13 November, 2013

Chunda- A Tribute to Tarla Dalalji

Logo courtesy Preeti

The first I heard that Mrs. Tarla Dalal was no more I could not accept it. She is a personality who I considered immortal. But when the messages in the Blogging Marathon group kept pouring i had to believe it.

A lady, who when it was unheard of churned out books, TV shows and brought cooking from boring to “hey wow that is fantastic ” almost single handedly! A daunting task that she accomplished with panache that was unmatchable!!

So as a tribute we at the Blogging Marathon are posting today as a group.

My choice is  Chunda!

Chunda was what my MIL prepared very summer. She grated the mangoes and then used the sun’s rays to melt the sugar till the mangoes became translucent. For that she would painstakingly go to the terrace with her jar of Chunda in the morning and bring it down in the evening. I do not know for how many days she did this as I was never interested in it. 🙂

Now that I want to make it I turned to whom else but Tarla Dalal for her recipe.

What is chunda?

For me it was something new unheard of If like me its new then lets see what the “Queen of Cuisine” says

According to Mrs. Tarla Dalal ,  “ Mango chunda is a preserve that is common to all Gujarati households. In the rural Gujarat farmers staple diet with theplas early in the morning. Chunda is a combination of grated mangoes and sugar, the quantum of sugar used determined by the sourness of mangoes.”

Chunda can be made both sweet and spicy. ” Spicy Chunda’s are essentially of two kinds – cumin seeds (jeera) or asafoetida (hing) flavoured. Sweet Chunda s can be flavoured with only saffron and cardamom or can also have pieces of mixed dry fruits to make a dry fruit Chunda.”

Sweet or spicy the basic process of making Chunda remains the same. The traditional preparation of Chunda is time consuming.

This is okay if you have a lot of sum streaming in your place but what about me? I have hardly any sun and our terrace is also covered?

Mrs. Dalal has solved our problem with her usual aplomb.

Follow the recipe and you can have a year’s stock of

Chunda

 Recipe Source: Achaar Aur Parathe

Storage time upto 1 year: In a cool dry place.

Preparation Time: 50 mins.

Cooking Time: 5 mins.

Makes 1 ¼ cups. 

 Ingredients:

•  1 cup (140 grams) grated raw mango
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar (adjust as per the sourness of the mangoes)
• 1 tbsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp roasted cumin seeds (jeera), crushed

Method:

• Mix  the grated mangoes, salt and turmeric powder and set aside for 15 minutes.
• Add the sugar 2 tablespoons at a time to the mango mixture stirring continuously with a whisk till all the sugar is nearly dissolved. The entire process will take about 30 to 35 minutes.
• Heat the mango and sugar mixture in a thick bottomed kadhai/wok on a low flame
•  stir till the sugar has dissolved completely and small bubbles appear on the surface of the mixture (approx. 3 to 4 minutes).
• Remove from the flame and let the mixture cool completely.
• Add chilli powder and cumin seeds and store in a sterilised glass jar.
• Store upto 1 year in cool dry place.

Tips:

• If overcooked, the Chunda mixture will crystallise the following day.
• In that case, take ¼ cup of grated raw mangoes and add the prepared Chunda to the mangoes little by little (2 tablespoons at a time).
• Stir continuously using a spoon or a whisk till the entire mixture is dissolved. Repeat step 3 of the above recipe.
• If the mangoes are too sour you, may need to add extra sugar at step 2.

Mrs Dalal has variations on this recipe too. For that do check here.

I have made no changes at all in the master chef’s recipe. This is my tribute to her.

May her soul rest in peace!!

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  Archana

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