MAAVADU THOGAYAL / VADUMANGAI THOGAYAL

My grandma makes this traditional thogayal. Now, you can say this as a forgotten food as I never came across this recipe anywhere while browsing and thought of sharing this traditional recipe with all. My grandma used to make this thogayal with the old, soggy, one year old vadumangai/maavadu, just after/before the fresh batch of seasonal maavadus are ready. This is called 'azhugina mavadu thogayal', NOT literally made with the rotten ones, but with the soggy ones which has lost its crunchiness in a year, without wasting it. Mine was crunchy even after a year and I did not have any soggy ones!!! However, you can also make with regular maavadu. My grandma also makes a pachadi / raita with this, like nellikkai pachadi, which is quite common.

INGREDIENTS:

Maavadu - 15 (one year old)
Urad dhal - 2 tablespoons
Chenna dhal - 2 tablespoons

Toor dhal - 1 teaspoon
Dry red chillies - 3 or 4
Salt - to taste
Hing - a generous pinch
Curry leaves - few
Oil - 1 teaspoon

METHOD:

Heat oil in a pan and fry the given ingredients (except maavadu) until golden brown. When cool, dry grind coarsely, add maavadus, very little salt (as maavadu has salt and chillies in it) and grind again to a coarse paste. This thogayal should be coarse as shown in picture and should NOT be a fine paste. Sprinkle very little water if necessary. A perfect combo for curd rice. You can also mix with hot rice and ghee, but tastes great with curd rice. 

NOTE: The seeds of baby mangoes have medicinal benefits. So it is not necessary to remove the seeds. However, you can remove the seeds if it is not so tender.