could. The bottle was brought out when there were chapatis and parathas on the table too.

Easily, the best part of this recipe is that fact that amma came up with it just like that one hot, sweaty Kerala summer day. She was slicing onions, oh so fine like she normally does, and then randomly took a couple of raw mangoes from the counter-top and starting putting together this condiment that would later be made again and again and filled in many many bottles, devoured by her youngest daughter with practically anything, and sent to relatives and friends who were near and far.

The sesame oil and the near-burnt fengreek seeds create a symphony with the chopped onions and mangoes that's hard to describe. It gels with anything you spread it on, making the meal magically taste better. Just like mothers spread their love and support on everything and magically make your life better. This is my soul-food, my comfort, amma's love.

Amma's Sweet Mango Pickle Recipe

Makes one small bottle

Ingredients:

Raw mangoes - 3 nos (orange sized ones, approx)

Onions - 3 big

Jaggery / raw sugar (or brown sugar) - 1/2 cup, grated or melted

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilly powder - 6 tsp

Gingelly / Indian sesame oil - 1/2 cup

Fenugreek seeds / uluva / menthayam - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida / hing / kaayam - 1/4 tsp

Mustard seeds / kaduku - 1/2tsp

A few curry leaves

Salt to taste

How Amma Makes It:

1. Slice the mangoes and onions into thin pieces.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When they pop, add the fenugreek seeds. When they turn a nice brown, add the onions. Take care not to burn the seeds otherwise they turn very bitter. Let the onions brown well.

3. Now add the chilly powder, turmeric powder, hing and curry leaves. Stir around for a minute and then add the sliced mangoes and salt. Add 1/2 cup water to this and cook covered on a low flame (on sim, preferably).

4. After abount 10 mins, add the jaggery, mix well and let the mixture come to a boil. Remove, cool and store in air-tight bottles. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to a month.

I am sending this post to 'Of Chalks and Chopsticks' hosted by Bong Mom this month and conceptualized by Aqua.

Sri Lankan Mango Curry Recipe

When I saw the annoucement for the May edition of A.W.E.D on Siri's blog, I was thinking atleast this month I should send in something. Due to work, some personal stuff and more work, I forgot about it until the weekend when we visited the library. Guess what stuck its head out of the cookery bookshelf? This book!

I picked it up and once glance through it made me realize how similar Sri Lankan cuisine is to Indian cuisine as well South East Asian ones. I was amazed to see that Pandan leaves, that are a very common flavouring ingredient used in South East Asian cooking, are a staple in a Sri Lankan kitchen too, just like curry leaves are to Indians. In fact, they use curry leaves quite extensively too. I was also surprised to see Kerala aappams, they call it hoppers, as a common street food in SL. They call idiyappam string hoppers, so cute!

Fresh Pandan Leaves

I could go on and on because I am quite smitten by this cuisine. Similar yet so different from what I am so used to.

The first dish I tried from the book is this Mango Curry. Its similar to our mango pachadi recipe but has its subtle differences. I was diappointed to see that the author hadn't mentioned the local name for this dish. I did a search and the closest dish I could find online was Amba Maluwa but the recipe is significantly different from this.

The mangoes I used were semi-sweet semi-sour

Sri Lankan Mango Curry

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 30 mins

Source: Sri Lankan Flavours by Channa Dassanayaka

What I Used:

1 raw mango

1/2 onion, chopped fine

2 tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp crushed ginger

(or use 2 tsp ginger garlic paste)

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 tbsp vinegar

4-5 curry leaves
1 pandan leaf cut/torn into bits

a 1" cinnamon stick

1/2 cup thick coconut milk

1/2 cup light coconut milk

1 tbsp oil

How I Made It:

1. Peel mango and cut into long, thin pieces. I made the mistake of not peeling the mango and the curry came out slightly bitter. So please take the time and do it!

2. Grind mustard seeds and vinegar together to form a paste.

3. Heat oil in a pan and add the onion, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and cinnamon. Saute until onion turns golden - about 5-7 mins.

4. Add the mango, light coconut milk, pandan leaf bits and the mustard seed mixture and bring to a boil.

5. Reduce heat and simmer until mango is cooked and tender. Add the thick coconut milk and simmer for another 10 mins. Add salt.

Notes

- You can use store-bought coconut milk for this recipe. I used it and to get the light coconut milk, I added equal amounts of water to the coconut milk. It won't curdle if you cook it in very low fire. 

- The dish will taste just fine without pandan leaves. It will be like making an Indian dish without curry leaves - a certain flavour will be missing but that won't break the dish totally, so don't worry :)

This side dish is usually served with rice and some meat curry during a typical Sri Lankan lunch.

Needless to say, this goes to A.W.E.D Sri Lankan Cuisine hosted by Siri, conceptualized by DK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you mingled yet? Make sure your yummy rice recipes reach me before June 15th. Event details here.

Raw Mango and Coconut Gravy/Pacha Manga Curry

When it comes to making a kozhambu/chaaru curry/gravy for rice, I am normally stumped for choices, not because they aren't many, but because my answer is always sambhar or rasam or both. Yesterday, I tried this Kerala dish - a coconut based gravy with raw mangoes to give it the tangy flavour.



The wet market is overflowing with all kinds of mangoes now, mostly raw. Ripe ones are ridiculously expensive so we just eat them as is without bothering to waste even a morsel making any drinks or dessert out of it :D

Here is what I made with some nice and tangy raw mangoes.

Pacha Manga Curry

What I Used:

Serves 2

Raw mangoes - 1 cup, cubed
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt - to taste

Grind well together:

Coconut - 1/2 cup
Jeera - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - one pinch

For tempering:

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Dry red chillies - 3
Oil - 1 tbsp

How I Made It:

1. Close the lid and cook the mangoes in some water by adding turmeric and chilly powder, till they are tender.

2. Add the ground coconut and jeera mixture to this with some more water and bring to boil keeping the kadai open. Cook till the raw smell leaves the curry.

3. Temper the mustard, fenugreek, curry leaves and chillies and add to the above curry before removing from fire.

Note: if the mangoes are not sour enough, use some tamarind paste to increase the flavour. I used fresh raw mangoes that were sour enough so didn't need to do that.

This tangy gravy goes to Meeta for her Monthly Mingle that's all about mangoes this month.