Mango curry (amba maluwa)

This deceptively modest dish derives its sweet yet tart flavour from cooking green mangoes until just tender in a typical Sri Lankan vegetable curry base of aromatics, mustard seeds, curry leaves, spices, and coconut milk. There’s some debate as to whether the mangoes should be peeled. Some argue that the peel adds a bitter flavour, while others insist that the traditional method is to leave them unpeeled and simply cut them into quarters, seed and all, thus adding to the texture of the dish. Some recipes also call for the addition of rampe (pandanus leaves), another essential in Sri Lankan cooking, but every home will have its own variation.