Mavinkai Chitranna/ Mango Rice

Mangoes bring back a lot of fond memories. Summer vacation, grandparents, cousins and lots of fun. When i was a kid and my grandfather was alive, he had a mango groove. So each morning in the summers we did go with him, pick mangoes that were ripe, eat a couple of them right there, no washing, no cleaning (we never had to worry about pesticides! they were all natural before organic became fashionable) nothing, just eat it. Bring back a few home. My grand mother would whip up some seekarne- a creamy mango custard, sometime my mom would make mango milk-shakes, ice cream or mango cake ( that reminds me i need to get the mango cake recipe from her!!!). Then with the raw mango, my grandmother used to make chitranna, pickles and raw mangoes often found its way into every possible curry during those times. Well its no longer summer, its no longer vacations, but still I found a raw mango at our Indian stores. So here is mango chitranna.

This is my entry to Srivalli's rice mela



Rice cooked 11/2 cups
Raw Mango 1 grated
Cumin 1 tsp
Mustard seeds 1 tsp+ 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds 1/4 tsp
Oil 3 tbsp
Curry leaves 10
Green chillies 10 and above
Coriander 1/2 cup chopped
Channa Dal 1/2 tbsp
Urad dal 1/2 tbsp
Peanut (optional) 1 tbsp
coconut shred 1 tbsp
Hing 1 pinch
Salt

Method:

• Heat a pan, toast 1/4 tsp mustard seeds and fenugreek separately. Pound the spice into a coarse powder. Set it aside.
• Heat oil in a pan. Drop the rest of the mustard, jeera, hing and curry leaves in the same order.
• Once the spluttering stops, add the Channa dal, Urad dal and peanuts. Stir till the peanut is fragrant.
• Add slit green chillies, stir and cook for two more minutes. Combine the grated coconut and the spice blend. Cook till the coconut is sort of translucent. Add grated raw mango and toss to combine. Cook till mixture thickens and the water evaporates.
• Adjust salt and finish with coriander. Cool and set aside. If refrigerated, the mixture(called Gojju in Kannada) keeps well for a week.
• Mix half the mango mixture with rice. Check and mix some more of the gojju till the desired spice level is achieved.
  

Goes very well with Pakodas, Papad and Payasa.