How to prepare Ugaadi Pachchadi?

Ugaadi festival marks the New Year for the people of Andhra Pradesh and with this festival round the corner, people can find raw, fresh mangoes in the market. The significance of Ugaadi festival is much known to the Telugu people and Ugaadi Pachchadi is a very special recipe that is prepared only on this festival day. And it has become a tradition for the people of Andhra Pradesh to savor Ugaadi Pachchadi as the first dish in the morning even before taking coffee or tea. There is an age old belief that if you happen to get a sweet taste with the first savor, you life would be sweet through out the year.

Recipe for Ugaadi Pachchadi

• Get a raw and fresh mango, wash it with clean water and wipe it with a paper towel.
  
• Peel off the skin, cut it into very small pieces and keep these aside in a bowl.
  
• Meanwhile soak small lemon-sized seedless tamarind in enough water for few minutes.
  
• After the tamarind becomes soft, extract the juice / pulp and keep the tamarind extract separately in another bowl.
  
• Now finely grate jaggery / gur / kotha bellam, take an equal measure as that of tamarind juice and keep this grated jaggery in a separate bowl
  
• Take freshly brought margosa flowers / neem flowers / vepa puvvu, separate the flowers from the stalk and keep these in a separate bowl.
  
• Now in a separate big bowl grated jaggery first and then mango pieces, tamarind extract, neem flowers, little dry red chilli powder and little salt.
  
• Mix all these ingredients well and that's it Ugaadi Pachchadi is ready. If you want a thin consistency you can add little water to it.
  
• If desired you can make enhancements to this Ugaadi Pachchadi like you can add pieces of banana fruit, dry fruits like cashew nuts, raisins / kishmish and any other such dry fruits as per your taste and liking.