September 28
Who doesn't love a good surprise? We all do! Especially if its related to food, I think nothing can be a better surprise than that. Well that's what happened with me a few days ago. I am part of a few food groups on FB you can kind of say a pretty active contributor on the Pune food groups. I have mentioned earlier also that while interacting on those groups I met many nice folks who shared the same love as me for food. We keep having so many interactions on a daily basis that at times I forget certain things discussed over there.
So one day while I was busy in office work from home, I received a call. The guy on the other end said -
"Mam where exactly if your apartment located, I have come for a delivery but seems like I have come ahead?"
I quickly tried to recollect if I had any deliveries scheduled that day. Now, over the past month I have been on a binge buying food related things for my blog. So every alternate day I had some deliveries planned, thanks to amazon, that even after ordering together they would send me all the items on separate dates. The harder I tried to recollect but nothing came out as scheduled for today so after I explained to him the address I asked -
"Are you from amazon?"
"No I am from <courier company name> and there is a achaar delivery for you"
Now hearing this I was pretty sure that the courier guy must have mistaken the address because I didn't remember ordering any achaar. Actually I am not much of an achaar person. Most of the time it would happen that I buy myself some fancy achaar just out of curiosity and then totally forget about it even if its languishing right under my eyes on the center table. Then one fine day my mom would drop in or any of my friend and draw my attention towards it. I cannot say I hate achaar, as then I wouldn't have had any fascination towards buying it, but its just that I don't feel anything amiss without it in my meals. Now coming back to the point. I was very sure there was some mistake in this but before I could ask or tell the guy had disconnected. He was nearly five minutes away from my home location so I decided to go down anyway to the entry gate and check what is this all about.
Now a days it is a real hassle going down to pick up any deliveries. You need to be armed with mask, you need to wear a different dress because you don't want your home clothes to be contaminated on the way and all that. Usually I ask our security guard to keep it and when I get time in the day I go down and collect it. But with food items you cannot do that. So half confused half curious I walked all the way to the gate practicing what I need to tell the delivery guy.
There at the gate was a well dressed guy in his middle ages in a tee and jeans talking over phone sitting on a bike. he definitely didn't look like a courier person. I couldn't locate anyone else over there who looked like a delivery guy so hesitantly I walk up to him and ask a floating question -
"Are you...?" I didn't complete it in case he is not, the acharwala, it would be very weird asking just anyone standing on the way, did you bring achaar for me?
He nodded and asked me to wait for his call to get over. He finished his call and brought out a nicely wrapped package and handed over to me. I was just about to say, "I think you have got the wrong address", but my eyes fell on the parcel and there it was written in bold my name and address. I looked at him blankly and he looked at me weirdly. I was still wondering where did the achaar come from when I turned the packet and saw the from tag. It was from a friend Dahlia from the food group! I was relived that at least now I know who sent it. The why part still remained a mystery.
Now since all this calculation was going on in my head I was a bit messed. It was a mixed feeling of surprise, joy, astonishment and bafflement. Also since the guy didn't look like a delivery person I don't know why on the earth I blurted out before I could control - " Are you from ... you know Dahlia's home?"
Maybe I was thinking I need to be extra courteous or maybe even call him up for a cup of tea if he says he is some relative or friend of her. I feel my question made him cringe fleetingly and he gave me a real stoic expression and said - " No I am from the delivery company"
That's when I realized I have already messed it up. He must be thinking what a weird mad lady this is! I tried to salvage the goof up with a nervous smile. But he maintained his stoic expression and drove away without another word. Yes I was holding back my breath all the while, just in case I get into another foot in the mouth situation.
After coming back home I immediately dialed the number mentioned below Dahlia's name (yes I didn't have her number also till then!). Thankfully she picked up and I got to know that like 3 months ago I had randomly commented on some of her post that I want the achaar she had posted about. She remembered it and send me this surprise. It was from a local vendor who makes this achaars at home. The package had two mango jam bottles and two "pani ka achaar" ( mango pickle in water). I was overwhelmed. Surprises are awesome but when its from a totally unexpected person then it just is super awesome. I mean I felt like I must have done something right that people I met on a social forum remembered me. These kind of gestures remains with you even if you forget other things.
