SPAM JELLO WITH BITS OF VIENNA SAUSAGE

Several years ago, a friend who regularly does so, spoofed my gustatory tastes. Suggesting that like the small turkey vulture I likewise had a well-developed taste for carrion.

I did not take offense, as it was meant good-naturedly.

By vegan standards, I do.

She's not vegan. Parsees seldom are. There are too many good things to eat in this world for them. When she shared her mom's recipe for dhansak, meat was specifically mentioned.
Also, you can't make marghi na farcha without animal protein.
Nor jardalu salli boti. Et alia multa.


The following is a Parsee recipe for a relish that would go well with very many foods on the Parsee table, and though it could also be served with vegan food I would not recommend that, because vegans are most comfortable with bland porridge, dairy-free "cheese", and frequently, tofu cooked by white people with no taste. None of which Parsees eat.

AMBAKALIO

One pound small green mangoes (NOT squishy ripe mangoes).
Half a pound jaggery (palm sugar in big chunks).
A fragment of stick cinnamon.
Chopped onion (about a quarter to a half) optional (some recipes leave it out).
A green cardamom or two, a whole clove or two.
Water - two to four tablespoons.

Break jaggery apart, put in an enamel saucepan with water, the cardamom, and the cloves. Plus the onion, if you decided to use it. Cook till the jaggery is dissolved.
Peel, cut, and de-seed the mangoes. Green mangoes will have a tender seed and the flesh will not have become all fibrous around it. Nor will juice and pulp cascade over your hands at this stage of unripeness, and the flesh is firm and fragrant, albeit pleasingly tart.
Add the sliced mango to the jaggery water, and simmer till the mango has softened and the liquid has become stroppy. Cool.


It might also go well with Spam® Jello® with bits of Vienna sausage. Which she suggested to me as an appropriate substitute for carrion. I assume that's indicative of her superior experience. She is older than me, and has eaten more. She would know.

SMALL TURKEY VULTURE

Naturally, being a Dutch American (so white I glow in the dark), I myself would have a small katori of sambal trasi next to the bowl of ambakalio to enjoy with my 'unidentified fried object' (the Dutch national dish).

Perhaps the gelatine and canned salted meat mixture above would make a good base for a nineteen fifties suburban housewife's terrine on her cocktail party buffet when the boss and his spouse are visiting. It's sure to impress them!

Somewhere in in Iowa or Minnesota.

Pâté de porc du Midwest.

Parsee recipe.



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