Mango – This word will always evoke feelings of summer, fond memories of childhoods spent with cousins climbing trees and eating the fruit in abundance with the juice dribbling everywhere. Not one summer went by without losing some of my favourite clothes to stubborn mango stains. My only complaint about this magnificent fruit is that, unfortunately they are seasonal. They’re available for just a few months each year. Maybe that’s what makes mangoes special. Perhaps we wouldn’t appreciate them as much if they were available year round.
The summer of 2020 was supposed to be my last summer vacation. I should have graduated from college in April and I should have started working this month. The time between those two events was supposed to be mine. Mine to enjoy, mine to meet friends, and mine to immerse myself in the season and all it entailed. However, at the time of writing this I have not graduated, I have not started work, and I certainly have not enjoyed the vacation like I had planned. Such is the fate of everyone belonging to the Batch of 2020.
While I have stayed indoors for three months and followed all recommended precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it is safe to say that summer has not felt like summer at all. The one saving grace of the season is the mango tree that is growing behind my house.
My family has lived in this house for seven years now, and over the seven summers spent here, this mango tree has been quite erratic in its mango production. Some summers we had a few fruits growing here and there, barely surviving to maturity, and others we had a decent crop but the mangoes were either plagued by pests, or destroyed by a troupe of particularly rowdy monkeys that returned each year.
This year, however, this beautiful mango tree has provided my family with some of the best mangoes we have ever eaten. Over the past four months we have harvested over 300 mangoes from this one tree. I’d like to think that this was the darling tree’s way of apologising for the otherwise crappy summer we have had to endure.
We have not been able to identify the variety of these glorious mangoes. Some of the fruits taste just like (for fear of offending all the mango connoisseurs out there, I will not say they taste better than) Alphonso, with that rich, luxurious orange hue. Some other fruits remind one of Raspuri, and the rest are reminiscent of the Badami variety. The pulp has little to no fibre, but the sheer size of these mangoes seems to suggest that they do not belong to these classifications – they’re huge and weigh between 450-580g each!
Under normal circumstances, we would have been tasked with distributing this deluge of mangoes to neighbours, friends and family for them to enjoy, and while we did manage to get some of them to others, a majority of the fruit was for us to consume.
Out came the long forgotten books with handwritten recipes for a variety of pickles and preserves. My parents, grandparents and I went into overdrive coming up with different ways to extend the life of these mangoes – raw and ripe.
This was pretty exciting for me considering pickle has always been one of the culinary loves of my life. I still get yelled at for consuming pickle and rice in copious quantities with every meal! I’m always in awe at how much flavour gets packed into these pickles. The Kannada word ‘Uppinakai’ fairly indicates that the primary preservative is salt – lots of it. Whether the base of these pickles is brine or oil, the spices that always make their way into the mix aid in digestion. I will always be grateful to these spices for being the reason I’ve never had a stomach upset after binging on pickle. *touches wood*
Pictured from left to right, here’s a list of what we’ve been doing with these mangoes (apart from stuffing our faces with them!) this summer:
1. Chunda
This Gujarati preserve is a delightful combination of sour, sweet and spicy flavours, made with grated raw mangoes and spices, is something my grandmother has made every summer. We use a faster stove-top method as opposed to the traditional way of making it by storing the ingredients in a glass jar and exposing it to the harsh sunlight of Indian summers which cooks it over time. Chunda is a wonderful accompaniment with chapatis, rotis, theplas or pooris! If the already half-empty bottle is any indication, my family loves this recipe.
2. Sweet Mango Pickle
Now this is a Goan recipe we discovered online and tried for the first time this summer, mostly because we discovered that the mangoes were ripening faster than expected. Cooking semi-ripe mango pieces in a spicy and sweet sauce with garlic and vinegar acting as the primary preservative, after marinating them overnight in salt resulted in a brilliantly tangy pickle absolutely bursting with flavour. This is a pickle recipe I will most definitely return to every year.
3. Amma’s Mango Pickle
Raw mango pieces preserved in a delicious mix of sesame oil seasoned with powdered fenugreek seeds, dried red chillies, asafoetida and mustard, this pickle recipe is one that my grandmother and mother make every year. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the curd rice I end most of my meals with!
4. Aamchoor
This dry mango powder is a constant fixture in our spice rack, and this summer we made some from scratch. After peeling, thinly slicing and sun-drying the raw fruit, it was powdered to become the citrusy seasoning we will use to flavour dishes until mango season is upon us again.
5. Chitranna Chutney
The start of summer is always heralded by the presence of Maavinkai Chitranna on the dining table during meal times. Raw mango rice seasoned with mustard, curry leaves and groundnuts, it’s a family favourite! With the number of raw mangoes we ended up with this year, we’ve made bottles of the chutney that can be used to quickly whip up chitranna at will. Maavinkai Chitranna won’t be something limited to the summer season now, and I am all for it!
While I will continue to enjoy the mangoes from my tree in their preserved forms for the foreseeable future, I’m going to miss seeing the mangoes grow and ripen on the tree. I’m so grateful to this tree for salvaging my summer. It’s been a good Mango Season 2020, here’s hoping for another one next year!
In what forms have you enjoyed mangoes this year? Comment down below and let me know!
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