Another Sunday favourite - Maangai Paruppu & Képpai Koozhu

Jul 26

As the season for mangoes dwindles, it is time for the sun-dried mangoes aka maangai vaththal to come out. And what better dish to make than Ayah’s favourite Sunday meal – maangai paruppu paired with képpai koozhu. Maangai paruppu, a simple dish of fresh or sun-dried mangoes simmered in subtly spiced dal is a forgotten special from the heartlands of Chettinad. I haven’t seen too many menus that carry this dish, but it is deliciousness when joined by another forgotten favourite, the simple and nutritious finger millet porridge known as képpai koozhu.

As the family cook, Shanthi, helped me recreate the two dishes, she reminded me of an interesting co-incidence. We are in the middle of the Tamil month of Aadi (July 15th – August 15th), a month of abstinence and penance (similar to Lent) and many devout worshippers take to offering koozhu at the temples of the Hindu Goddesses. Devout I am not, but the koozhu is still a childhood favourite, although I will admit it is an acquired taste as I discovered when my rather anglicized taste-testers grimaced and declared it baby food – badly brought up children, I say! My recipe tester in chief, the apprentice, didn’t even recognise the two dishes - obviously, the kitchen master has not done her job well either!

While the traditional koozhu, a farmer’s favourite in the deep south, requires a rather long-winded process of overnight fermentation of the millet flour, Ayah’s Sunday special was the quick and easy version that made its appearance at the Muthiah’s table every other Sunday afternoon, month of Aadi or otherwise, accompanied with Maangai paruppu for the vegetarians and karuvaattu kuzhambu (dried fish curry) for the non-vegetarians. Over the years, as health issues made their appearance, the salty dried fish curry fell by the wayside, but the maangai paruppu continued to make its appearance every now and again, but definitely when the darling daughters returned home from their overseas sojourns.

History has it that Chettiars fled their coastal abode near modern-day Kanchipuram as a result of a tsunami and moved inland to arid lands and palatial mansions that were at least 3-4 feet higher than ground level, for fear of being flooded again. The downside of this was the availability of fresh vegetables all year round – the resourceful achis took to salting and sun-drying their vegetables through the hot summers to ensure a steady stock of vatthals (dried vegetables) through the year. What was a necessity became a specialty as vatthal kuzhambus, made with an assortment of vatthals – maangai (sour mango) or kathrikkai (eggplant) or avarakkai (broad beans) or kothavarangai (cluster beans) – became one of the trademarks of Chettinad cuisine. That is a recipe for another day though.

Totapuri / Kili mooku maangai. Source: Google images

While the world craves for the best of India’s ripe mangoes from banganapalli in the South to the priced alphonso from the West, the women of the Muthiah household would trade the best of them for fresh mooku maangai (totapuri mangoes) served with a dash of salt and chilli. And when the mango season was at its peak, Ayah took to drying some for curries, but even better was the pazha maangai vatthal, semi-ripe mooku maangai, sundried to sweet-salt-sour golden perfection, great for snacking, but as she kept reminding us, terrible for the teeth and tummies – a few upset stomachs didn’t deter us from stealing the drying mangoes from the terraces in both Madras and Chettinad. To this day, the first thing Ayah’s siblings and cousins think of offering us is pazha maangai vatthal, a welcome gift for the younger generation of Muthiah girls too!

A selection from my hoard of maangai vatthal - some semi-ripe, for snacking, and some, the sourer version, to be used in curries

When mangoes were in season, Ayah made the maangai paruppu with fresh mangoes, but resorted to the sour dried mangoes when she’d run out of the fresh. When my fresh mooku maangai reserved for testing the paruppu ripened too quickly, I had no choice but to dig deep into that overloaded fridge of mine to pinch some precious maangai vatthal. If you can get a hold of fresh green mangoes, go ahead and try this recipe with the fresh version, seed and all and don’t forget to serve it with the humble koozhu, a perfect foil to the subtle spicy sourness of the paruppu.

Maangai Paruppu Recipe

Print Recipe

Notes:

1. The best mango for this recipe is the totapuri mango / mooku maangai, the sourer the better. You could substitute the fresh mangoes with sundried sour mangoes, available in many Chettiar homes and at some overseas Indian stores.

2. While it is better to use Indian shallots for this recipe, onions are perfectly acceptable too.

3. It is important to grind the dal coarsely to have some texture.

Ingredients:

1 fresh green mango (preferably totapuri / mooku maangai) or 20 pieces Maangai Vatthal (dry mango for curry)
½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
4 cups water
1 teaspoon tamarind paste or the juice of a gooseberry size tamarind ball (to be used if mango is not sour enough)
Salt to taste (~ 1.5 teaspoons)

For the dal (soak for 1 hour and then grind):

½ cup split pigeon peas (Toor dal / tuvaram paruppu)
4 dried red chillies
½ teaspoon fennel seeds (saunph / sombu)
½ teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera / jeeragam)

Tempering:

1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera / jeeragam)
1 dried red chilli
½ teaspoon asafoetida (hing / perungayam)
1 sprig curry leaves
1 medium onion minced / 10 Indian shallots sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed (skin on)

Method:

1. If using fresh mango, cut into 2-inch-long pieces. If using maangai vatthal, soak in hot water for an hour.

1 fresh green mango (preferably totapuri / mooku maangai) or 20 pieces Maangai Vatthal (dry mango for curry)

2. Soak the ingredients for dal for 1 hour.

½ cup split pigeon peas (Toor dal / tuvaram paruppu)
4 dried red chillies
½ teaspoon fennel seeds (saunph / sombu)
½ teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera / jeeragam)

Soak the maangai vatthal for 1 hour (or cut the fresh green mangoes into 2-inch-long pieces)

Soak the ingredients listed under dal for 1 hour

3. After an hour, drain and coarsely grind the ingredients for dal along with the turmeric powder and with very little water.

½ teaspoon Turmeric powder

4. Boil the mango / maangai vatthal with 2 cups of water until 3/4th cooked.

Drain and coarsely grind the soaked dal mixture

Boil the mangoes / maangai vatthal until fully cooked

5. To the ground dal, add the water from the mangoes and an additional 2 cups. Mix well to break up lumps and cook until dal is well cooked and coats the back of the spoon – this should be about 15 minutes. It is important to keep stirring while it cooks else the dal will turn lumpy / burn.

Add the water from the mangoes and an additional 2 cups of water and mix until lump free

Cook the dal for about 15-20 minutes, continuously stirring until the dal thickens and coats the back of the spoon

6. While the dal is cooking, prepare the tempering. Heat the oil, add the mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start spluttering, add the cumin seeds, red chilli and hing. After a few seconds, once the cumin seeds start turning brown, add the curry leaves, onions and garlic. Add a pinch of salt and sauté until the onions are translucent.

Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and once that splutters, add the cumin seeds, dried chilli, curry leaves and asafoetida

Once the cumin seeds start browning, add the onions and garlic and fry until translucent

7. Once the dal is cooked, add the boiled mango / maangai vatthal, the remaining salt and the tempering to it, mix in and continue to cook further for another 5 minutes, until the flavours merge.