Fajeto

In a typical Gujarati home, during summers  the everyday lunch menus  dance to the tune of Mangoes . The Aamras is right at the top of the chart and the chorus on the plate/thali includes Roti, Subzi (Vegetable side), Dal and Bhaat (rice). The usual condiments like kachumber, athanu/pickles  and papad fill up the empty spaces. Most of our meals  are designed around these four main elements. The same four elements also make up Roti, Shubzi, Ausamun (pronounced awe-sa-mun), dry dal ( dal without water) and Bhaat. Consider Ausamun as an equivalent to Rasam. It is thin water in which the dal or pulses have been cooked. Pulses like moong, black chana, black eyed beans, split pigeon peas etc. are tempered separately once the water in which they are cooked is kept aside to be spiced, seasoned and tempered. This meal is believed to be lighter. The use of oil and spices here is sparse.

The learn for about Ausaman click here 

For more on Fajeto head up to my post here

Fajeto, that has become popular as mango Kadhi is actually an Ausaman. The use of besan/chickpea flour is not a common phenomenon. Fajeto actually is made with water from washing the Mango Gotla (mango stones) and Chotra (mango skins) once we have extracted the Rus/aamrus from it. Once we have the washed liquid on hand, some yogurt is added to it, a little thick aamrus too is added to adjust the consistency. Sooth/dried ginger is the dominant flavouring and addition of sugar/gur is optional, just to balance the flavour. The philosophy behind creation of Fajeto is to not allow even a single drop of precious aamrus to go waste. Mangoes in Gujarat are a revered fruit and the relationship we share with it is phenomenal too. So whenever Fajeto is on the menu we have a dry dal/chhuti dal here is dry moong dal and dry val dal (split field beans) okra subzi and of course there was roti and rice. Given the mangoes we use which are Pairi, kesar and Hafus the Fajeto is always orange in colour.