Amtekai Gojju is a Konkani-Style Hog Plum Gojju
Rashmi Gopal Rao shares the recipe for a Chaturthi special dish in her home that features the seasonal hog plum.
“Remember never to chop the amtekai; all you have to do is to crush it lightly over the top,” my mother-in-law tells me the first time I make amtekai gojju. This gravy dish with its sauce-like consistency and distinctive sweet and sour notes is a favourite in my household. The first time I tasted the dish, I was overwhelmed by the robust medley of flavours. But it grew on me.
A seasonal specialty ingredient that makes its appearance with the monsoons, hog plum is called amtekai in Kannada, and ambade in Tulu or Konkani. These moss green elliptical fruits, that look like tiny raw mangoes, have thin pulp and a large seed in the centre. The pulp gets quite fibrous as the fruit grows bigger and riper. Amtekai is distinctly tart with a sharp, sour flavour that makes it a great substitute to raw mango and tamarind.
While I always knew hog plum pickle, the popularity and versatile use of amtekai in chutneys, gravies and even curries in coastal Karnataka, including Dakshin Kannada, Udupi and the Karwar region, was a revelation. The pickle itself is quite refreshing in that it is prepared without oil, and the main ingredients include hog plums marinated with red chilli powder, salt and a fine dusting of roasted mustard and fenugreek seeds. Chopped amtekai simply ground with coconut, green chillies, rock salt and asafoetida, and finished with a seasoning of mustard seeds and red chillies in coconut oil, form a piquant dish that is paired with rice, idlis and dosas.
Arguably one of the most popular dishes prepared using hog plum is the aromatic gojju, also called muddhulli or menskai, which is essentially hog plum cooked with an assortment of spices in a coconut-based gravy. My mother-in-law, Y. Sarojini, always made this with shavige (rice noodles) during the Gowri-Ganesha festival holidays. By this time in the monsoon, the hog plums in the market are much larger, fibrous and almost hard. While you cannot really chop and bite into the amtekai, just sucking on it releases that heavenly fruity sourness, which is precisely what makes it a much-loved ingredient.
Some notes before cooking: Adjust the quantity of red chillies and jaggery per your taste.
Do not roast ingredients for the ground mixture on high flame as it will get burn quickly, resulting in a bitter aftertaste.
If the hog plums are very tender, the seeds are edible; if not, just suck the fruit to extract its flavour and discard the seeds.
RECIPE FOR AMTEKAI
Ingredients
8-10 tender hog plums
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp jaggery
3-4 tbsp coconut oil
Salt to taste
For grinding
1 cup freshly grated coconut
1 tbsp channa dal or Bengal gram
1 tbsp urad dal or black gram
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
5-6 Byadgi red chillies
For seasoning
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
4-5 pieces of Byadgi chillies broken
1 sprig curry leaves
A pinch of hing /asafoetida.
Method
Wash the hog plums thoroughly and crush them lightly with a pestle.
Boil the hog plums with salt, water and jaggery until soft.
Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil in pan and roast all the items specified under ‘for grinding’ except the fresh coconut. Separately, in a pan, add the channa dal and then urad dal. Fry till aromatic. Add cumin seeds, fenugreek and red chillies. Roast evenly on low to medium flame.
Allow the above mixture to cool and grind with fresh coconut into a smooth, thick paste. Add water as required.
Add this ground mixture to the boiled hog plums and stir well. Add water if required, and cook over medium flame while stirring periodically. Adjust salt as needed; bring to a boil.
Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil in pan, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter. Add urad dal, red chillies and curry leaves and asafoetida. Pour over the gravy.
Serve with hot rice or ootu shavige (home-made hand pressed rice noodles)
Rashmi Gopal Rao is a freelance writer from Bengaluru who writes on various topics including food, travel, art, design and culture and has been published in several international and national publications.
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