Recipe courtesy of Asian Food Network
Bright yellow, creamy and very delicious, this mango yoghurt curry is a traditional curry from the South Indian state of Kerala, made with sweet ripe mangoes, sour yoghurt and a creamy coconut and cumin paste.
Aromatic spices are tempered with coconut oil and mixed into the curry. Called Mambazha Pulissery or Mambazha Kalan in Malayalam, this Mambazha Pulissery Kerala style is a sweet, mildly spicy, tangy and creamy curry that represents Kerala in all its culinary glory. A lip-smacking main vegetarian dish, it's best served with white rice and vegetable dishes from Kerala's diverse vegetarian cuisine.
Ingredients
Serves 5
- 400g ripe mango
- 270ml plain yoghurt
- 30ml water
- 3 green bird's eye chillies, chopped
- 2 dried red chillies
- 2 stalks curry leaves
- 1 and a 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
- Salt to taste.
For the coconut and cumin paste:
- 150ml water
- 120g grated coconut
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds.
Optional:
- Serve with steamed rice.
Directions
1. Prepare the yoghurt mixture
- In a small mixing bowl, add the plain yoghurt and 30ml water and mix well to create a yoghurt mixture. Set aside.
2. Prepare the mango
- Peel the skin off the mango and cut into chunks approximately two by two inches. Discard the seed.
3. Prepare the coconut and cumin paste
- In a blender add the grated coconut, cumin seeds and 150ml of water and blend into a fine paste.
4. Cooking the curry
- Place the mango chunks into a pot and fill the pot with enough water so the water level covers the mango by about three centimetres.
- Chop the bird's eye chillies finely and add them into the pot.
- To the pot, add turmeric powder, chilli powder, one stalk of the curry leaves and salt to taste. Mix well to combine.
- Turn up the heat to high and bring to a boil. When the water boils, reduce the heat to medium.
- Using a fork or a small ladle, gently mash the mango in the pot.
- Add the coconut and cumin paste and cook for about three minutes.
- Add the yoghurt mixture and reduce the heat to low. Cook on a low heat until the curry comes to a slow boil.
- Watch the pot carefully - when you see the surface of the curry start to boil, remove from heat after one minute. It's important to turn the heat down to low and remove it from the heat after cooking for one minute to prevent the yoghurt from curdling.
5. Prepare the tempering ingredients
- Heat up a pan on medium heat with 1.5 tbsp coconut oil. When the oil is hot, add the dried red chillies, remaining stalk of curry leaves, mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds to the pan. Frying the spices in oil is a cooking method called tempering. Doing this releases the essential oils from the spices and makes them more fragrant.
- Fry the spices for one minute.
- Pour the temper (the fried spices with the coconut oil) into the curry and stir to combine.
6. Rest the curry
- Cover the pot and leave the curry to rest for about 30 minutes before serving. Doing this helps develop the flavours better.
7. Plate and serve
- You do not need to heat it up again to serve as this curry can be eaten at room temperature.
- We think this dish goes best with freshly steamed white rice.
- You can keep the leftover curry in the fridge and serve it the next day - just reheat it lightly on the stove on a low flame, or you can serve it at room temperature.
Asian Food Network
