16 Traditional Mango Recipes From Our Kitchen

The HBD staff is bound by a love of mangoes. That love stems from many happy memories of consuming these delicious fruits in preparations that were particular to the kitchens we grew up in. Mangoes, regardless of kind, went into everything – from spicy Punjabi pickle to Goan prawn curry to a yoghurt-based curry that’s an Onam specialty. We decided to send the editorial team down memory lane via family cookbooks. Here are the delightful recipes that they came back with.

DALS, CURRIES AND SAUCES

Aam Kasundi

Kasundi is a traditional Bengali sauce. It has a sharp kick, like a milder sister of wasabi, and takes a little getting used to. We eat it as a condiment with fish fry and chops or with really hot rice and fried preparations of karela, brinjal, small fish or saag.

2-3 small raw green mangoes, chopped
½ cup mustard seeds, both yellow and black
4-5 tsp mustard oil
2-3 green chillies
1 tsp turmeric powder
Salt, to taste
Sugar
A little garlic (optional)

Soak the mustard seeds for 1 hour. Grind them with a pinch of salt. Add the chopped mangoes, chillies, turmeric, salt and sugar, and grind into a pulp. You can add slightly chunky mango pieces if you like. Pour it into a glass jar, add the oil and shake it. Cover the jar with a muslin cloth and leave it in the sunlight for 2-3 days. Keep refrigerated.

Mango Pachadi

Served at room temperature, this tart condiment adds just the right pucker to round out an Onam sadya, a vegetarian feast served with rice on a banana leaf.

1 cup minced slightly ripe mango of any variety
3 green chillies, cut fine
1-inch piece ginger, cut fine
3 shallots (small onions), cut fine
½ cup grated coconut
½ tsp jeera
½ tsp mustard
Salt to taste
A pinch of fenugreek powder

For seasoning
2 teaspoons oil
2 dry red chillies
3 shallots, finely sliced
2 sprigs curry leaves

Add salt and a little water to the minced mango, green chillies, shallots and ginger. Cook for 5-7 minutes on a low fire. Grind coconut with jeera and mustard, and add the mixture to the pan. Keep stirring on a low fire until it starts to bubble. Add a pinch of fenugreek powder, salt to taste and a pinch of sugar if it is too sour, and turn the gas off. Transfer it into a serving dish.

For the seasoning, fry dry red chillies, curry leaves and shallots  in oil. Pour it on the curry and keep the dish closed for some time for it to absorb the aroma.

Mambazha Pulissery

Served at room temperature, this sweet-and-sour curry of ripe mangoes in a yoghurt gravy is often served as part of an Onam sadya.

1 cup sliced ripe mangoes
2 green chillies, cut fine
1-inch piece of ginger
3 cloves garlic, cut fine
¼ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
2 cups thick curd
1 cup water
Salt to taste

For seasoning
2 teaspoons oil
½ teaspoon mustard
2 dry red chillies
2 sprigs curry leaves

Cook mangoes in water with  green chillies, ginger, garlic, turmeric, red chilli powder and salt, on a low fire after boiling, until soft. Beat curd and add to the cooked mangoes. Keep stirring it on a low flame. Take it off the fire before it starts boiling.

For the seasoning, fry mustard, dry red chillies  and curry leaves in oil; pour on the curry and close the lid.

Mambazham Sambar

This recipe is from Tamil Nadu. Mambazham Sambar is usually eaten with rice and a spoon of ghee. Variations of this sambar are made across south Indian kitchens.

A ball of tamarind (size of one small gooseberry)
3-4 small ripe mangoes (juicy, any variety)
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp toor dal (split pigeon peas)
½ tsp methi (fenugreek) powder
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp hing (asafoetida)
A pinch of turmeric
3-4 red chillies
2-3 spoons grated coconut
¼ cup toor dal, cooked

For tadka (seasoning)
Mustard seeds
Methi seeds
1 red chilli
Curry leaves
2 tbsp ghee

Soak the tamarind in one cup of water, then squeeze the tamarind into the water and put the water aside in a vessel. Peel the mango and add the mango pieces (seed can also be added) to the vessel. Add salt to taste, a pinch of turmeric and hing. Boil it for 15-20min. Dry roast the coriander, toor dal, methi, pepper, grated coconut and chillies. Then grind coarsely with a little water. Add the boiled toor dal to the ground mixture. Mix this with the mango-tamarind water. Bring to boil, take off the gas.

For tadka, fry mustard, methi, red chillies and curry leaves in ghee. Pour on top of the sambar and garnish with coriander.

