Ripe Mango Side Dish (Ambe Sukke)

Ripe mangoes are a popular fruit in Southeast Asia, where they are used as a side dish to accompany rice. The sweet and sour taste is often enjoyed with a sprinkle of salt or sugar.

Ripe mango is a popular side dish in India. It is made by cooking the raw mango until it becomes soft and mushy. Read more in detail here: ripe mango.

‘Use what’s in season,’ and ‘use seasonal foods,’ I hear renowned chefs say all the time. However, this has been the custom for ages. It’s more than simply a fad. Take a peek at your food and you’ll see what I mean. 

Raw jackfruits, raw mangoes, ripe mangoes, and ripe jackfruits are in season in India throughout the summer. And when they were in season, our forefathers ate a lot of them. Seasonal vegetables were utilized in a variety of recipes and were included into their diet in every manner feasible.

When I thought about it, I recalled this delectable, sweet, spicy side dish that my grandfather adored. In Konkani, ambe sukke is a mango meal. Mango is referred to as ambo in Konkani, while sukke is a dry side dish. 

Seasonal ripe mangoes are combined with a spicy, sweet, and sour coconut sauce to create a filling meal. Coastal Karnataka has an abundance of coconut throughout the year. So, to create this wonderful meal, basic ingredients that were easily accessible were combined. I just love how our forefathers prepared food and how our cuisines evolved.

Here’s how to make ambe sukke in Konkani, a traditional Konkani meal.

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Ingredients:

• 1-2 mangoes that are fully ripe
• 3/4 cup coconut grated
• 1 tablespoon urad dal
• 1 teaspoon seeds of coriander
• 1/2 tamarind (size of a lemon)
• 1 teaspoon of jaggery powder
• season with salt to taste
• 3–4 dried red peppers
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

Seasonings include:

• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• mustard seeds, 1/4 teaspoon
• 1 curry leaflet 1 curry leaflet 1 curry leaflet 1 curry leaflet 1 curry leaf

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Serves: 2

Time to prepare: 25 minutes

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Method of Preparation:

Masala preparation:

Let’s start with the sweet, spicy, tangy masala. And here’s how to accomplish it:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a tempering pan, then add the urad dal, coriander seeds, and dried red chili pieces and fry for a minute, or until the urad dal begins to brown. Remove them from the fire and allow them to cool fully.
2. Then, using as much water as needed, mash them together with shredded coconut, tamarind, jaggery, and salt into a smooth to gritty mixture. (You have the option of making the masala smooth or coarse.) We like it to be smooth at home. My mother like it a bit rough.)
3. Set aside the ground masala.

Assemble the dish as follows:

1. In a wok, heat a tablespoon of oil and the mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add the curry leaves and cook for a few seconds.
2. Mix thoroughly with the ground masala and chunks of ripe mango.
3. A mature mango is traditionally sliced into three pieces without being peeled. The mango kernel with the pulp on one piece is put to the dish, while the other two pieces, together with their pulp and peel, are added to the dish. However, you have the option of removing the skin or chopping the mango into pieces and adding it to this meal. Unless you’re using a lot of mangoes, this would be required if you’re serving a lot of people.
4. Bring to a boil with approximately 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water.
5. The meal should next be simmered. Salt and jaggery should be checked and adjusted. The final consistency of this meal is intended to be dry. And as the meal cooks, it thickens even more as the water evaporates. This dish has a thick consistency due to the addition of urad dal to the masala. When a result, as it cools, it thickens even more. As a result, you may add approximately 1 cup of water to this meal in total.
6. Remove the mango from the fire after the rawness of the masala has faded and it is cooked through and mushy.
7. Serve it hot as a lunch or supper side dish.

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Observation:

If you’re serving this meal to a large group and don’t have enough ripe mangoes, combine field marrow (also known as Mangalore cucumber or Malabar cucumber) with ripe mangoes or cut mangoes into little pieces. This is an ancient technique that my grandmother did to feed our large family.

Keep the peel on filed marrow, deseed it, and cut it into cubes if using field marrow. After seasoning, place the diced field marrow pieces in the pan and cook them with 1 cup of water and salt. Add the ground masala and ripe mango chunks when they’re nearly done. Cook them all the way through.

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To prepare this meal (ambe sukke), you’ll need the following mangoes:

Mangoes that are sour and sweet are ideal for this meal. They add sourness and sweetness to this meal, making it wonderful. 

This meal was traditionally made using local mango types known as ‘katt ambo/gont ambo’ in Konkani. Mangoes that grow on backyard trees are known as katt ambo/gont ambo in Konkani. These mangoes are sweet and tart in flavor and are not from the farmed mango type. They range in size from microscopic to medium-small. Whole mangoes were typically split into three pieces and then added to this meal. Look at the ‘katt ambo/gont ambo/upakari ambo’ below, which shows indigenous mangoes adjacent to alphonso mangoes. On the exterior, these mangoes seem to be green, yet they are ripe on the inside. 

If you can’t get sweet-sour mangoes in your area, any ripe, pulpy mango will suffice. Mangoes that are somewhat uncooked would be slightly sour-sweet and would be ideal for this meal.

This meal was made using mangoes that weren’t very sweet, sour mangoes, or not-so-tasty mangoes that were difficult to drain, according to my grandmother. 

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Here are some more curry dishes from Konkani cuisine. 

Did you like this mango dish? You’ll also like these popular Konkani mango dishes:

Mango Curry is a sweet, sour, and spicy dish (Ambe Upakari)

In A Spicy, Sweet Coconut Gravy With Pineapple And Mango (Avnas Ambe Sasam)

A sweet and spicy side dish with ripe mangoes (Ambe Gojju)

Coconut Curry with Ripe Mangoes (Ambe Gashi)

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