Mango fit for an Imam

This buttery mango is not as famous as its cousins, but it is a connoisseur’s best-kept secret. One of the most scenic gateways to the temple town of Srirangam — with the Rock Fort in the background and the Cauvery bridge ahead — is through Mambazha Salai, or Mango Street. Roadwork may have thrown traffic a little out of gear here, but Mambazha Salai, lined with shops selling mangoes, offers a hint of what the fruit means to Srirangam.

In Melur, not far from the imposing southern gopuram of the Ranganathaswamy temple, is a family-run orchard, Thathachariar Gardens, which has, since the 1940s, been synonymous with the Imam Pasand mango.

The 100-acre property was originally part of a vast, overgrown patch called Nawab’s Garden, which was auctioned in the late 19th century by the British government. “My great-grandfather bought the land in the 1890s, and for many years the family just maintained the garden as it was. It was in the 1940s that my uncle S.R.V. Thatham decided to clear the vegetation and create an orchard here,” says M.S. Nandakumar, who has been managing Thathachariar Gardens since 1989.

Laying down roots.

A bank employee, Thatham read up on farming and visited farms in other States to look for the best saplings for his orchard. This was when a friend from Andhra Pradesh gave him a graft of the Imam Pasand mango, native to that region. The variety that would soon go on to win many accolades. The Imam Pasand has a fibreless, buttery, soft pulp inside its thick peel, which makes every bite a juicy treat. But the fruit is elusive: you will only find it in the market for two months of the year, May and June. It’s grown in a few places in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Soon enough, Thatham’s transformation from hobbyist to horticulture expert drew hordes of visitors to his orchard. He received the Udyan Pandit award from the National Horticulture Board in the 60s for pioneering the Melur orchard, where he inter-cropped mango with coconut.

Fertile ground

About one-fourth of the 1,000 mango trees in the orchard are Imam Pasand, followed by 25 other varieties such as Banganapalli, Neelam and so on. . “Our soil seems to be ideally suited to the variety, even though the fruit is not native to this area,” says Nandakumar. It is believed that nearly every Imam Pasand tree grown in this entire belt has its origins in the Thathachariar Garden variety.

At the orchard, the day’s harvest is laid out on the hay-covered floor of amandapam or hall. Helping customers pick the best Imam Pasands from the growing pile is A. Ganesh, who has the contract to protect the fruit and ensure its collection and marketing every year — a job that keeps him busy from 

April to July.

This year, the yield has been slightly lower. “It’s the intense heat and the lack of rains,” says Ganesh, as he sorts out the fruits with a practised eye, “but the demand is always high.” The big fruits, which can weigh up to 500 gm, are priced at Rs. 150 a kilo, while the smaller ones are Rs. 120 a kilo.

Picking the mangoes is no mean feat. Labourers armed with a sikkam — a bamboo pole with a hooped net — have to scale the gnarled trunks and ensure that no mango is bruised from falling to the ground. Another worker, with a sack, collects the fruits that will be finally laid out in the mandapam .

Despite its fame among mango connoisseurs, the fruit is still a local phenomenon. There are no plans yet to export the mango. “Right now, the domestic demand keeps us busy,” says Ganesh.

Imam Pasand means the Imam’s favourite. Nobody knows quite how or when the fruit got this name but it’s easy to see why.

The Imam Pasand has a fibreless, buttery, soft pulp inside its thick peel, which makes every bite a juicy treat. But you’ll only find it in the market in May and June

Goa kitchen proud

Farmers’ markets abound, selling produce, and products like juices, wines, vinegars, jams and candy. One of the highlights is the mangoes, Goa boasts more than 40 varieties along with jackfruit and kokum (the berries, used as a souring agent, also go into the summer drink, sol kadi). 

Goa Farmers Market in Margao (the next edition will be in 2019 September), it had sold local honey, cold pressed coconut oil, home made Goan sweets and pickles.

If you missed the Margao market, head to the Ambeachem (Mango) Fest, on May 14 at Nestor’s Farm, Valpoi. “You can enjoy Goan food with mango curry, walk among the groves and learn how to make mango grafts,” says Marius Fernandes, the organiser.

Before the rains

The weekly Friday market at Mapusa is popular among locals, with its varieties of tamarind, whole spices and chillies “I used to regularly visit the Mapusa market to  buys rare products like kokum butter (a healthy substitute for oil) here.

The biggest fair for provisions, however, is held in Margao, during the Feast of the Holy Spirit. Usually held 50 days after Easter (on June 9 this year), it is known for its lentils, sausages, condiments It is also the place for spicy balchao and rechado masala.