Pazhamanga Curry

Served hot or at room temperature, this curry also served at an Onam sadya, has all the sweetness of ripe mangoes.

5 ripe naadan (local) mangoes, peeled
¼ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
Salt to taste
1 cup grated coconut
3 shallots (small onions)
3 green chillies
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon jeera

For seasoning
2 teaspoons oil
½ teaspoon mustard
¼ teaspoon fenugreek
2  dry red  chillies
2 sprigs curry leaves

Cook mangoes in one cup of water with turmeric, salt and red chilli powder. Boil and cook on a low fire until the mangoes are soft. Grind coconut, shallots, green chillies, garlic and  jeera  to a fine paste, adding a little  water. Mix with the cooked mangoes. Add salt to taste. Add water if needed , to  form a  thick  gravy. Cook on a low flame until it starts to bubble. Remove from the fire. Season with mustard, fenugreek, red chillies and curry leaves fried in oil. Close the lid, and stir before serving.

Prawn Curry With Raw Mango

This Goan prawn curry, served with steamed rice, is an all-time favourite. The raw mango makes it a little more khatta (tart) than it would usually be.

15 large prawns
1 medium onion, sliced
1 green chilli
1 medium-sized raw mango
A ball of tamarind (size of one small gooseberry)
Salt, to taste
1 tbsp oil

Grind to paste
3 tbsp of ground coconut
½ onion
4 flakes of garlic
¾-inch piece of ginger
8 red KashmirI chillies
1 tsp jeera seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
½ tbsp poppy seeds

Soak the tamarind in one cup of water, then squeeze the tamarind into the water and put the water aside in a vessel. Clean the prawns and devein them. Wash them, rub on a little salt and keep aside for half an hour. Heat the oil, and fry the sliced onion and green chillies until they are light brown. Add the ground masala paste and fry well. Add two cups of water and add the slices of raw mango and tamarind water. Let the slices cook. Add prawns and cook for about seven to eight minutes.

Tok Dal

This one’s synonymous with summer. We usually have it with rice and aloo bhaja (fried potato) or aloo bhaate (mashed potato mixed with salt, few drops of mustard oil). It’s an absolute favourite – so much so that I even tried to make this Bengali dish myself with foreign mangoes when I was in the UK for a year, without success of course!

½ cup masoor dal or matar dal (split peas)
2-3 small raw mangoes, sliced longitudinally (big slices)
A pinch of turmeric
Salt, to taste
Sugar, to taste
½ tsp mustard seeds
Mustard oil
Green chillies, slit
2 dry red chillies

Boil the dal with turmeric and salt; keep it watery. In a kadai, heat mustard oil. Add mustard seeds and dry red chillies. Add the mango slices; cover and let it cook for 2-3 minutes. The mango will soften. Pour in the boiled dal and green chillies. Allow to boil and cook for 3-4 mins.

ACHARS, JAMS AND CHUTNEYS

Aamer Chutney

This is a Bengali sweet-and-tangy raw mango chutney that’s usually eaten as dessert, or as an accompaniment to dal and rice, or chicken curry and rice. As a child, I used to temper spicy food by adding the chutney to every morsel, much to my grandmother’s amusement.

2 medium sized raw mangoes, sliced longitudinally
1 cup of sugar
Salt, to taste
A few mustard seeds
A pinch of turmeric
2 tsp paanch phoron, roasted and roughly ground (This is a traditional Bengali spice made up of five spices.)
2 dry red chillies
2 tsp mustard oil
½ cup water

Cut the mangoes and wash them. Heat the oil in a pan. Put mustard seeds and red chillies in the oil, then add the sliced raw mangoes, sugar, salt and turmeric. Add the water and cover it. The mangoes will cook and get soft and slightly mushy.  Check after 10 mins and adjust the sweetness if needed. You can keep cooking for a couple more minutes to make the mangoes more mushy. In the end, add the paanch phoron and close the lid for two minutes before serving.

Mango Pickle

A Gujarati preparation, made every summer.

100g raw mango (approx 2)
Achar (pickle) masala
500g small round onions
Sesame oil or cooking oil

Skin and grate the raw mangoes. Mix the achar masala generously so the residue turns red and is coated completely. Peel the small round onions and cut a cross section for each from the top, without cutting through the bottom. Fill the grated residue into the cross section of the onions. Keep aside for six to seven hours. Pour the oil in a way that it submerges the onions completely in the container. Refrigerate.

