Chakkakuru Manga Avial - A guest post for Namitha

Rarely do I come across such people who leaves a profound impact on me ; who is so much fun to talk to ; who spreads joy and comfort around , and at times who acts like a sister . Namitha is one such person. I don't know exactly when I started talking to her, creating a new bond, an "unseen" friendship from miles away. Unseen - I am yet to see her in person; Unseen - I never saw myself crafting a friendship with a person, I have known only through blogging. We don't talk everyday or every week,but never less than an hour :-)

I am always amazed by her passion for food, how efficiently she manages her lovely family and Collaborative curry - a blog she co- authors with Sunitha - full of love and sweet things . I am so delighted to be here, a space which I admire the most in blogging world, both for  recipes and brilliant pictures. In fact, it came as a wake up call for me, when Namitha asked me to do a guest post here, as I was slowly drifting away from the food blogging scene; I m glad you asked me :-)

The recipe I have here, is something from my grandma's collection, which she shared with me on my last visit.I really miss everything about monsoon back home-especially "kuttanad" - along with the monsoon rain, the monsoon tides and the amazing food. In the olden days,( not like centuries old , but u know the old India nostalgia)  after feasting on the various preparations from jack fruit  the entire summer, the seeds are stashed away in a " vallikkotta"  "for the rainy days". They use it when the monsoon hit the village hard for it's impossible to get out and grab other vegetables. 

A couple of weeks ago, I got hold of a bag of chakkakuru from N's cousin's place and have been cooking up a lot of dishes with it ever since. Since I wanted to make something authentic, something true to my roots for my post here, I couldn't think of anything better than this recipe.  It's more or less similar to the curry with the same name, except its a gravy-less prep.  You can use either "Uppumanga or pacha manga ", I use fresh green mango, for it's widely available here regardless of the season.

For this recipe and an amazing collection of cakes and cookies  head over to Collaborative curry 
Happy Cooking
Sarah