Another highlight is the annual Vasant Puja, held in the southern taluk of Canacona. “The meal [served] celebrates the diversity of food available at this time of the year. It comprises fruits like mango, jackfruit and pineapple, served with boiled grams. You wash it all down with a refreshing drink called panak, made with lime or mango juice, jaggery and pepper. It is quite the crowd puller,” says Om Prabhugaonkar, a local.

Working up an appetite

The summer season has its special dishes. Mangoes are used in pickles, jams and sasav — a “sweet-sour dish made from coconut, jaggery and ghotta (raw wild mangoes),” says caterer Anjana Amonkar. “There’s also a gravy dish made from ghotta called uddamethi,” she adds. Tender jackfruit is another favourite. . We also make a chutney, sushel, flavoured with charcoal. Its seeds are stored and added to leafy vegetables,” she says.

mango leather, or mango saath, where the pulp is sun-dried, layer by layer. A similar recipe is prepared using jackfruit pulp. And finally, there are the chips. Besides jackfruit, tubers like sweet potatoes (locally known as kanga) are deep-fried. “My favourite is mana, sweet potato chips fried in coconut oil. It is the best rainy day snack,” 

Ayurjack variety yields fruits at arm’s length

A jackfruit ‘revolution’ to achieve food security

Varghese Tharakan from Velur grama panchayat in the district is creating a jackfruit revolution of sorts with the Ayurjack variety. When he felled the 6- and 12-yearold rubber trees on his five acres at Kurumal Kunnu in the panchayat for planting jackfruit saplings, nobody took him seriously.

But two years down the line, people from far and near, including experts from reputed foreign universities such as Colorado and Adelaide and a BBC team, have visited his Ayurjack plantation to see a farming miracle on a sloppy hill area, 16 km from Thrissur.

The fruit-bearing jackfruit trees, hardly seven to eight ft high, are a treat for the eyes. They can be grown in small housing plots of two to three cents or even on the terrace in a big drum.

Ayurjack is a jackfruit variety developed by Mr. Tharakan. It bears the sweet ‘varikka’ variety of jackfruit in one-and-a-half years under proper care.

“Ayurjack is my experiment towards achieving food security. Jackfruit is a staple food, which also fights many diseases, including diabetes.

“It is a gluten-free fruit, which can prevent even cancer. Unlike normal varieties of jackfruit trees, Ayurjack gives fruits throughout the year, if properly maintained,” Mr. Tharakan said.

23 Dec 2018 Thrissur.

Summer in a glass

A grocery store that’s almost a century old sells what’s arguably the best mango drink in the city

It’s 2 pm and the sun roasts us as we hop off the scooter to grab a drink at C Kunhiraman General Stores under Royapuram Bridge. An unlikely place for such a stopover, one would think. But the humble shop has built a reputation for its mango milk, badam milk, and lemon and grape juice. There are hardly any customers inside the store, but there’s a small crowd at it’s entrance — bikers, pedestrians, women travelling by auto — they’ve all stopped by for the juices.

Most of them are regulars and swear by the drinks, which — though available through the year — sell by leaps and bounds in the summer. The store sells 50 litres a day during this season, informs K T Ashok who runs the store. Equally popular is the in-house mango ice-cream. “We’ve been selling the juices for over 50 years,” explains Ashok.

Served in plastic cups, the juices and ice-cream are sold at a counter at the entrance. Chunks of the fruit float inside the mildly-sweet grape juice. The tangy lemon juice, though nothing spectacular, is pretty refreshing. But the thick, sweet mango milk is the most sought-after of them all. The drink, served at just the right temperature, is perfect for the summer.

We down two cups of mango milk and wonder if we should order one more, when K Surendar, who assists in preparing the juices, catches our attention. He ladles the juices from the freezer for customers — it’s peak hour and he works non-stop, with almost mechanical precision. Ladle, pour, serve; ladle, pour, serve.

Surendar is clearly proud of the antique freezer. The rectangular metal structure has six compartments for cylindrical containers that stores the juices. “This freezer can maintain the temperature of the drinks for a full day, even if there’s no electricity,” he boasts. The mango milk is his favourite, too. So, how many cups of it does he drink a day? “I don’t keep count,” he laughs.

The store sells 50 litres of juice a day during this season, informs K T Ashok, who runs the store. Equally popular is the in-house mango ice-cream

Fried, and still fresh

Vacuum frying technology packs in the flavour and colour of food, and is slowly becoming the buzzword. What makes it so special?

