While I am loathe to corrupt my enjoyment of ripe mangoes as anything but fruit, there are a few dishes that I will make some concessions for. Topping that list is Mambazha Pulissery (aka Mambazha Mor Kootan or Mambazha Mor Kuzhambu).
I love the mix of sweet, sour and spicy tastes in the dish. While I fell in love instantly with Mambazha Pulissery when I first ate it, my family slowly grew to like it. Either way, it is now a family staple. 🙂
I grew up with Palakad Iyers for neighbours. If you find that I write about food from Kerala and Tamil Nadu as much as I do about food from Andhra Pradesh (now officially Seemandhra), it is because of Subbu Aunty’s benevolence. Once she realised that I was fond of trying different types of food, she always shared yummy dishes from her kitchen with my family.
That is saying something as she ran a household with 10 members on a single salary. Aunty went to loads to cooking classes so that she could make a range of food for her family to counter the cost of eating out. She and Amma would spend hours pouring over and discussing the merits (or demerits) of recipes published in Woman’s Era, Eve’s Weekly and other such “ladies” magazines that Amma got from BARC library. 🙂
How to Make Mambazha Pulissery (aka Mambazha Mor Kootan or Mambazha Mor Kuzhambu)
Serves: 4
Time: 30 Minutes
Ingredients
- Ripe Mango – 1 Large or 2 Medium (I prefer to use a large ripe Banginapalli mango though my pic shows an Haapus)
- Curd – 2 Cups
- Water – 1 Cup + 1/4 Cup
- Green Chillies – 2 or 3
- Grated Coconut – 1/4 Cup
- Cumin Seeds – 1/2 tsp
- Fenugreek Seeds – 1/4 tsp
- Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
- Red Chillies – 2
- Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
- Coconut Oil – 1 tsp
- Curry Leaves – A Few
- Salt to Taste
Method
- Blend 2 cups of yoghurt with 1 cup water to form a smooth liquid.
- Grind the coconut, cumin seeds, and green chillies into a smooth paste.
- Peel and chop the mango into small pieces.
- In a heavy bottomed vessel, heat 1/4 cup of water.
- Add the mango pieces and stew for 10 minutes or till the mango pieces are mashable.
- Lightly mash the mango pieces.
- Turn off the heat.
- Add coconut-green chilli paste and turmeric.
- Mix well.
- Add the yoghurt.
- Mix well.
- In a ladle, heat 1 tsp of coconut oil.
- Add mustard seeds and wait till they splutter.
- Add fenugreek seeds and stir-fry till the fenugreek seeds change colour.
- Add split red chillies and curry leaves.
- Stir fry for a minute.
- Add the tempering to the Mambazha Pulissery and mix well.
- Serve Mambazha Pulissery with steam rice.
Wow! This is so new to me. All the unimaginable flavors together. So exotic!
Not heard of this before, but this looks beautiful.
Mambazha puliserry is made several times at our home through summer. We can never have enough of it! I fell in love with your Subbu aunty after reading about her in this post, please say Hi to her from me!
Yummy… i have been looking for a ripe mango curry for a long time.. Guess, this one is it!!
Do try it, Namrata. You will not regret it. 🙂
I LOVE mambazha pullissery! I got some mangoes from Kerala yesterday so planning to make for lunch today. It rained in Pune as well last night, so it’s pleasant and cool this morning. My grandmom adds some jeera and mustard seed to the coconut+chilli mix when making the paste, so it is more like a kichadi. But tastes great either way!
Hi Meenakshi,
I add cumin too…. Forgot to add it to the recipe. Edited the recipe after reading your comment. Thank you for the feedback. 🙂
😀 I like the fact that you have not added sugar. Many recipes call for it, but when you have nice mangoes you don’t really need it!
My mangoes were sweet indeed. I am like Shabari. I taste all ingredients to make sure they are prefect before I use them. Especially mangoes. 🙂
Haha! Best way to cook :p
Wowww!!! Its one of my favrt curries…
Reblogged this on MAXIMUSOPTIMUSDOMINUS.
One of my favorite…
My favourite too! Isn’t this a lovely curry. Back home we use tiny mangoes called pulimanga…where the whole mango goes into the curry just skinned. Can’t find those here. So always on a hunt for smaller mangoes!
I love anything with mango this looks creamy and delicious 🙂
Anything with mango I m in:) looks delicious
It’s only recently that I’ve started to use fenugreek seeds again, even though I can’t grind them. Interesting to read that you don’t grind them for this recipe. Now I’m wondering if they soften. Well, one way to find out! I’m loving its flavour, and used them a couple of days ago with another version of my latest falafel. Slight problem – I really,dislike the smell of them when they’re cooking.
If you want to use fenugreek seeds then you need to dry roast them till they start change colour and then grind them to a fine powder. Beware that they are very bitter so use sparingly. Start with just 8 or 10 at a time and then adjust according to your taste.