Keri no Ras: A Celebration of Summer in Gujarat

Making aam no ras is a daily summer ritual in many Gujarati households. Chaitali Patel shares the do’s and don’ts of making ras.

When I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy, I had bouts of morning sickness every other day. The sickness would always strike just after breakfast, around the time I would be in the kitchen, making ras. I would leave the half-squished mangoes on the counter and run to the toilet. After, I would wash up and get back to the job at hand. It was summer, and no morning sickness could come in the way of our Gujarati family’s keri no ras. My mother, who is usually in charge of making ras, was finding it increasingly laborious to make, and had assigned this most important of household tasks to me.

My parents’ obsession for ras didn't strike me as odd. All through my childhood (and well into adulthood), I watched my father transform into a mango don as soon as summer set in. He was responsible for ordering and distributing dozens of mangoes — hapus (alphonso) and pairi — to friends and family. This was before WhatsApp, so all bookings were done over long-distance phone calls. Once the consignment arrived at Chennai Central Station, my father would send someone to collect them — several jute sacks, with his name on them, carefully packed with wicker baskets full of mango.

During mango season, lunchtime at a Gujarati household will most likely mean ras-rotli. Different families make ras with different mango varieties; from pairi, hapus, kesar, or even a combination of these. In our home, we only ever made ras with pairi. The oval shaped pairi, with a distinct green and red exterior, gives off a strong, sweet aroma when it ripens; its flesh a mildly fibrous, orange-yellow colour.

Sheetal Bhatt, a social development professional who documents the native foods of Gujarat, explains that in earlier days, mangoes such as the kesar and hapus were eaten chopped, and not juiced. According to her, only those mangoes that could not be cut because of their fibrous insides, were used to make ras.

Ras at home was always made the traditional way. First, ripe mangoes were soaked in a tub of water (to reduce the heat in the mango). Next, the mangoes were squished by hand until the flesh inside was good and pulpy. Before the pulp is removed, it is important to squeeze out a little juice from the top of the mango, where it is attached to the stem. This helps reduce the heat and the itchiness often caused by mangoes. Sheetal suggests a second squeeze, again from the top of the mango, to check if anything is rotten within. My mother always insisted I pay full attention to the process, as a single bad mango could spoil the entire batch of ras. That was the one instruction I held sacred; one misstep meant all my efforts went to naught.

Chaitali’s Recipe for Keri no Ras

Ingredients
5-6 mangoes (pairi or kesar)
1 tsp ghee
1/4 tsp soonth (dried ginger powder)

Method
Wash and soak the mangoes in a tub of water for 1 hour.

Take out the mangoes and use your fingers to soften the flesh inside. Follow a circular motion and make sure the entire mango is soft and squishy.

Tear off the eye and remove the pulp. Turn the skin inside out and remove all the juice and flesh. Remove all the flesh from the seed of the mango as well.

Pour the pulp and juice onto a fine muslin cloth stretched over a wide mouthed bowl or vessel, and use a ladle or spoon to separate all the juice. Or use a blender and blend the pulp to a smooth consistency. Use a sieve and strain out the juice.

Add ghee and soonth. Mix well and refrigerate.

Chaitali Patel is a freelance writer based in Dubai. Her words have appeared in Condé Nast Traveller India, Roads & Kingdoms, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Mint Lounge and others.