Fajeto recipe - a classic Gujarati dish made from ripe mango pulp, yogurt, besan and few spices with added tempering at the end.
Usually this recipe is made on the same day when aamras aka keri no ras is made. After making ras, you will have quite a few of mango seeds left. Of course you cannot squeeze all the pulp from the seeds.
And no one wants to waste that mango goodness. So these mango seeds along with little extra mango pulp are used for making this ras no fajeto recipe.
By looking at the ingredients list, you might say that this is like mango kadhi. I would say NO!! You can categorize it in kadhi, dal kind of dishes. But It does not taste like kadhi at all. This has its own flavor and taste that cannot be compared with anything. It is heavenly delicious and out of the world.
The sweetness of the mango and slight sourness from the yogurt, good aroma of whole spices in tempering.. All blends together in magical way. Just Amazing!! You must try it once.
How to make fajeto recipe (Step by Step Photos):
1) Take yogurt in the saucepan. In that add besan, salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, ginger paste and chopped green chilies.
2) Mix well and make sure that there are no lumps.
3) Now in another bowl, take mango seeds. NOTE: for making this dish, purposely I left some mango meat around the seeds. So I can use that in the recipe. If yours has less meat around it then add mango pulp. Or skip adding seeds and only add mango pulp. In short you will need around ¼ cup of pulp.
4) Add water to it. With your clean hands, squeeze it and remove all the pulp.
5) Add that water along with seeds in yogurt mixture. Stir well.
6) Heat this mixture on medium heat. Do stir constantly while it is getting heated up, so yogurt will not curdle. As it starts simmering, turmeric powder and mango pulp will impart its color.
7) Let it simmer with stirring occasionally for around 12-13 minutes. If it gets too thick then you can add splash of water. The thickness of it should be like gujarati kadhi.
8) Now for tadka or tempering, heat the ghee in a small pan on another stove. Once hot add cumin seeds and let them sizzle a bit.
9) Now add cloves, cinnamon stick and dried red chili and cook for 30-40 seconds.
10) Then add curry leaves.
11) Add hing.
12) Immediately add this tadka to the simmering mixture.
13) Mix well and turn off the stove.
14) Now remove and discard the seeds. All the goodness is extracted.
Serving suggestion: it is served with plain rice.
Fajeto recipe
Ingredients
For fajeto recipe:
- ¼ cup Mango pulp or puree or 2-3 mango seeds with some mango meat around them
- 1 ½ to 2 cups Water
- ½ cup Plain yogurt (dahi or curd)
- 1 tablespoon Besan (gram flour)
- Salt - to taste
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon Red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon Ginger paste or freshly grated or crushed
- 1 small Green chili finely chopped
For tempering:
- 1 ½ tablespoons Ghee (clarified butter) or Oil
- ½ teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 2 Cloves
- ½ inch Cinnamon stick
- 1 Dried red chilies
- 5-6 Curry leaves
- a pinch or ⅛ teaspoon Hing (Asafoetida)
Instructions
Making ras no fajeto recipe:
- Take yogurt in the saucepan. In that add besan, salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, ginger paste and chopped green chilies.
- Mix well and make sure that there are no lumps.
- Now in another bowl, take mango seeds. NOTE: skip adding seeds and only add mango pulp. In short you will need around ¼ cup of pulp.
- Add water to it. With your clean hands, squeeze it and remove all the pulp.
- Add that water along with seeds in yogurt mixture. Stir well.
- Heat this mixture on medium heat. Do stir constantly while it is getting heated up.
- Let it simmer with stirring occasionally for around 12-13 minutes.
- If it gets too thick then you can add splash of water.
Making tempering:
- Heat the ghee in a small pan on another stove.
- Once hot add cumin seeds and let them sizzle a bit.
- Now add cloves, cinnamon stick and dried red chili and cook for 30-40 seconds.
- Then add curry leaves and hing.
- Immediately add this tadka to the simmering fajeto.
- Mix well and turn off the stove.
- Now remove and discard the seeds.
Loved the fajeto recipe. My surti dadi used to take a small piece of raw Hing, wrap it in some cotton and heat it directly on flame for a second. The Hing would puff up and she'd then crush it in her hand and add it to the fajeto. She did this only for fajeto and no other dish. Not a very easy technique. Needed skill. She passed away in 1977. God Bless her soul.
happy to learn something new from your grandmom via you, Sujata. Never heard this before.
Hmm.. that quite an interesting dish and I have never heard of it before. The mango season is almost gone here but I am tempted to make this using Canned Mango pulp. Not sure if that would taste the same, what do you say?
Yes it would taste good.
But canned mango pulp usually sweetened, so I would use less quantity. Otherwise dish may become sweet
Actually our ancestors were master cooks. The whole idea of such recipes is to ensure that no part of any food is wasted. Hence the left over Mango seeds were used to make fajeto. The seeds were then roasted on coal or in the wood fire used to heat water. The kernels of the roasted Mango seeds were removed and jullienned. Then sprinkled with black salt and eaten as mukhwaas. No waste and all nutritious parts were enjoyed.
You are right. Nothing should be wasted, that's what my mom/grandmom always says.
My mom dries the mango seeds in the sunlight and then break up and collect the inside meat which we call 'gotli'. She cut into small pieces, again sun dry, sprinkle some spices to make mukhvas.
This is little similar to what you have mentioned. This is very fascination to learn the methods from different household. Thank you Sujata for sharing with me.
You remind me my childhood days we used to eat this everyday in summer. Looks fantabulous. can't wait to have it. yummy
thanks for sharing
Thank you. enjoy!!
Hey Kanan,I have learnt many dishes from your website like pure Gujarati dal, channa no raas walo saag,etc.Can I ask you for one more receipe.My kids are fond of Jeero.I buy chemical infused concentrate which stops me from buying.Can we make small batch of this at home like how kokum agal is made.
Not sure what recipe you are talking about. Never heard of Jeero.