Jam from the saved pulp
I can see that it's going to be a bumper crop of mangoes from Hoskote. Heaps of young mangoes growing at a wonderful speed that gladdens my mango loving heart. We have two varieties -- Mallika and Raspuris. I refuse to grow anything else as these are the best and they are grafts to boot.
The Mallikas are a species made in Karnataka in a lab and so ofcourse man in his infinite desire to tweak nature for his benefit, has made the seed turn completely flat and thin. As a result instead of fights to have the seed with the extra pulp, like we did as kids, the seed had hardly any flesh. Plus the flesh is a wonderful orangey yellow so there is no need to add colour inspite of cooking it down to half.
The graft of the Mallika remains compact and small unlike the Raspuri, but I bought at least six of the saplings from Labagh and put them down in Hoskote. The rest are Raspuri and delicious too. Having grown up on Malgobas and a Duseri in the garden, both being string free I detest mangoes with strings in them. We are spoiled for choice here as in the US the Jamaican variety my son buys I cannot eat. They taste awful!
So, last year I pulped the best mangoes as I normally do for the kids. They come either in July or in December and wait to enjoy a load of mango smoothies or juice. Because Covid hit they could not come and then I realised -- there are huge dekchis of delicious pulp in the freezer which needs to be cleared out. Where will I put the next round of pulp once the mangoes grow and ripen this year??
Look at the beauty of a young Raspuri
So, on Mum’s death anniversary yesterday May 5th, I remembered her great jam making sessions. Ofcourse she made jam from the ripe mangoes that fell, rather than waste. My jam was with the best mangoes of the crop. That's what I save for the boys and families and my sister and her family. So the big plastic tubs in which we had ordered Biriyani, came to good use and I pulled out one.
Leaving it to thaw in the main fridge overnight, I take out most of it and put it into a dekchi, to cook down, and thicken, along with a little sugar and cinnamon sticks. It starts to steam and make flopping sounds! I leave it on slow stirring occasionally to avoid any overflow.
Another beauty
After a while the concoction begins to make popping sounds and looks like a volcanic eruption with bursting bubbles. I put on a rubber glove when stirring, because I don't want my hands burned. Mum always suffered burns, as she never had any gloves to save her. After some continuous stirring, because you don't want burned tasting jam, I switch it off and leave it to cool. The pulp must boil down to about half.
After leaving it to cool and going back to reviewing the 28 dissertations, from St. Joseph’s I realised that home made is really the best. We use only the best ingredients and clean utensils and cleaner glass bottles to save the jam and with chappaties, again homemade, the men are in heaven for breakfast.
