A sweet and sour, tangy, coconut-based curry made with the season’s best ripe mangoes, tempered with mustard seeds and red chillies—this traditional mango curry recipe finds its roots in Kerala. Often, for the seafood-loving population of the state, the mango curry is given a tweak with the addition of fish or prawns.
They say June best serves as the mango month with varieties of mangoes flooding the markets, making their way into Indian kitchens to be made into pickles, curries, aam pannas or desserts. When Chef Agnibh Mudi, corporate chef of one8 Commune, was customising his summer special mango menu this month for the resto-bar in Delhi, Kolkata and Pune, he not only derived inspiration from Kerala’s traditional curry recipe but from his hometown Kolkata, too, while also keeping in mind the north Indian recipes.
“In the mango season, Kerala does mango curries, Kolkata famously does mango dal, Gujarat loves the aamras curry. Everyone likes to utilise the seasonal fruit in one way or the other. Our 'Kerala Mango Fish Curry' and 'Mango & Summer Vegetable Curry' have been curated keeping in mind the north Indian palette. It is not very sweet,” he said. The base of the vegetarian and the fish curry remains the same—cooked in coconut milk and with a south Indian tempering. Chef uses raw and sweet mangoes as ingredients in the vegetarian curry. Both the curries are served with rice and Mudi insists that it makes for the perfect side pairing.
For starters, chef Mudi has curated the mango kerabu salad and mango and sprout salad, using different varieties of mangoes for different textures and flavours. Chef Mudi also made sure the pairing with the tacos was mango-inspired and he replaced tomato salsa with tangy mango salsa.
What strikes in the menu is the fact that mango finds its way into dishes that have never been paired with the fruit. As unusual as it may sound, the sushi, too, is not spared. Yet in this menu, a mango and avocado or salmon sushi is a fulfilling and unique experience.
The traditional mango barfi, too, finds a culinary twist as it has been made in creamy textures and served as a side pairing with mango tiramisu. “We topped the barfi with some coconut and did not make it very sweet. Traditional mango barfis sold at sweet shops are very sweet. Though the barfi comes as a side pairing with the mango tiramisu, it was my personal favourite and we loved the idea of serving it as a separate sweet altogether,” the chef said.
The 'Summer Vacations' mango menu is being served at one8 Commune in June.