Aam Ka Murabba
Lot of childhood memories are associated with this dish. I am sure many of you would have a different version of this recipe. Every household in different region might have their own style of making it. This is quite similar to how my mom used to make when we were small kids. She had learnt it from a neighbouring aunt many many years ago. Since then she would religiously make it every year. And I would get my share whenever I go to Mumbai or she comes to Chennai. I simply love to eat it just like that. It goes well with any kind of stuffed parathas or multigrain-millet rotis.
This weekend, when we had gone to my in laws house, we got some nice and fresh home grown raw mangoes. So, immediately I thought of trying this out in my kitchen. I had a vague remembrance of how mom used to make it, so collected all the necessary ingredients and started working on it. To make it more healthy, I have added a pack of dates to it. Also the sugar has been replaced by jaggery. Here is a quick aam ka murabba recipe in my style. It is maybe nowhere closer to how my mom used to make, but even this tastes good. The jaggery can be replaced by cane sugar too. The amount of sweetness and spice is purely personal. You can add bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon etc if you choose to. You can increase or decrease the spice and sweetner to suit your taste buds.
Ingredients:
- Raw mango 800 gm ( big mango)
- Salt to taste
- Jaggery 200 gm
- Dates 200 gm
- Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
- Fenugreek seeds 8-10
- Black pepper corns 8-10
- Cardamom pods 3-4
- Red chilli powder 1-2 tsp
- Refined oil 2 tbsp
Method:
- Wash and peel the mango. Cut them into 1-1.5 inch long thin pieces. Chop the dates finely.
- Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan and add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and the black pepper.
- Add the chopped dates and saute it for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the mango slices, chilli powder, salt and jaggery and stir.
- Cook the mixture till it thickens and the mango is cooked well. Might take 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from fire and cool. Store in dry and clean air tight containers.
- Serve with parathas or rotis or simply eat it just like that 🙂
Notes:
- Store it in the refrigerator for a longer shelf life. Use always dry and clean spoon for serving.
- Store in bottles only after it has cooled fully.
- Adding dates makes this healthier and helps in reducing the amount of sugar/jaggery being used.
- Use thick fleshed and less sour mangoes to make this or else we will end up in adding lots of sugar/jaggery.
- The mangoes can be grated instead of slicing and used in a similar way.
