Mambazha pulisseri

Ever since I can remember, the rains have always made an appearance on the first day of school. During my school days, the skies would open up exactly on the day our school reopened. This always made me happy as it meant that I didn't have to wear closed shoes for at least 2 months. I could go to school wearing open toed sandals, feeling the rain water with my toes, armed with a colourful new umbrella.
History seems to have repeated itself because today, my daughter went to school in open toed sandals, wanting to stop and jump in all the puddles along the way. There's something very positive and beautiful about seeing smiling young faces all set to be welcomed into a new school year.
Rain also means that the mango season will end in a few weeks' time. So I have decided to use mangoes in as many ways as I can before they disappear from the market. Today's recipe is for a quintessential dish from Kerala - mambazha pulissery - a tangy and sweet blend of mangoes cooked in spiced, sour curd. I am of the opinion that this dish must have had its beginnings when an innovative cook decided that she wouldn't throw away over-ripe mangoes that the kids didn't seem to want to eat.


What you need:
Ripe mangoes - 5 or 6 (*See note)
Sour curd - 1 cup
Green chilli - 3
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Jaggery(optional - use only if the mangoes are not sweet by themselves)
For tempering:
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 2
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - a few sprigs

Chop the mangoes(with skin) into large chunks. In a large pan, add the chopped mango, the mango seed, and just enough water to cover the mangoes. Add turmeric powder and let it boil until the mangoes are cooked and tender to touch. Let it cool and then using your hands, squeeze out all the pulp from the skin and the seeeds and then discard the skin and seeds.(#See note) Take the mango pulp and any water that is left over from boiling the mangoes in a large kadai. Grind coconut, green chillies and curd to a smooth paste. Add this paste to the mango pulp along with salt. Let it come to a boil. At  this point, if you feel that the mixture is too thick, add about 1/4 cups of beaten curd. Once you add the curd, do not let the mixture boil. Switch off heat once it starts frothing.
Heat all the tempering ingredients in a pan. Once the mustards seeds pop, pour the tempering over the pulisseri and serve warm with rice.

Note : * Typically, a small variety of mango called the kootan mambazham/nattumambazham is used. These are small and can easily fit into the fist of an adult. If you cannot find these, use any fleshy variety, but reduce the quantity of mango used. I was lucky enough to find something similar to the kootan mambazham we get in Kerala when we had gone to Murud(read travelogue here).
# You can choose to let the mango, with skin and seeds to remain in the pulisseri and that is how a lot of people enjoy this curry. However, in my household, the mango pieces are carefully set aside and later thrown away untouched. So I used this method to ensure that the fruit is not wasted.
This is my entry for Blogging Marathon #29 under the theme Cooking with colours. The colour I have chosen for the first day is Yellow.
Check out the http://spicingyourlife.blogspot.com/p/blogging-marathon.html">Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#29