I said I was going to do it before the season was over… so here I am, bearing the gift of my mother’s Green Mango Rice recipe. The mango carts are now covered with Neelams (pretty and sweet, yet harbouring those black beetles) that mark the end, so I just about made it.

 Amma’s Green Mango Rice

Look, this entire thing depends on how many are eating, how sour you like your food, how much you have and so on. So don’t take any of it seriously, just play – it’s a forgiving recipe.

1. Approximately 2 cups of cooked rice
2. Perhaps 1 large green mango – grated
3. A little bit of finely chopped coriander leaves

Grind together till fine the following: About 1/2 coconut, a tablespoon of raw mustard seeds, 4 green chillies (or 8, depending on who’s eating), 1 teaspoon of  jeera seeds, salt to taste.

Mix everything (i.e. Items 1, 2 and 3 as well as the ground mixture) together, check for salt. Then season with the following:

– Hot oil, into which goes
– A teaspoon of mustard seeds
– A teensy pinch of hing
– A handful of curry leaves (I love them and therefore add plenty, you can add less if you like)
– 2-4 red chillies
– 2 tablespoons of ground nuts
Easy-peasy and it’s yummy – so try it before the last mango vanishes!

While on the subject of the much-beloved and seriously good-for-you curry leaves, here is something I make when I am cooking ridge gourd (which, my Ayurvedic doctor assures me, is exactly what one should be cooking in Aashada. “Cook and eat all the gourds –haagalkai, sorekai, heerekai. But NO badhnekai!”)

 

Ridge Gourd Peel And Curry Leaf Chutney

This is fantastic with hot rice and clearly what the doctor orders in this windy season of no dals, channa or rajma. I’m not kidding!Vayu, apparently, is on the rise in Aashada, so one must desist from legumes which cause seasonal aches, pains and lumbago.

1. Scrape the peel off your ridge gourds (maybe 2 – 4 ridge gourds)
2. 1 tablespoon urad dal
3. 8 red chillies
4. 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
5. 1 small pinch of hing
6. 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
7. Salt to taste
8. Wash about 1 cup of curry leaves
9. A lime sized ball of tamarind

Roast all ingredients except the salt, tamarind and curry leaves. When the urad dal is golden brown, take off the heat. Grind together with salt, tamarind and curry leaves – till fine. Transfer into a dish. I sometimes add a little more oil to the chutney, you can decide if you want to. Mush into piping hot rice and, well, wallop it!

 

My daughter Zui was down with a cold and fever and I felt so sorry for the poor mite, all a-sniffing and a-groaning, that I thought I might bake something to cheer her up. What inspiration do my shelves offer? A well scraped (empty) jar of Nutella and some Peanut Butter. Chocolate-peanut butter brownies it shall be!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

1 cup salted butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
I cup peanut butter (or, 1/2 PB and 1/2 Nutella)

Combine the dry ingredients well. Then combine melted butter, sugar, peanut butter (or PB & Nutella) over a low heat. Take off heat. Mix in the beaten eggs and vanilla extract. Fold in the dry mixture. Pour batter into a greased and floured dish (mine was an 8 inch square dish) and bake in a hot oven for approximately 20-30 minutes or till the top starts to feel firm to the touch. Leave for about 10 minutes before cutting. The moistest brownies imaginable with minimal effort. Zui’s cold was somewhat appeased.

Kirtana Kumar is an actor and film maker. She is the director of Little Jasmine – a theatre and film production company, & Theatre Lab – a year long theatre program for children. She runs an artists retreat called Infinite Souls along with Konarak Reddy. She has directed several documentaries, including a film on child sexual abuse (CSA). She has organised workshops on the issue of CSA for various NGOs, schools and colleges. She has been involved in promoting theatre activism in marginalized areas including a memorable project that had her developing Magnet Theatre among high risk groups in Manipur, rural Andhra Pradesh, Belgaum and Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar. She blogs at http://infinitesoulsfarmandartistsretreat.blogspot.com/