Now coming to this unique pani ka achaar. This was the first time I came to know that pickles could be made without oil, and more specifically with water! By the initial look you would never guess it doesn't have oil. Later when I started googling it I saw there are many kinds of achaar which can be made in water. The taste is really amazing too. I mean me who is not an achaar lover started having this pickle almost everyday with her meals! That goes to the length of saying how good it is. The shelf life is not as long as traditional pickles but nonetheless this tastes so good, that you really are going to finish it off in just a matter of days.
Now coming to the other surprising find. Summer has long gone and the other day I was browsing through the vegetable list of one of the delivery partners and guess what I found raw mangoes in the list. Initially I couldn't believe it, but yes right there on the screen was the picture of green mangoes sitting in a basket.
It didn't take me any coaxing to immediately order them. And I knew just the thing I wanted to make with this raw mangoes - Mutton curry cooked unhurriedly over low flame along with big halved potatoes letting the tartness of the raw mangoes seep into the meat as they got cooked. Quite spicy, a whole lot tangy, little sweet and bursting with flavors of dry roasted whole spices - if there is heaven in a dish this is it! In Bengali it is called Kacha Aam diye Mangsho. This recipe is kind of a legacy recipe which has been handed down the generations of Bengalis, everyone giving it their own twist.
Marination Time : Overnight
Cooking Time : 60-65 minutes
Serving : 4 Adult
Serving : 4 Adult
Ingredients :
- Mutton - 1 kg
- Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp
- Fennel Seeds/ (Sauf) - 1 tsp
- Green Mango - 1 ( 3/4 grated, 1/4 chopped in chunks)
- Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
- Ginger - 1 inch
- Garlic - 1 clove + 1 clove
- Yoghurt - 100 gm
- Onion - 2 big, dry roasted and made into paste
- Red Chilli powder - 6 tsp *
- Whole red chilli - 7-8
- Potato - 2 medium, diced
- Green chilli - 6 -7
- Salt to taste
- Sugar To taste
- Ghee
Method:
1. Marinate the mutton overnight with yoghurt.
2. In a flat skillet dry roast Coriander seeds and fennel seeds for a 3-4 minutes until fragrant on a medium flame and stirring frequently. Once fragrant transfer them to a grinder and coarsely grind it.
Note : I used a mortar pestle to roughly grind the roasted spices.
3. Dice the onions and separate out all the layers. On the same skillet dry roast the onions (refer to image). Keep turning the sides until they get slightly charred in the edges. Similarly char the ginger, garlic and 2 dried red chilli. It should be done in about 2 to 3 minutes on medium flame.
2. In a flat skillet dry roast Coriander seeds and fennel seeds for a 3-4 minutes until fragrant on a medium flame and stirring frequently. Once fragrant transfer them to a grinder and coarsely grind it.
Note : I used a mortar pestle to roughly grind the roasted spices.
3. Dice the onions and separate out all the layers. On the same skillet dry roast the onions (refer to image). Keep turning the sides until they get slightly charred in the edges. Similarly char the ginger, garlic and 2 dried red chilli. It should be done in about 2 to 3 minutes on medium flame.
Then finally add one 1 tsp oil to the tawa and fry the grated coconut till a nice aroma comes and it starts to lightly brown on edges.
Tip: Charring the onion has two fold benefits. It adds a distinct flavour to the curry and secondly due to charring most of the water is evaporated, hence it cooks faster.
Note: No oil is used for onion, garlic and ginger. This is simple dry roasting method.
4. Grind the charred onion, garlic, ginger, dried red chilli and coconut to a smooth paste with a little water and mix it with the marinated mutton. This needs to be done before you start to cook. Add the red chilli powder to the mutton as well and mix well. Also add about 1 tsp of grated raw mango and fold in.
