Sweet and Sour Mango Curry
A stunning, Sweet and Sour Mango Curry that puts the mango centre stage. It's silky, juicy, delicious, yum and for me triggers happy memories of summers long ago!
In India mangoes are in season from about March to July. My mum would use mangoes in a thousand different ways. We would eat them ripe as they are, pickle them in sweet and savoury pickles, make a fruit salad and eat with custard, use them in raw form as a souring agent in curries and chutneys, also cook the ripe mangoes into a delicious sweet, sour, savoury, velvety mango curry. This mango curry was a favourite of mine for as long as I can remember.
Many of the mangoes I ate when I was growing up in Udupi were home grown and some varieties were bellari, mulgova, mundappa, neelum, pairi, thothapuri, just to name a few. Each of these mangoes had their own flavour and taste, but the best suitable for this curry was a mango by the name bellari, which is a large mango and when medium ripe, had an unique sweet and sour taste to it. It is this sweet and sour taste that would yield a mouth watering mango curry. My mum of course used any mangoes that were medium ripe (ambor pekay) on any tree when she went hunting for mangoes for a mango curry. If she found suitable mangoes on any mango tree, she would use a tall purpose built bamboo stick called thenkdi (prounced THENK-DI) for plucking them. The thenkdi was a saving grace as the mango trees we had were more than 20 metres tall and the little pouch attached to the top of the thenkdi would capture the mango when it is plucked and then lowered to the ground without damaging the flesh of the mango. Thanks to this wonderful home made invention, we got delicious home grown mangoes right up until we left home!!
Inspired by my grand uncle Isidore Coelho, the author of the famous Mangalorean cookbook "The Chef" and my passion for cooking, is one of my favourite mango curries that I make mostly during the lenten season when I feel like eating something sweet, sour, savoury, colourful and vegetarian. To experience all these tastes together, you will need the flesh of a mango that has a certain amount of tartness or acidity to it. I have used a type of mango called Honey Gold which is available during December to March in the Sydney supermarkets. This is a large mango and weighs about 300g-350g each or perhaps more if it is a very large mango. The flesh is firm and fibreless and has a distinct rich sweet mango aroma along with a sharp taste when it is medium ripe. I use medium ripe mangoes for this curry as it yields best results.
Fortunately, Honey Gold mangoes are still sold in Woolworths as the mango season spans from November to March in Australia. If you love experimenting a curry with this bright orange flesh mango, grab a couple of these medium ripe mangoes and check out the recipe below. Make sure you get in fast, as they are running out of season in a week or two!
Sweet and Sour Mango Curry
Ingredients
- 3 medium size medium ripe mangoes
- 8 Kashmiri chillies or to taste
- 6 pepper corns
- 4 garlic cloves chopped
- ½ tsp. turmeric powder
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 1½ tsp. salt or to taste
- 80-100 g powdered jaggery or palm sugar or to taste
- ½ cup coconut oil or grapeseed oil
For the tempering
- 1 tsp. black mustard seeds
- 5 small garlic cloves bruised lightly
- 1 strand curry leaves
Instructions
- Cut cheeks from the mangoes, scoop out the flesh and set aside. Remove some of the flesh from the seeds but reserve the seeds as the seeds will be added during cooking.
- Blend chillies, pepper corns, garlic, turmeric and onion to a smooth paste. Wash the blender with 150mL water and reserve.
- In a deep saucepan with a lid, heat half the oil on low and add the ground paste. Fry this paste for 5 minutes stirring continuously. Add the reserved blender water gradually and ensure that the paste does not burn or catch the pan.
- Add the scooped flesh, the seeds, 500mL-550mL water and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt. Simmer for 20 minutes stirring from time to time.
- Add the powdered jaggery and stir to combine. Season if required. Remove from heat and set aside.
- For the tempering, heat a small shallow fry pan on medium and add the remaining oil. When the oil is nearly hot but not smoking, add the mustard seeds and when they crackle, add the bruised garlic cloves. Wait for a few seconds till the garlic changes colour to light golden. Add the curry leaves. Be careful as the oil will spit at once. Add this hot seasoning to the cooked mangoes and close the lid immediately. After 5 minutes, stir to combine the seasoning with the mangoes.
- Serve with hot steamed rice and papads as an accompaniment.
Notes
- When you add curry leaves to the hot oil, please ensure you wear gloves as the oil will spit when it comes in contact with the curry leaves.
- I used Honey Gold mangoes. They were quite sweet and did not have much sourness to them. Therefore, I added 2 tbsp. white vinegar in step 5. If your mangoes have some sourness to them, then you do not need to add vinegar.
Hi, I’m Catherine!
I’m all about creating tasty Indian dishes with whatever’s on hand, even when I’m short on time or budget. I love turning simple ingredients into flavorful delights. Join me on this culinary adventure where we’ll explore the magic of Indian cuisine, one delicious dish at a time!
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