Manga Chutney

I saw this Ammachi on YouTube making Mango Chammandi on the grinding stone and I couldn't help salivating. 

To our bad luck, the mango tree outside our bedroom window did not yield any mangoes this year (except for two mangoes) 

It could be due to the unseasonal rains. Talk about wrong timing, that went hand in hand with the lockdown.

To pluck the mango, I borrowed an idea from a DIY video I saw on FB about the different uses of plastic bottles.   

We did the grinding in a mixer as Ammachi's grinding stone was something that is not seen in many households now a days. 

For my part, I did the grating of the coconut (apart from plucking the mango) 

The final product looks yummy and we are waiting for lunch time to feast on the chammandi. 

The second mango is earmarked for next week.

Manga Chammandi

There is a mango tree right outside my window and looking at those mangoes reminds me of the lovely “Manga chammandi” (Mango Chutney) my aunt used to make. 

I had to just pluck a mango and give it to her and she would make it in a jiffy, grinding all the ingredients together manually on a grinding stone.

With a vague memory of how she made it, I tried to do the same. Plucked a mango, added a few leaves of Kadipatta (curry leaves) and just three of these chillies from the garden. 

Got a medium sized coconut from the store, and grated half of it.

Adding a pinch of salt for taste, ground the whole thing in a mixer. (would have loved to do it manually on a grinding stone, but unfortunately we  don’t have one now)

The end result was not bad, but I am sure that my aunt’s chammandi was better. 

Plucking the mango was a bit tricky. It was a case of “so near and yet so far” 

Was thinking of designing a fruit plucker, when I came across a small video which showed “many uses of plastic bottles” and I used one of the ideas mentioned there.  Simple but very effective. 

All in all, it was a very fruitful experience. (reminded me of how we used to steal mangoes as a kid)