Skip to main content

Konkani Avanas Ambe Saasam / Coconut Fruit Salad

Konkani Sasam
Sasam is an iconic Konkani delicacy. A friend of mine ate this Sasam at a Konkani wedding and asked for its recipe. So here it is.
A sweet and savory fruit salad with coconut and mustard seeds. Generally, this fruit salad is made with mango (Ambe), pineapple (Avanas) with a few grapes. This treat gets its name from mustard, which in Konkani is called as Sasam.
Ingredients:
Mango (chopped) - about 2 cups
Pineapple (chopped) - about 11/2 cups
Red Grapes (halved) - 1/2 cup
Shredded Coconut (fresh or frozen) - 1 1/2 cups
Mustard Seeds/Saasam - 1/2 tsp
Dry Red Chilies (Byadagi variety) - 2 or 3
Turmeric/Haldi - 1/8 tsp
Jaggery/God/Gool (grated) - 3 tsp
Salt - 1/8 tsp
Saasam

How to make Konkani Ambe Sasam:
  • Peel the mango skin and dice the flesh into bite size pieces. Repeat the same for pineapple as well. Cut the grapes into halves. You can make this Sasam with just mango as well. I like adding grapes for a little more color. You can skip grapes.
  • Grind grated coconut, mustard seeds, dry red chilies, turmeric, jaggery, little salt to a slightly coarse paste. Add water as little as possible. Taste this coconut dressing and add more jaggery, red chilies to suit your taste. If jaggery is not available, brown sugar works as a great substitute.
  • To reduce the heat of red chilies, discard the seeds. I have used 3 Byadagi chilies which impart nice red color, but are mild.
  • Mix fruits and ground coconut paste well. Refrigerate the Sasam so that it does not turn watery. If you are serving Avanas Ambe Saasam at room temperature, mix the fruits and coconut paste just before serving.
  • Serve Sasam as a side dish with meals or as a chilled dessert. I like it chilled.
    Avanas Ambe Sasam


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments, Suggestions and Feedback are welcome.
Any comment with a Link/URL or any kind of promotion will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Indian Dal / Lentils

Lentils, known as Dal are a staple in an Indian diet, especially vegetarian. For me, dal is comfort food. 5 different dal varieties - Toor, Moong, Chana, Masoor and Urad are commonly used in Indian sweet and savory delicacies. You can cook dal with just one kind or a mix of two or more. I generally cook dal with 1:1 Toor and Moong dals. But then, we like Panchmel or Panchratna Dal too, which is made of all five. Most dal recipes have Toor dal as the primary ingredient. It is also known as Toovar or Arhar dal or Split Pigeon Peas . Some of our family favorite dal recipes are Dalitoy (Konkani Dal)  Tadka Dal Among all lentils, moong dal and masoor dal take lesser time to cook. Moong dal is also known as Split Green Gram or Split Mung Bean . Moong dal is also used in making sweet dishes like Mung Dal Kheer  Mung Dal Puranpoli Chana dal is also known as Split Bengal Gram or Split Chickpeas . Chana Dal takes a little more time to cook as compared to toor dal....
Post a Comment
Read more

Naval Kol Bhaji / Kohlrabi Stir-fry

Green Kohlrabi called as Navalkol in Marathi and Navilkosu in Kannada, belongs to the cabbage family.  My Mom used to make this stir fry very often.  Just like cabbage, this vegetable in available in two colors - green and purple.  I was quite hesitant about the purple one, as I haven't seen that back in India.  Anyway, I picked the green bulbs and Navalkohl Bhaji with Chana Dal was part of our healthy vegetarian meal today.
14 comments
Read more

Surti Val Papdi Bhaji

My Mom used to make Val Papdi Bhaji in a simple way with few ingredients. This is the first time I gave it a try here in my US kitchen. This stir fry does require little more oil, as no water is added for cooking. Dal Rice tastes great with this sauteed Papdi.  I tried this Bhaji once with frozen Surti Papdi and I was not happy with the result. I prefer fresh Papdi for this recipe, which I can only find in the local Indian store. I am not sure if Val Papdi is called as Navy Bean or Fava Bean in English.
13 comments
Read more