Raw Mango with Masoor Daal

A long weekend comes and it brings my urge to experiment in the kitchen. That's actually not unusual these days as I have been doing that quite often. But I have become very lazy when it comes to update my kitchen stories or any stories in the blog. But this one I would like to share.

The King of fruits aka Mango is back! So does summer and scorching heat. In our society there are 2 big mango trees and each year we get some raw mangoes at this time around. By we, I mean each of the flats. So the first  2 raw mangoes of the season were promptly turned into a pickle.

Since we still had few raw mangoes with us, we decided to have them before they soiled. So today I decided o make a tangy daal cooked with raw mango. I am sure many parts of our country will have variations of this. But I followed the Bengali way which is called Kacha Aam Diye Daal.

Ingredients :

1 medium raw mango
1 cup masoor daal or chana daal ( I used masoor daal)
1 dried red chili
2 green chilies
Half tea spoon turmeric
Half tea spoon mustard seeds
2 table spoon mustard oil
Salt as per taste

Method :: 

Wash and soak the masoor daal for 10 minutes. Put the daal into a pressure cooker with water just to cover it, add salt and cook till one whistle. I do not prefer masoor daal to be over cooked and complete mushy. Hence I stopped at one whistle only. Peel and cut the mango into slices. Now open the pressure cooker, add mango pieces, green chillies and half tea spoon of turmeric. Close the lid again and cook for one more whistle. Release the pressure and open the lid immediately. You see, you can surely add the mango pieces in the first go itself. However this may turn the daal very tangy. Hence I followed this method. This is what I have learnt from my Bengali friends who are some excellent cooks.

Now the tempering. Heat mustard oil in a pan / kadahi. Add mustard seeds and the red chili. As the mustard seeds splutter, pour the daal into this. Mix everything with a saddle and let the daal boil for about 6-7 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Kacha Aam diye daal with Bhaat 

Pacha Manga or Raw Mango curry

The Mumbai Summer is here full on and with it comes the season of Mangoes! The other day we got 1 dozen juicy aromatic Alphonso Mangoes and since then both P and I are being complete Mango people. To make the best of the season I thought of experimenting more with mangoes. Quite a bold move for me; I admit. So one quick search here and there and I decided to try the simple Kerala dish of Raw Mango Curry or Pacha Manga curry. It goes very well with steamed rice too. So done and decided, this weekend it's gonna be raw mango curry with hot steamed rice.

Ingredients :

One Raw mango chopped into cubes.
One tea spoon of turmeric powder.
One tea spoon of corriander powder
One tea spoon of red chilli powder
Two table spoon of cooking oil.
One and a half tea spoon  of mustard seeds
One string of curry leaves

For the paste :
Grated coconut - one cup
Green Chillies - 3
Garlic cloves - 3 / 4
Cumin seeds - half tea spoon.

Salt as per taste.

Wash the chopped mango pieces thoroughly. Mix the turmeric powder, corriander powder and red chilli powder with the mango pieces and let these marinate for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, boil the mango pieces. Use water just enough to cover the mango pieces. Boil till they are tender; which will take about 5-6 minutes.

While the mango pieces are boiling, make the coconut paste. Grind the grated coconut, green chillies, garlic cloves and cumin seeds with little water. Grind to a fine paste. 

Drain the water from the mango pieces. Do not throw the water. This is to be used in the curry.

Raw Mango Curry

Heat oil in a pan. Let the mustard seeds and curry leaves splutter. Add the coconut paste and cook for 2 minutes. Now add the mango pieces. Mix gently. Add the drained water as per the thickness of the gravy that you want. Add salt accordingly. 

Let this simmer for 5 - 6 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice.





Trust me, the aroma which fills your home while the curry boils away is heavenly. This is one easy and very tasty and very "apt for summer" dish.




P loved the curry. Me too. :)

Pacha Manga curry with steamed rice and a papad.