Sweet Memories - Mango Juice

We bought these tiny mangoes from Indian store last week. They looked like rasam mamadipandlu (mangoes with juice instead of flesh), but they ended up being regular mangoes. I am not sure if we can even get rasalu in US. Anyway I had about 25 mangoes and only 3 people to eat them (outside heat was not helping us either). I made mango pudding (which has now become our staple mango dessert) with about 6 of them. With the rest of the mangoes I made Mango juice, recipe courtesy, Mom.

Years ago, my mom along with 2 of her best friends (our very lovely aunts, we call them both Atta) used to go to Canning & Nutrition Center in Hyderabad to make juices, jams and marmalades for the whole year and especially for the hot summer . This was like a yearly tradition during the months of march and april when there is abundance of seasonal fruit.

These ladies used to go to the center with baskets and bags full of apples, grapes, oranges, pineapples, guavas etc. (Shopping for these fruits two days earlier is another story) When they got back home they had big containers full of orange juice, grape juice, jam. They used to distribute everything among the three families. Sometimes they used to come back with surprise items like guava marmalade (this is the one I remember the most).

These are just very sweet memories....

Here is the recipe for Mango juice, it is more like a concentrate - you will need to add some cold water or water and ice to make the juice. I didnt add any preservatives or essence, cos according to my mom that might slightly change the taste.

Ingredients:
Mango pulp - 5 cups
Sugar - 4 cups
Water - 5 cups
Citric Acid - 2tsp

Method:

• Remove pulp from the mangoes. Keep aside.
• In a heavy bottom sauce pan, add sugar and water and let it come to a slow simmer.
• Dont simmer for too long, we just want the sugar to dissolve, around 10minutes on low flame.
• Add citric acid. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Strain the syrup to remove any impurities.
• After the sugar syrup is completely cooled, add the mango pulp and mix well.
• Pour into clean bottles and store in the fridge.

Notes: Make sure your hands are completely dry during the whole preparation and storing process. Pour about 1/3 of mango concentrate and the rest water to make a cup of mango juice.

Very tasty, home-made mango juice.