Fajeto – Mango Ras Kadhi
Fajeto is a dish born out of sense of thriftiness and ingenuity, its perfect example of sustainable cooking. Hot and tangy creamy brothy Kadhi sweetened with ripe mango and jaggery. If Gujaratis know one thing perfectly, it’s how not to waste anything.
This dish Fajeto is such a cool zero waste recipe. Every summer when mangoes become available. Gujaratis literally eat their weight in mangoes. Aamras is so famous during summers in all over India. The process of removing the pulp of mango was also traditional and done by hands. It was a ritual.
These days due to lack of time people make aamras or mango pulp by just chopping mangoes and pulsing it in a blender. Nothing wrong with any method. But, when moms would remove mango pulp by squeezing out mangoes, they would also make sure nothing goes to waste. Thus, this recipe originates from that idea. After all the pulp is removed, the mangoes seeds and peels with whatever leftover mango flavor is washed in water until every ounce of it removed.
This mango water was used to make Fajeto. That’s why we call sustainable because every part of the mango would be used up in consuming. If you love regular Kadhi, then the mango pulp Fajeto one takes it up a notch. I could not stop drinking it.
Meaning of Fajeto
The word Fajeto literally means fiasco or I find the name to be very amusing and the dish is so much more than a fiasco in terms of taste. It shows that Mangoes play such a huge role in our cuisine.
You will find plenty of recipes out there. Some use besan some don’t. My recipe does use besan but it’s very small quantity. Make sure to use the best mangoes or mango pulp available as it is the star of the dish. How ironic, something used to not waste is the star.
Some suggestions
- Once it cools down, it will thicken more. You can always adjust it by adding a little bit of water to thin it out if that occurs.
- This dish is supposed to be slightly sweet and at the same time tangy. If you wish, you can remove the cloves, curry leaves, peppercorns, and red chilies before serving.
- You can use sweetness depending on the mangoes you use. If you use jaggery the color might be slightly darker. Overall, dish should have perfect balance of sweet and sour.
- Same way consistency should be medium thick, not too thin or too thick. If it thickens up too much, you can always dilute more water and thin it out.
- Ideally, dry ginger powder is used in this dish. But I have used fresh ginger. If using dry ginger, please use ¼ tsp.
A perfect Sunday meal in summers would consist of Fajeto and its accompaniments like ghee bhaat (rice), sprouted moong beans, pickle of sorts and papad.
Fajeto – Mango Ras Kadhi
Ingredients
Base
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- 3/4 cup mango pulp
- 1 tbsp chickpea flour
- 1 inch piece ginger grated
- 1 tsp green chili finely chopped
- 1 tbsp jaggery or sugar
Tempering
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp ghee
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- Pinch of asafoetida do not use if making gluten free
- 1-2 dry red chilies
- 4-5 curry leaves
- 1 small cinnamon stick
- 1-2 cloves
- 1/4 tsp kashmiri red chili powder, for color purposes
- Lemon and Cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- Take plain yogurt and add in the chickpea flour and whisk it well until there are no lumps. Add thick mango pulp as well. Stir well. Add the ginger, chili paste and about 1 cup of water and whisk again. You can also use a hand blender if needed.
- Transfer the yogurt-mango mixture to the pot. Add sugar and salt. Stir everything well.
- Heat some ghee/oil in a tadka pan/pot on medium flame. Once the ghee is hot enough, add the whole spices starting with mustard seeds, once they start sizzling add in the cumin seeds, dried chilies, curry leaves, cloves and asafetida. Give it a quick stir. Remove it from heat before it burns the spices. Add this tadka to the simmering yogurt mango mixture.
- Let the mixture simmer and then come to a boil over a low flame for about 10-15 minutes. Do not move away from it as it will bubble up like milk. Keep stirring. Gradually, it will start to thicken up. Chickpea flour tends to thicken anything.
- Once it reaches a soupy but not too thick or too thin consistency- remove it from the flame. Stir in the lemon juice and garnish it with cilantro.
- Serve it immediately with rice.
Notes
- Once it cools down, it will thicken more. You can always adjust it by adding a little bit of water to thin it out if that occurs.
This dish is supposed to be slightly sweet and at the same time tangy. If you wish, you can remove the cloves, curry leaves, peppercorns, and red chilies before serving. - You can use sweetness depending on the mangoes you use. If you use jaggery the color might be slightly darker. Overall, dish should have perfect balance of sweet and sour.
- Same way consistency should be medium thick, not too thin or too thick. If it thickens up too much, you can always dilute more water and thin it out.