Boro Thakurdada // Mango Chutney

Pishi first told me this story in the summer of 2017 when she came to visit us in Philadelphia. This remarkable part of my family history sparked the idea for a project that would become Thakurma’s Kitchen.

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Thakurma’s mango chutney has been on the table at nearly every meal since I came to India a month ago. Whenever we start to run out, we go to the market and buy green mangoes to make some more. It’s the perfect sweet accompaniment for savory dishes, and my favorite sweetener for my daily post-lunch yogurt.

Ingredients

• 500 g/ 1.1 lb green mangoes

• 1 tsp salt (or to taste)

• 1 tsp turmeric powder

• 1-2 tbsp mustard oil

• 1 tsp mustard seeds

• 2 dried whole red chillis

• Enough hot water to fully cover mangoes

• 400 g/ 0.8 lb sugar cane jaggery (or 1 to 1.5 cups brown sugar)

• 1 tsp panch poran seeds

Directions

1. Peel the mangoes and cut off the sides as close to the pit as you can. Slice the sides into 1 inch-wide pieces, and grate the remaining mango from the pit.

2. Place grated and sliced mango into a bowl and coat evenly with salt and turmeric powder.

3. In a wok, heat mustard oil on high flame until smoking.

4. Reduce the flame to medium and splutter the mustard seeds and red chillis until fragrant.

5. Add mangoes and stir to coat evenly in oil, cooking until mangoes soften (about 5 minutes).

6. Add the hot water and increase the flame to high to bring to a boil.

7. Add the sugar cane jaggery (or brown sugar) and stir to dissolve.

8. Adjust the flame to maintain a boil, thickening the mixture (about 15 minutes).

9. In the meantime, in a dry pan on medium-high flame, toast the panch poran seeds until they are golden brown and fragrant, stirring constantly so that they don’t burn.

10. Remove the seeds from the pan and let cool. When cool, grind them to a powder using a spice grinder, coffee grinder, or Nutribullet.

11. When the mango mixture has thickened into a jam-like consistency, remove from heat and let cool. When cool, stir in the toasted panch poran powder.

12. Store in the fridge.

13. Serve as a condiment for any meal, or use to sweeten plain yogurt.