Some may like sweets and others like it spicy but most of us love tangy and chatpata taste. Popularity of pickles and chatpata chaats across the length and the breadth of the country is a testimony to this.
Tangy flavour has a very important place in all our regional cuisines. While there are loads of options to get that tangy flavour we mostly end up using tamarind majorly as it is available all through the year and has a longest shelf life and is easy to store.
There are loads of seasonal alternatives and I try and use as much as possible these seasonal sour fruits like amla ( Indian gooseberries), raw mango, fresh raw tamarind and even lemons which are available all through the year. These fruits while imparting their unique flavour to the dish, are also a healthier option as we are consuming the greener fresh versions. My mom would also use aamchur powder (Dry mango powder) and kokum as she would say its a better option compared to tamarind for people with Pitta Prakriti. While Kokum is also one of the great options I don’t use it much as I never developed a liking for its strong flavour.
So, come summers, we have raw mangoes almost everyday in different forms, be it daal, rasam, chutneys, kosambari or quick fix pickles, mango rice etc. Same goes with amla and fresh raw tamarind as well. Raw mango, especially totapuri variety are most spotted fruit sold on streets. Eaten with salt n chilly powder this sweet sour variety was a favourite snack post school during childhood.
Mango pickles will need a dedicated posts and mentioning it here will not do any justice to it. Each region has a unique twist to the pickle and coming from erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Avakaya annam is our soul food.
While I am not an expert of nutrition but it is well known wisdom that the Vitamin C is abundant in these sour/ citrus foods which boosts our immune system. Vitamin C also helps in absorption of iron. So a palak n mango daal will be a perfect fit. It is also important to note that vitamin C is lost as soon as it’s heated. So try and add the grated mango, amla or lemon juice at the end. While with tamarind pulp, we usually cook it for a while to get rid of the raw taste.
In summers my mom would make raw mango jams both jaggery based (Gulamba) and sugar based ( Sakaramba) which tastes awesome with chapatis. These jams can be stored upto couple of months when refrigerated.
Aam panna is also a very popular refreshing summer drinks made of raw mangoes popular in northern part of India. We have regional varieties of the same drink in south India as well.
Amlas also can boast of variety of popular recipes like amla murabba, alma supari, amla pickle. Similarly fresh green tamarind can go into thokku ( Chutney which can be stored for almost a year) and daal. While lemons are available year round and can also be pickled in a variety of ways.
I hope to put up recipes for all of the above in future, for now you can check out Sweet and sour spicy raw mango chutney.
Oota ayita 
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