Mango Morabba

500g green mangoes
500g sugar
1 cup water

For this Punjabi specialty, peel raw green mangoes and slice them. Boil them in the sugar and water until the syrup is of one taar consistency – the way to test if the consistency is correct, is to take a drop of the chashni (sugar syrup) between your thumb and index finger and pull them apart. The syrup should be viscous enough to form only one string. If it’s thicker than you want it, it will separate into two or three strings. Refrigerate before consuming.

Punjabi Aam Ka Achar

This achar is usually eaten with aloo ki paronthi (potato-stuffed paratha), but an evergreen favourite is having it with mathi (a fried disc-shaped cracker) – it isn’t the healthiest option, but it’s so delicious that no one really minds.

5kg kairi (raw mango)
1kg salt
250g turmeric
250g red chilli powder
200g saunf (fennel seeds)
200g kalonji (onion seeds)
200g dry methi seeds

Put all ingredients in a glass jar, cover entirely with mustard oil. Leave it in the sun for 10 days to soften the kairi. Shake the jar daily.

Tikhi Mithi Amba Ji Chutney

This mango chutney, is a thing of quiet luxury when mangoes come home. It has the freshness of fennel and cardamom, the heat of peppercorns and red chillies, and the sweet-sour tang of mangoes.

250g raw Totapuri mangoes, salted and sliced
200g sugar
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 bay leaves
6 black peppercorns
3 cardamom pieces
½ tsp kalonji (onion seeds)
½ tsp salt
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp vinegar
Almonds to garnish

Boil the sugar in a cup of water. After it thickens, add the mango and all the spices. Bring it to boil three or four times, and then rest it on a low flame for 20 minutes. When it achieves a thick, jam-like consistency, add 1 tbsp of vinegar to it and mix. Cool, and serve.

DRINKS, DESSERTS AND SNACKS

Aam Panna

A sweet and savoury cooling drink made from green mangoes that’s great for the Delhi summer.

6 raw mangoes
500ml water
2 bunches of mint leaves, finely chopped
Jaggery, to taste
Salt, to taste (preferably black salt)
1 tsp jeera powder, roasted (roast the jeera on a pan, then grind it)

Peel the green mangoes, put them in the pressure cooker with the water, and let it whistle 3-4 four times until soft. Cool the boiled mangoes, and with clean hands, mash the pulp and remove the seeds. Pour it into the mixer.  Add the mint to the mixer. Add jaggery to sweeten the aam panna as per taste. If your mixer is not very powerful, melt the jaggery in some warm water before adding it in. You’ll have to put in a fair bit to sweeten the sour raw mangoes. Add in the salt and the roasted jeera powder. Mix together until the mint completely disappears into the mixture. This will give you a thick concentrate. To serve, fill a glass halfway with the concentrate, add two cubes of ice, and top off with cold water. Stir and drink up.

Baflo

It’s a great refreshing drink for summer and is extremely well-known in Gujarati households.

3 raw mangoes (makes 5 servings)
Salt, to taste
Chaat masala, to taste
Sugar or jaggery, to taste
Water

Boil the raw mangoes until soft, or put them in a cooker and wait for two whistles. Let them cool, unpeel, and remove all the pulp from the seed. Heat the jaggery (or sugar) in a cup of water until it melts, and add it to the mango pulp. Blend all of this in a mixer. Add water, salt, chaat masala, according to taste. Strain the residue and refrigerate.

Mango Kulfi

1 litre milk
500g safeda mangoes
2 tbsp condensed milk
¾ cup sugar
4 green cardamoms
20 almonds
1 tbsp unsalted pistachio
A few strands of saffron (optional)
A drop of vanilla essence

A favourite in Punjabi households. Boil the milk until it is reduced to half. Take two safeda mangoes, unpeel and slice them. Reduce them to pulp and add an equal amount of sugar. Throw in a few strands of saffron. Whisk the contents with cooled milk and condensed milk. Add vanilla essence. Pour the mixture into moulds. Place the moulds in the freezer until the kulfi hardens. Grind the almonds, green cardamoms and pistachio to a fine powder and put the mixture on a flat plate. Remove the kulfi from the moulds and roll it on the mixture.

Parsi Pora With Raw Mango

When mangoes are in season, it’s time for Parsi pora (omelette) with raw mango and offers a little tang to the humble egg preparation.

2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp onion,
1 tsp coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped or a pinch of red chilli powder
Tiny pinch of turmeric
1 tbsp raw mango, finely chopped
Tiny pinch of garlic-ginger paste (optional; I don’t put it in)
Oil
Salt, to taste

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Heat oil in a frying pan. Pour the mixture in. Flip and fry the other side as well. Eat with chapatti for breakfast or any meal.