As children, summers meant enjoying the vacation with cousins and eating a lot of mangoes, jackfruits and banana and tapioca chips! Today, those lazy summers spent with cousins wandering through the grounds, fields and village lanes exist in memories only. Some cousins are not even in the same country, they are spread across the globe. As for us, we stay in a city where you don't get ripe yum jackfruits easily and the most important thing - summer no longer means vacation. What's available are the mangoes, lots of them. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't love mangoes. And consequently Aamras... katories and katories of aamras till the stomach is close to bursting !!!
So come summertime, we get our old fruit vendor to send petties of mangoes, 2 dozen each at a time. Some are ripe, ready to eat or tayaar as he says and the others ripen in the hay over the next few days. The whole house has an aroma of ripening mangoes and everyday mom goes through a ritual of checking the box for the most ripe mangoes. This keeps a continuous supply of mangoes on our table served up in different ways. So mangoes are diced and cooled to be eaten after lunch and dinner, some make it to milk shakes and some others to Aamras which is best enjoyed with Puris.
Starting at 12 o'clock: Methi Alu Rassa, Aamras, Puris and Salad
We Bombayites know only one mango, the Aapus aka Alphonso & Haapus, all others are secondary mangoes to be had only once the King has retired for the season! The Aapus makes its entry after mid-March and continues to come into the market till about mid-June. We normally start buying Aapus in May that's when the price have dipped. And the minute it rains, we stop buying them because the mangoes then somehow taste diluted as if the rain water has seeped in :)
Aamras
Making Aamras is the easiest, peel and dice Alphonso mangoes (aka Aapus / Haapus) and puree it in the blender and you are done :) How could something so simple be so tasty, right??
There are some people who like to add a few tablespoons of milk when blending to a more pourable consistency. Still others are known to add a pinch of kaala namak to it and one family I know adds a pinch of pepper powder.
Me, I like mine Unadulterated... as pure as I can get. Fry some puris and enjoy a beautiful meal.
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