5. Take a deep bottomed pan and add ghee. Let it get heated and become fragrant. Lightly fry the diced potato for 2-3 minutes and keep aside.
6. In the same ghee, break the red chillies into two and toss into the ghee. Add one bruised garlic clove with it. Sauté it for about a minute. Now add about 1 tsp of the grated mango and saute.
Tip: If you do not purely want to use ghee, you can take half and half of ghee and refined oil. But for a robust flavour ghee is recommended.
Note: Reduce/Adjust the number of chillies as per your tolerance level
6. Add the marinated mutton along with the marinade. Stir everything in nicely. Cook it for about 5-10 minutes on medium to high flame without the lid, stirring frequently. Adjust the salt and sugar.
Note: No turmeric is added in this preparation.
7. At this stage you can lower the flame and cover and cook it on dum till mutton is cooked. Or else if you want to save time, you can transfer it all to a pressure cooker, add enough warm water to the cooker and cook it for required number of whistles. I used the cooker here.
Tip: If you are adding the potato along with the mutton like I did, cook it for one or two whistles, take out the potato and then again put the mutton on pressure and cook it for about 5-6 more whistles or as long as your mutton takes to cook.
8. Transfer the mutton and the potatoes back to the deep bottomed pan and cook on medium flame. Add the ground masalas to it which you had prepared in step 3. give it a nice stir and let it cook for about 5 minutes covered.
9. Now add the remaining grated and chunks of mango to the curry and fold everything in. Let it cook for about 5 more minutes covered.
Tip: You can chop or dice the mangoes instead of grating as well and add to the curry.
10. Once the cooking is done, top it off with a little ghee and let it remain covered till you are ready to serve. It will be a nice sweet, sour, and salty curry which pairs well with about anything.
Tip: Charring the onion has two fold benefits. It adds a distinct flavour to the curry and secondly due to charring most of the water is evaporated, hence it cooks faster.
Note: No oil is used for onion, garlic and ginger. This is simple dry roasting method.
4. Grind the charred onion, garlic, ginger, dried red chilli and coconut to a smooth paste with a little water and mix it with the marinated mutton. This needs to be done before you start to cook. Add the red chilli powder to the mutton as well and mix well. Also add about 1 tsp of grated raw mango and fold in.
5. Take a deep bottomed pan and add ghee. Let it get heated and become fragrant. Lightly fry the diced potato for 2-3 minutes and keep aside.
6. In the same ghee, break the red chillies into two and toss into the ghee. Add one bruised garlic clove with it. Sauté it for about a minute. Now add about 1 tsp of the grated mango and saute.
Tip: If you do not purely want to use ghee, you can take half and half of ghee and refined oil. But for a robust flavour ghee is recommended.
Note: Reduce/Adjust the number of chillies as per your tolerance level
Note: No turmeric is added in this preparation.
7. At this stage you can lower the flame and cover and cook it on dum till mutton is cooked. Or else if you want to save time, you can transfer it all to a pressure cooker, add enough warm water to the cooker and cook it for required number of whistles. I used the cooker here.
Tip: If you are adding the potato along with the mutton like I did, cook it for one or two whistles, take out the potato and then again put the mutton on pressure and cook it for about 5-6 more whistles or as long as your mutton takes to cook.
8. Transfer the mutton and the potatoes back to the deep bottomed pan and cook on medium flame. Add the ground masalas to it which you had prepared in step 3. give it a nice stir and let it cook for about 5 minutes covered.
9. Now add the remaining grated and chunks of mango to the curry and fold everything in. Let it cook for about 5 more minutes covered.
Tip: You can chop or dice the mangoes instead of grating as well and add to the curry.
10. Once the cooking is done, top it off with a little ghee and let it remain covered till you are ready to serve. It will be a nice sweet, sour, and salty curry which pairs well with about anything.
11. Slit some green chillies and fry them in oil and then garnish the mutton before serving. The green chilli will add a nice zing to the tangy mutton gravy.
Serve it with steamed rice or Indian flatbread.
Serve it with steamed rice or Indian flatbread.
