Ambya Umman
A sweet, hot and savory, soupy Konkani ripe wild or country mango curry dessert. A traditional, lip-smacking, appetizing dish.
Servings Prep Time
10servings 30minutes
Cook Time
30minutes
Servings Prep Time
10servings 30minutes
Cook Time
30minutes
Ingredients
  • 3kg ripe mangoes(wild mangoes or country mangoes are best, see notes)
  • 500gm jaggery(unrefined cane sugar)
  • 50gm sugar
  • 25gm salt
  • 50gm rice flour(or corn starch)
  • 2sprigs curry leaves
  • 5gm mustard seeds
  • 3gm fenugreek seeds
  • 10gm split black gram lentils(urud dal)
  • 7gm dry hot red chilies
  • 30ml cooking oil
  • 1600ml water
Instructions
  1. Wash the mangoes nicely. If any sticky grime is present, immerse in a solution of 20 ml. of vinegar in a litre of water for 5 minutes. Scrub and wash. Rinse in clear water.
  2. Pull off the mango peel with your fingers and set the peel aside (see notes) in a bowl. Put the peeled mangoes into a pan or any other cooking vessel.
  3. Pour 500 ml of water over the mango peel in the bowl and squeeze well with your fingers to release the flavor from the peel (see notes). Pour the peel juice (after discarding the peel) over the mangoes and set the vessel on high heat.
  4. Keep aside 200 ml of the water and pour in the rest.
  5. As soon as it comes to a boil, lower the heat and cook till the mangoes become soft.
  6. Meanwhile, put the jaggery, the sugar and the salt into a pan. Pour in 100 ml. of water and set on low heat. Stir until the jaggery is fully melted.
  7. The mangoes must have cooked by now. Sieve the melted jaggery and tip it in. Stir well and turn up the heat. Let the curry boil for 4 minutes.
  8. Mix the rice powder (or the cornstarch) vigorously with 100 ml. of water and tip it in. Stir for a minute or two for the curry to thicken and then switch off the heat.
  9. Break each red chili into 2 or 3 pieces and set aside. Pull the curry leaves off their sprigs and keep aside.
  10. Set a small pan on low heat. Pour in the cooking oil and throw in the mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds are about to finish crackling, tip in the fenugreek seeds.
  11. As soon as the fenugreek seeds start bursting, tip in the urud dal. Stir till it turns a light brown in colour.
  12. Put in the broken red chilies and the curry leaves. Stir twice or thrice and tip over the entire contents of the pan into the mango curry. Stir and cover with a lid.
  13. Your ultra-delicious ambya umman is ready to serve. Serve hot or cold either by itself or as welcome dessert to a meal. Bite in to the juicy flesh of the mangoes. Dip the fibrous mango stone in the curry sauce and suck it in together with the flesh sticking to the fibres. Repeat again and again. You are in heaven! Do try this recipe for sure!
Recipe Notes
  1. If wild mangoes are not available, simply use any other ripe mango. Larger unpeeled mangoes can be cut to pieces and used. Tangy mangoes are great for this curry.
  2. You can adjust the quantity of jaggery and sugar to suit your taste.
  3. Rice powder is used as the thickener in the traditional recipes. However, you will find that corn starch (or corn flour as it is called in India) does just as well or even better.
  4. The peel juice enhances the flavor of the ambya umman, but the process can be discarded if using hybrid mangoes. These commerically cultivated mangoes can simply be cut up along with the peel and used.
  5. Take care not to serve tiny mangoes to smaller kids to avoid the danger of suffocating on the stones.