Veppampoo Pachadi

We normally celebrate every new beginning with sweets, but we follow a tradition of serving sumptuous meal consisting of 6 tastes viz., sweet, sour, bitter, astringent, salt & pungent on our New Year usually celebrated on the 14th of April. This tradition is being followed in our society to encourage us to embrace each season of a year. So we never miss to include bitter neem flower pachadi to our elaborate lunch meal specially prepared on the occasion of Chithirai Vishu every year.

We also prepare astringent raw jack fruit poriyal, tangy mixed vegetable aviyal, spicy rasam, sweet payasam, etc. of various flavors & textures to welcome the Tamil New Year. 

Veppam poo pachadi has a unique indistinctive taste as it is prepared using conflicting ingredients like bitter neem flowers & tangy unripe mango and also sweet jaggery & hot red chilli powder. Now lets move on to the recipe for veppam poo pachadi:

Time taken: 20 min.
Yields: 300 ml

Ingredients:

1. Unripe mangoes – 2 Nos. (small)
2. Brinjal (eggplant/ kathrikkai) – 1 No.
3. Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
4. Salt – ¼ tsp
5. Powdered jaggery – ½ cup (100 g)
6. Ghee – ½ tsp
7. Dried neem flowers (veppam poo) – 1 tbsp

For tempering:

1. Ghee – 1 tsp
2. Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
3. Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Cooking procedure:

• Peel mangoes, chop them into thin slices as shown below.
• Chop brinjal into thin slices.

• In a cooking bowl add mangoes, brinjal, red chilli powder and water (50 ml).
• Microwave (alternatively cook them using pressure cooker on stove top for 5 min. after bringing to high pressure) them for 7 min.
• Meanwhile fry neem flowers in ghee (½ tsp) in medium flame.
• Powder them using mortar & pestle and leave aside.

• Prepare the tempering as below and keep aside.

• When mangoes & brinjal are cooked soft, add salt & powdered jaggery.
• Mix them well and microwave for 3 min.
• Now add tempering, powdered neem flowers and water (100 ml or more according to your required consistency) and cook for another 3 min.
• Now sweet, sour & bitter veppam poo chadi is ready to serve.

Please note:

• My grandmother always preferred to make pachadi using unripe mangoes along with brinjals, as brinjals help to decrease vata dosha aggravated by unripe mango.