Tauk Dal – Lentils with Green Mangoes

Food is inspired by our moods, moments and recent experiences. When the mercury rises I think of Green Mangoes. One of my favorite ways to enjoy green mangoes. The green mangoes lend a unique sense of tartness and cooling effect to the lentils. As I update my 2011 post, I have added instant pot instructions for these lentils.

This visit to India, I landed smack in the middle of green mango season. This is an early summer in Kolkatta, India. And I relished the exquisite tender tart taste of  young green mangoes. They are usually blown off the trees during the summer storms also called the norwesters or Kal Baishakhi.

This is a pretty stunning picture taken and belonging to Nafis Jalil, showing the stormy sky during the storm. The sky, and the sky can share so many stories of moods and memories.  The Kal Baishaski storms start with short bursts of thunder and lightening

followed by some immense and intense rain. This results in cooling the earth and filling the air with the fresh and fragrant smell of the wet earth.

The joys of green mangoes include these tart lentils and green mango chutney among many others. Fast forward, I am back in New York.

I ventured to our Indian store and picked up a couple of mangoes. It still was at least a week before I made these lentils. Travel memories sometimes lack the same results without the location. Fortunately, while the local green mangoes are not the same as the ones in India. These lentils are forgiving.

Yes, the Kal Baishashi or the norwesters  are an indellible part of my being, granted being a city girl, I have not witnessed the darker side of these tornado like brisk storms, just been mesmerized by their stunning beauty.

They are powerful, and the summer rains in New York are a weaker cousin, but they still bring with them shaking trees and the intoxikating scent of the moist earth that calls my name. I love the rain, I love the rain, I love the rain! Also, while the rains in New York, shake my memories and take me to the land of my childhood, I find fallen pine needles, broken herb branches, a scared cat, but unfortunately no tiny baby mangoes.

I settle for what we find, in our local stores, after all, nostalgia aside, we have to live we what we have. These are usually larger and somewhere between pale yellow and ripe. Today, I was working with one of them.

After cutting the large, faint yellow counterpart I decided to make yellow tangy lentils with this. The yellow lentils too, are a homey traditional recipe that I have grown up with. Anshul of course, promptly fell in love with it. Thank god for small mercies. The brook has not been feeling well (weak tummies) since our return. The doctor of course, upon hearing that we were in India has declared a tropical parasite infection.

This soft and flavorful lentil dish with steamed rice did the trick for today. I had made a couple of other things and some killer shrimp, hopefully I shall post these recipes over the week. I have a work conference later this week, I am truly looking forward the drive upstate, hoping to see some of the lovely flowers we have had in bloom.