Kashmiri Mango: Our Secret Recipe

This sweet and sour dish is all the rage in our little restaurant at the mo. And you all keep asking us how we make it. So we thought we’d tell you, as we are nice like that. It is also good for you, as it contains up to three of your five a day…
It really is very simple, because everything we cook in the caff has to be simple, because our staff are very simple, and because we only have two part time hobs, an indolent microwave and a petulant bread grill upon which to cook for up to 35 people. So complicated doesn’t get a look in.
Ingredients (as a starter or light lunch for two to share):

• splash of oil
• 350g crunchy green veg – broccoli, sugar snap peas, mange tout, kale, courgette – take your seasonal pick
• 8 cherry toms, halved
• 2 small cloves garlic, minced
• 1 good teaspoon Mr.S’ patent silk trail spice rub*
• 1/2 small (preferably green) mango (about 75g), peeled and cubed
• 3 tablespoons mango pulp or nectar
• 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
• salt to taste
• rose petals to garnish

Heat a dash of oil in a pan, and toss the vegetables into the hot oil. After a few minutes add the garlic and spice mix, stirring well, followed after a minute or so by the chopped mango. Turn the heat down and fry for 4-5 minutes before adding the mango pulp and the tamarind, plus salt to taste. Stir well and serve, accompanied by some warm bread.
*Toast 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, 2 of coriander seeds, 1 of cumin seeds and 3 of anardaneh (pomegranate seeds – optional, but tasty) in a wee frying pan until they start hissing at you. Tip them into a pestle and mortar or spice grinder (hey – an old tea towel will do) and pound them. Next add 1/2 teaspoon each of ground ginger and chilli, and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon together with a level teaspoon of sea salt and work the ingredients into a paste, trickling in a little olive oil to bind it all together. Keep in a little jar in the fridge until needed.