In Osaka, Japan, Kishore tasted a fried version that retained the brilliant yellow hue of the fruit. The stall from Taiwan also displayed shrimp, banana and other fruits and vegetables that had been fried.

Only, they took up less oil, were crispier, and burst with flavour. That was his first introduction to the technique of vacuum frying, which uses lower pressure and temperature (95°C - 120°C) to fry vegetables and fruits. The traditional method of deep frying, crisps food, but also changes its colour and reduces flavour.

Today, his Gokul Fruits in Kallinjeddu, near Udupi, manufactures nearly 2,500 kilograms of fried chickpea and two tonnes of lady’s finger or okra a month, among other fruits and vegetables, on two Japanese plants, in a nearly 20,000 sq ft factory that operates day and night. The chickpeas are crisp, and once bitten into, melt in the mouth. The spiced okra makes for a great snack while going easy on the oil, and the jackfruit brings back memories of summer holidays and glorious monsoons.

Not alone

Far away from Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka, Pune-based Ajit Soman, 56, wanted to veer off the beaten track. He had worked in the paint industry for 30 years, and started a restaurant as a passion project. He travelled to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and Dubai to explore vacuum fried foods. Sampling chips made of jackfruit, mango, chickoo, papaya, apples and carrot, he considered replicating the system back home. He set up Future Tech Foods India about five years ago, imported machinery from Singapore, and started retailing under the Chopinz brand (that is available on amazon.in).

He also makes machinery that helps with the technology and retails it. “Do you know that Malaysia processes more than 80% of its fruits and vegetables? So much of fruit and vegetable goes waste here. This technology has the potential to benefit farmers.”

At a time when the snacks market has come to mean deep-fried goodies, where the fat content can be as high as 44% (potato chips), this technology promises a fat content below 20%, depending on the raw material.

One distinct disadvantage in this technology is the increased cost. But that, both Soman and Kishore say, will only be the case till more companies enter the fray. “With some fruits and vegetables, the ratio of raw material to finished product is 5:1. In jackfruit and mango, the yield is just six to seven per cent. So, the cost is bound to be high. But, if you eat 35 grams of carrot chips, it gives you the nourishment equal to 250 grams of the fresh vegetable,” says Soman.

Sukumar Debnath, principal scientist, Department of Technology Scale-up, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru, says the institute has developed and installed a vacuum frying system of 10 kilogram capacity to manufacture healthy chips and savoury snacks.

Other than the apparent advantages, he says it inhibits lipid oxidation. This results in potato chips with significant reduction (97%) in a carcinogenic substance called acrylamide, and also reduces the rate of degradation of fruits and vegetables.

Soman started selling online six months ago, and says he’s impressed with the response. He sources quality jackfruit, sweet potato, broccoli, cauliflower, and organic okra . Even jackfruit seed is vacuum-fried and coated with chocolate made by a local unit. He has also fried mushroom and garlic, among other things, and exported them to the US and UK, besides Iran, which loves both fresh banana and the fried version.

But, his passion is enabling others to own vacuum frying machines, so that local fruits and vegetables can travel to homes elsewhere in the fried format.

The health factor

Another home-grown brand is Narendra Babu’s Favourite Foods, also from Karnataka (Kundapur). He started vacuum frying a year ago, because he “wanted to create a line of snacks for health-conscious people”.

This health aspect of vacuum frying is something that is met with scepticism, but in 2011, an article published in Journal of Food Science by V Dueik and P Bouchon of the Department of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, said that vacuum-fried carrot and potato chips absorbed about 50% less oil than atmospheric-fried chips.

“This is a premium product and people will buy it only if they are convinced,” says Babu. This is also probably why the market is focussed on metro cities, and foreign countries.

For Gokul Fruits, the bestseller is their delicately spiced whole okra. Director Rohith Kodgi says that while it is possible to experiment with any fruit — the company tried frying black grapes and pricing it at Rs. 1,500 a kilogeam and baby corn at Rs. 1,200 a kilogram — the market is still an emerging one, and needs to pick up pace.

It’s also a matter of taste. Once you get used to the crunch of vacuum-fried chickpeas, and start eating okra or mango chips as an evening snack, you just might be tempted to make the shift, even if it leaves the purse just a little lighter.

Benefits

  Packs in colour, aroma, nutrients and flavour.

  Can be used to prolong the shelf life of any fruit, vegetable, fungi or tuber that can be cut.

  Helps reduce food waste during periods of generous yield.