Mango madness: The next level

You see, I am obsessed with Mangoes now and anything associated with them. Its a different thing that my 9 month old eats almost two mangoes every day and he loves them. The visit to the farmers market is a thrill for me and The Husband, every other day we venture out in the heat and dust to see which mangoes have hit the season. Last weekend I was out side and The Husband called in to understand the mango requirement for the week, the voice on the other side went blank for a few seconds when I said I need 10 kilos. Then came in one word, "why"? Knowing me for all these years he knew I have another trick rolled up my sleeves. A monosyllabic answer went out, "stuff", all I got back was a grunt, I often wonder, that I am going to write a book named," What marriage does to you".

Come Sunday morning, I was up early, peeled off all the ripe mangoes I could lay my hands on determined to make Mango Leather or we also call Aam Papad. My father loves them and he used to buy a lot of them from the Indian Railways hawkers whenever he was traveling. We would love them, they came in small blocks wrapped in yellow cellophane paper. One could spend an entire afternoon chewing on a block of them. You could say HAPPINESS IS...EATING AAM PAPAD. After educating myself enough on youtube I got on to my project, and this was my first time.

You need as many ripe mangoes you can get hold of, the more the merrier.
Big heavy bottomed pan
Granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 table spoon clarified butter
Measuring cup
Saffron Strands (optional)
Patience

The instructions are so simple that at first I did not believe that it could be real.
Peel the ripe mangoes and remove the stone. Put it in a blender and make a puree of them. Add the lime juice and pass it through the sieve to remove larger chunks.

Now comes the interesting part, since this is the first time I decided to follow the book. For 3 cups of puree you can add 1 cup of granulated white sugar. Pour the puree in a thick bottom vessel and add the the sugar. Now comes the tricky part, all you need is patience. Simmer the pulp and occasionally stir it so that the bottom does not get burnt. Note the level of the puree and simmer till it has reduced to half. At the final stages I added a few strands of saffron to add in some additional flavor.


 Line up some plates or anything flat which will be put up in the sun or indoor to dry. I used steel plate and they got heated up well in the sun. Line the plate with clarified butter and spread one and a half laddle of puree on each plate with a spatula. Make sure they are spread evenly.

Next I used a cheese cloth to cover the plates from dust, birds and bees and placed it under the sun on a hot day outside. I forgot about it for 24 hours and checked on them the next day noon. Of coursed I brough the whole thing inside for the night and kept the fan on to dry them well. Can you imagine it took just 24 hours? No expensive dehydrator needed, dont you love Delhi in summer?

Because of the butter they come off relatively easily.  You can cut them up and roll them. Don't worry they wont stick to each other due to the butter and place them in a airtight container.

I used 5 kilos of mangoes and that yielded me 6 plates leather. The next batch I decided to reduce the sugar content and add some other spices. However remember sugar is also a good preservative.  It took me 3 hours in front of the gas stove and a occasional spit from the puree, maintain safe distance while stirring the mix. 3 Hours well spent and it worth the effort, it tastes like pure mango and not like the store bought ones which have artificial sweeteners.

Later I discovered you can make fruit leather out of any fruit, apple, peach, pear, apricort, plum. Gives me some great idea for Aryan. The whole effort made me very proud of myself, the husband loved it.