Mambazha Kuzhambu - Whole Ripe Mango Sambar

This is my childhood favorite recipe adopted from my mom's kitchen.  Mom makes it during mango season.  This is nothing but the sambar made with whole ripe small mangoes.  The small mangoes are slit at the sides and cooked in extracted thin tamarind water with flavored sambar powder.  The special thing about the recipe is that you never feel the sweetness of mangoes whereas you could sense the mango flavor very much in the dish.  I made this last weekend and everyone in the family liked it very much. 

Ingredients:

Ripe small sized mangoes - 4 (the choice is yours)

Tamarind - small lemon sized

Sambar powder - 3 tsp

Toor dhal - 1 cup

For seasoning:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Asafoetida powder - a pinch

Curry leaves - few

Oil - 2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Soak tamarind in warm water and extract the water from it.  The extracted water could be thin, so you can extract as much as water as the pulp could give (say 3 cups).

2.  Pressure cook toor dhal until soft.

3. Slit the ripe mangoes at the sides keeping the base intact as shown in the picture.

4.  In a heavy bottomed pain, heat oil and add the seasoning items one by one.  Add the mangoes and then salt and sambar powder and mix well.

5.  Add the extracted thin tamarind water and let this boil in low to medium flame.  Once the mangoes have become soft and cooked well, the color would change.  Add the cooked toor dhal to it and let it boil for 3 more minutes and switch off the flame.  If you feel like the sambar is thin, add a tsp of rice flour before switching off the flame, however, I didn't added it to my dish.

The delectable mambazha kuzhambu is ready to be served with any curry of your choice.  We had with crispy cauliflower curry and plantain stem curry.

Usually, this kuzhambu is made with home garden mangoes of small size but we can get these type of mangoes from fruit market everywhere.  The mangoes should not be too ripe nor should be too raw, it should be ripe and firm.

The cooked mango pulp would be very tasty with mildly blended flavors of tanginess, hotness, and sweetness.