This dish is a very good example of forgotten childhood tastes.
In my adulthood, I ate it for the first time on a roots trip to India, in one of the many thali meals I ate there. It was one of the tastiest things I've ever eaten. And at the first bite I remembered the taste and knew that I had eaten it in my early childhood at my grandmother's, but I didn't have the recipe, I didn't know how it was called and the taste was forgotten. When I tried to tell family members and ask if anyone knew or remembered, no one knew what I meant.
But apparently karma wanted otherwise...
One day I was invited to a celebrate the Onam holiday , at Menachem Pal's home. In my family, we didn't celebrate the Onam, and I was not familiar with this holiday at all, and it was my first time. Onam is the rice harvest festival of the Hindu religion in South India. It turns out that this is one of the ancient and significunt holiday that is celebrated with great pomp. I don't know why my grandparents and the Cochin immigrants didn't celebrate this holiday. Perhaps because they were more devout in religion and celebrated only the Jewish holidays, and thet were less open minded to celebrate holidays of other religions. maybe this was changed over the years, and today there is more openness and willingness to celebrate holidays of other religions just as we celebrate the Civil new year evening, Christmas and Thanksgiving, because In general, you don't always need a reason to celebrate...
So at the Onam celebration at Menachem Pal's, with the presence of the Indian ambassador and a lot of family members and guests, wonderful dishes and flavores were served, all prepared by the guests themselfs. It was one big thali meal served on banana leaves like the old tradition. The flavors took me back to India, great curry dishes. , accompanied by rice, snacks, and all on the purity of vegetarianism. All dishes were served in small portions that merge into rich and special flavors, simply a celebration of tastes.
One of the dishes that was served to me was a sweet orange yellow stew, one bite of happiness was enough for me to know that here it is! I found what I was looking for...I knew that this time I will go out with a recipe.
It turns out that this dish is the specialty of the host himself - Menachem Pal and he prepares it according to a recipe he received from his parents and it is passed down from one generation to the next one.
At the Onam celebration I discovered that Menachem and I have common roots, so the same recipe is definitely the same recipe of my grandmother who comes from the same family, several generations back.
I did minimal modifications to the original recipe, just to percise the amount of the ingredients. if you prefer this dish to be vegan, just do not add the yogurt. I personaly prefer it vegan.
Ingridients:
3-4 ripe mangoes
2 spoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of Kashmiri chili powder or sweet paprika
1 glass of water
1 Can of coconut cream
Coconut paste:
50 g of ground coconut
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
Curry leaves from one branche
1 small green chili
1/2 cup water
Yogurt paste:
2 yogurts
A little salt
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
Topping:
3 tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
Curry leaves from two branches
2 red chili peppers
Preparation method:
Peel the mango and cut it into small cubes
Put the mango cubes in a pot with water and cook for about 10 minutes.
Add the sugar and spices
Grind the coconut with the cumin seeds, curry leaves, green chili and water in a blender and add the paste to the pot, and mix well
Add the coconut cream and bring to a boil, turn off the heat and put aside.
Mix the yogurt with salt and lemon and add to the pot (for vegan - skip this step, and go to step 9).
Mix well and make sure there are no lumps.
Do not boil the stew again after adding the yogurt!
Heat oil in a small pan
Add the mustard seeds
As soon as the mustard seeds pop, add curry leaves and chili pepper
Pour everything over the mango stew and mix
Serve with white rice, or as an addition to curry dishes in a thali meal.