I hear famous chefs saying 'use what’s in season', 'use seasonal ingredients’ all the time. But, that’s been the tradition since centuries. It’s not just an in-thing. If you take a look at your cuisine, you’ll know that’s true.
In India summer is when raw jackfruits, raw mangoes, ripe mangoes, ripe jackfruits are in season. And our ancestors used them in abundance while they were in season. These seasonal veggies were used to prepare a variety of dishes & were included in their diet in every way possible.
When I came to think of that, I remembered this delicious, sweet, spicy, side dish that my grandpa absolutely loved. A mango dish called as ambe sukke in Konkani. Ambo in Konkani means mango and sukke refers to a dry side dish in Konkani.
Ripe mangoes that are in season are added to a coconut gravy that’s spicy, sweet and tangy to make a hearty lunch. Coconut is available in abundance in coastal Karnataka throughout the year. So, simple ingredients that were readily available were put together to make this delicious dish. I simply admire the way our ancestors cooked and our cuisines came into being.
Here’s the recipe for this age old dish, ambe sukke in Konkani.
Ingredients:
For seasoning:
Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Preparation Method:
Preparing the masala:
Let’s prepare the sweet, spicy, tangy masala first. And to do that:
Put together the dish:
Side Note:
If you’re making this dish for many & are in short of ripe mangoes, then you can use field marrow (also known as Mangalore cucumber, Malabar cucumber) along with ripe mangoes to make this dish or chop mangoes into many pieces. This is an age old trick my granny's used to feed our big fat family.
If you're using field marrow, then keep the peel of filed marrow on, deseed it, chop it into cubes. Add cubed field marrow pieces into the wok first after seasoning & cook them using 1 cup of water & salt. Once they are almost cooked, add in ground masala and ripe mango pieces. Cook them through.
Mangoes to be used to make this dish (ambe sukke):
Sour, sweet mangoes are perfect to be used to make this dish. They make this dish delicious by imparting its sourness & sweetness to it.
Traditionally, local varieties of mangoes called as 'katt ambo/gont ambo' in Konkani, were used to make this dish. Katt ambo/gont ambo is the Konkani word for mangoes that grow on backyard trees. These mangoes are not from the cultivated mango variety & are sweet-sour in taste. They are tiny to medium-small in size. Whole mangoes were usually just slightly slit into 3 pieces & those whole mangoes were added to make this dish. Take a look at 'katt ambo/gont ambo/upakari ambo' - local mangoes placed next to alphonso mangoes below. These mangoes are green on the outside but would be ripe on the inside.
If you can't find local varieties of sweet-sour mangoes, any variety of ripe, pulpy mangoes are good to go into this dish. Slightly raw mangoes would be slightly sour-sweet & would be perfect to go into this dish.
I'm told by my granny, mangoes that weren't very sweet or sour mangoes or not-so-tasty mangoes that were hard to empty, were used to make this dish.
Find more Konkani cuisine curry recipes here.
Liked this mango dish? You'll also like these famous mango dishes of Konkani cuisine:
Sweet, Sour, Spicy Mango Curry (Ambe Upakari)
Pineapple, Mango In A Spicy, Sweet Coconut Gravy (Avnas Ambe Sasam)
Ripe mangoes in a sweet, spicy side dish (Ambe Gojju)
Ripe Mangoes In Coconut Curry (Ambe Gashi)
Tags: Mango, ambo, sukke, ambe sukke, summer, Konkani cuisine, Konkani recipe, Konkani food, side dish, vegan, vegetarian recipe, GSB Konkani recipe, South Canara Konkani recipe, Konkani cooking, GSB Konkani cuisine.
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