Seasonal Reasoning
November, December and January, is raw-mango season: and April, May, June and July, ripe-mango season.
There is a kind of raw mango sold at the greengrocer’s and in some of the malls this month . The skin is thin, but hard and smooth as glass. It is a darker green and has a longer shape than the usual mango. sometimes the green is so dark, it looks black in some lights.
Peel the skin and cut the flesh into the same size you cut white cucumbers for sambar, exactly the length of one digit of your thumb, and the thickness of two of your little fingers, placed together. Cut the flesh of the small yellow cucumbers that you use for Vishu, the Kerala Spring Festival. Wash and cut two drumsticks, each piece the length of your middle finger.
Cook dal in such a way that only the outermost circumference of each individual dal gets cooked. The inner circumference should only be looking around to see where the heat is coming from. Grind grated coconut with a little powdered cumin seeds and a spoonful of sliced shallots and enough water to grind it. It should not, repeat, not become a gooey paste. The pieces of coconut should look happy and alive and completely in possession of all their senses.
Into the cooked Dal, slowly lower the cucumber, mango and drumstick pieces. Please don’t fling them in: you hurt their feelings. Add salt, chilly powder and turmeric powder. Lower the flame, let them all get to know each other. Once the flesh of the mango begins to look dazed and heavy, and the cucumber looks more gold than white, add the coconut, gently, gently, gently. Turn off the gas after five minutes. Heat coconut oil, pour in a pinch of mustard seeds, turn down the flame, pour in half a teaspoonful of fenugreek seeds. The seeds should only turn dark brown, not black. If they turn black, throw the whole thing out and begin again.
Keep your curry leaves, washed and wiped, your handful of sliced shallots and two crimson Madras chillies, each broken into two, ready. The curry leaves and red chillies go in, then, the shallots. Turn up the gas, keep stirring, till the shallots turn a translucent russet colour. Switch off the gas. In a deep bottomed ladle, scoop up as much gravy as you can, then very quickly, pour it into the vessel with the fried curry leaves. Do you hear the noise it makes? The happy hiss and mutter and chuckle? Well, do it again. After the third round, it is less exuberant. Then pour the whole thing into the vessel with the dal family in it. Close tight and keep for ten whole minutes. Then you can say a silent prayer of gratitude and have it with steaming hot rice.
Did you plant a tree today?
