Raw Mango Rice

Today I shall start off directly with my recipe for raw mango rice. Hey, it is a lazy summer afternoon and sunny too! So here we go:

Ingredients:

1. The Rice: 

Before starting on the raw mango chutney, I have rice (plain simple white rice) cooked and ready, so that by the time the chutney is done, the rice will have cooled off. And then I can mix the two together. Alternately, if I have left over rice, I just use that. Good way to utilize leftover rice!  


2. The Chutney:

1. 1 Raw Mango: You want to make sure that the fruit is nice and hard without any soft spots. The key to good raw mango chutney is the sour factor. A really good raw mango will be SOUR and that's what we want. If the raw mango is hard, it usually is sour and that's a good thing!

Raw Mango

2. 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi)- if you don't have it, no worries, you can skip this

3. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds

4. Salt to taste

5. Pinch of Turmeric

6. Red Chilli powder

7. Rasam powder- again, if you don't have this, OK to skip

8. A little handful of peanuts

9. 1 tablespoon cooking oil

10. A couple green chillies

Method:

1. I cut the mango into cubes (need not be perfect cubes-- it is going into the food processor anyways). If it is a good quality raw mango, like the one I got this time, as soon as you cut it, you will smell the sourness- yes, that is right- you can actually smell that sourness. And like I mentioned earlier, we want that raw mango to be sour. Then I put these cubes into my food processor and chop it up fine.

Raw Mango ready to go into the food processor

Look at that tiny seed! Tender!

Finely chopped- ready to be transformed into chutney

Now that the most important step has been taken care of, the rest is pretty simple.

2. I get my pan going on the stove with about a tablespoon of oil. Then I splutter some mustard seeds and some fenugreek seeds. Fenugreek seeds act as the cooling agent in this hot and spicy chutney. It's all about balance, you see! I also add a tiny handful of peanuts and roast them until brown.

3. Then I add the finely chopped raw mango into this along with a couple slit green chillies.

Finely chopped raw mango+green chillies+peanuts+mustard+fenugreek seeds

4. Then I add a pinch of turmeric, salt to taste, some red chilli powder as well as a teaspoon of rasam powder. I have found that adding some rasam powder to this chutney elevates the taste by quite a bit. If you don't have rasam powder, that is fine. The red chilli powder should work well. And then I fry everything up.

Almost ready!

After about 2-4 minutes of frying, the chutney is ready. There is no need to FRY that much really- because you don't want to "cook" the mango. The raw mango has to to stay, well, raw. That's where lies all the fun, you see!

At this point, the chutney is ready to be consumed. You can make raw mango chutney sandwiches-- pretty yummy! You can eat it with rotis or paranthas. Or you can mix it with some plain rice and there, you have your raw mango rice!

That's exactly what I do--- I take the cooled rice (scroll up to see "The Rice") and mix it up with this chutney and ta-da- Raw Mango Rice is ready to be enjoyed!

Raw Mango Rice in the pan

Mmm, Delicious!

This dish has a complex flavor profile-- sour/tang from the raw mango bits, hot and spicy from the red chilli and rasam powders, a hint of bitter from the fenugreek seeds and of course, the great crunch from the peanuts. One spoonful of this rice into your mouth and your taste buds are going to have a party!