Mango Rasayana/ Mango with sweetened coconut milk

Taste Mangoes with sweetened coconut milk once and you surely will fall in love with the dish. This is a heavy accompaniment so be ready for a drowsy after effect :-)

You will need

Ripe mango

Coconut

Cardamom pods

Black or white sesame seeds(unpolished) -1teaspoon

Jaggary.

 Follow the recipe for sweetened coconut milk or Kaai haalu from my earlier post.

Wash and peel ripe mango.chop fruit vertically and then horizontally.

Now carefully slice vertically to get tiny bits of mango.

To sweetened coconut milk, add finely chopped ripe mango. Adjust mango to your liking( add more mango for a thicker consistency, add less if you want it watery/runny).

Season with dry roasted sesame seeds.

Goes well with semige/vermicelli, chapatti, dosa, kadubu/idli.

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Note: 

You may substitute mango with ripe banana.
Some substitute coconut milk with milk, but if mango is sour then it curdles milk.
Mango and Jack fruit are two fruits known to cause indigestion if eaten in excess. Their antidotes are respectively coconut and ginger. So I prefer to mix mango with sweetened coconut milk.
It is also said that mangoes are to be eaten after a meal and jack fruit before a meal. 
Sesame seeds are known to improve breast milk, so with sweetened coconut and mangoes helps lactation, but to be avoided during the first three months after delivery.

Coconut burfi with jaggery

My husbands grandparents (86 and 92 years young) visit us once a year. It is during these visits that I sit with them and speak to them about their childhood and life. During one such visit, I casually asked Ajja (grandfather) what was one sweet/dessert that Ajji (grandmother) made the best. 'Kobri mittai!'(coconut burfi) came the reply, eyes glittering with memories of the past . That was when I decided to become Ajji's apprentice in the kitchen for the day.When I mentioned to Ajji that we would be making a jaggery version of kobri mittai along with the sugar version of the same, she thought for a while and said, 'though I have never made it with jaggery, no harm in trying'. So here I share with you the recipe passed down from Ajji to me with a few modifications. 

You will need

3 cups of grated coconut( 1 large coconut)

1.5 cup jaggery (powdered)

1  cup milk (optional)

¼ pod vanilla powdered (or the ''caviar'' of one full vanilla)

1 pod cardamom (powdered) or saffron

 oil/ghee to grease the tray.


Method

In a heavy bottomed pan mix all the ingredients.

Cook in low flame with constant stirring. Take care to see that the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Burfi is done when the mixture forms a single mass and no longer sticks to the bottom.

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Pour into a greased tray and cut when warm.

Note: Ajji lets all the ingredients to soak in the pan for at least 5 hours before heating.
Those who want a 'richer' version may include about 2 tablespoons of  unsweetened Kova (condensed  milk)
For those who are curious, Ajji loved 'jaggery kobri mittai' and Ajja later gave me a list of delicacies to be learnt from Ajji!