Mango Pachadi

Mango Pachadi


It is Tamil New Year today, so ‘Iniya Tamil Puthandu Vaazhthukkal’. My mother would normally make festive meal on this day and menu would include vada, thayir vada, thirukannamudhu (payasam/dessert), mango pachadi and regular rasam, mor kozhambu etc. Owing to my circumstances, I could not make an elaborate meal but I made it a point to make the pachadi. The main reason for that is the thought process behind the recipe. The pachadi includes a variety of flavours – sweet, sour, salt, heat, bitterness. The sourness comes from teh raw mango used, sweetness from the jaggery, heat from the green chillies, bitterness from the neem flower added. It is suppose to represent how life is full of mixed flavours, happy one time, disappointed another, sad at another time and so on. On the new years day, one makes and eats this dish to gulp down that truth about life. Another reason I wanted to post this today is that I have been wanting to get the blog ready with festival recipes ahead of the festival so readers can benefit but have just not got to it. Atleast this one has made it in the very day!

1 mango, cut into chunks
½ cup jaggery powdered
2 green chillies
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urd dal
1 teaspoon neem flower

Boil the mango in water until well done

Mash it roughly and add jaggery water (I prefer to dissolve the jaggery in little water and filter, you could add grated jaggery). Add green chillies and salt and bring to boil and allow to thicken

In the meantime heat little oil and add urd dal, mustard seeds and neem flower and allow the seeds to crackle and dal to brown.

Add this to the mango and boil for couple of minutes and it is ready!