Chef Marina Balakrishnan, or That Thallaserry Girl as we all know from the gram, waits every year for the mango season to cook up all her favourite recipes! She shares with enthucutlet dishes from the Deccan states that one simply cannot miss during the season of the mighty aam.
Grab a bib, this is going to be a juicy one!
Andhra Pradesh
Avakai
Ava means mustard and kai means mango! Making enough avakai to last you a year is almost customary during mango season. Avakai or Avakaya Pachadi is made with chopped raw mangoes (on the kernel) that are steeped with sun dried and ground mustard seeds, fenugreek, red chilli, and turmeric powder with a generous helping of sesame or gingelly oil.
Avakai can spruce but pretty much anything you eat!
Mamidikkkaya Pulusu
Can’t imagine mango season without a curry now, can we? Mamidikkkaya Pulusu is Andhra’s answer to those curry cravings. A thin spicy and tangy curry or pulusu made best with chopped thotapuri or banganpalli mangoes,onions and chilli in a tamarind jaggery curry and tempered with mustard, fenugreek, cumin, chilli, and asafoteida.
Yep, you’re definitely going to ask for seconds.
Mamidikkkaya Pulihora
How do you depict true mango love? You toss it into every course, of course! Almost every Deccan state has their version of mango rice and we love Andhra’s Mamidikkkaya Pulihora made with raw mango, peanuts, chana dal, mustard, curry leaves, and dried red chillies. You can eat this for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!
Tamil Nadu
Mangai Pachadi
You can’t have a banana leaf meal without a pachadi, and while you can make a pachadi with a few different fresh vegetables, the mango pachadi is a clear winner! It is a silky relish made with raw or semi ripe mangoes cooked in jaggery along with red chilli powder, which is then topped with tempered mustard and curry leaves.
Vadu Mangai Urugai
A plate of curd rice is incomplete without its fair share of Vadu Mangai Urugai. This pickle is made with tender whole raw baby mangoes simply immersed in castor oil and a mixture of dry red chilies, mustard and fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, turmeric powder, and rock salt. This jar is then left to sit in the sun until the mangoes shrivel, and can be enjoyed for a few months.
Fun fact: The castor oil acts as a great preservative due to its high viscosity.
Mangai Thoguyal
Many find the mango pickle too spicy – for those the thoguyal is a great and more subtle alternative giving you all the yummy of the raw mango – minus the spice. It is a thick chutney made with roasted green chilli, chana dal, urad dal, red chilli, and curry leaves that is blended with coconut, turmeric, jaggery, and asafoteida to a semi fine paste, to which grated raw mango is folded in. Eat this with anything from uttappam to sambar rice!
Kerala
Mambazha Pulissery
Chef Marina holds this dish very close to her heart – in fact her recipe of this iconic summer curry is from her grandmother’s kitchen. The Mambazha Pulissery is a runny, yoghurt based runny made best with ripe whole peeled Moovandan mangoes, chilli, curry leaves, coconut, and mustard! Pair this with a side of papadam and pumpkin olan for the typical thalassery experience!
You can watch her recipe here.
Mambazha Kalan
A Mambazha Kalan is a thicker version of the pulissery and a quintessential onam sadhya component. It is made with ripe mango, preferably the Naattumanga / Chandrakkaranmanga variety, jaggery, grated coconut, turmeric, chilli powder, and sour curd. While a pullissery can be eating with rice, a kalan is best treated as a side dish!
