I want amba sauce.

February 18, 2007 4:46 PM

I am craving a recipe for amba sauce.

I have been getting into making food from the Middle East. Saveur magazine recently had a little blurb on amba sauce and, considering my love of tangy-sweet and fenugreek, I think I would love it. I looked for it on the source it mentioned but couldn't find it and I hesitate to buy it as I have run into references that say the jarred stuff can be too salty. I looked for a recipe online but no go. Anybody know how to make it? Going to a grocery store is out of the question as I live in the boondocks. Any recommendations for a cookbook are welcome as well.

posted by Foam Pants to food & drink (5 comments total)

Here's a recipe for methamba, which is (according to the blogger) amba (mango) + methi (fenugreek).
posted by katemonster at 4:58 PM on February 18, 2007

In Israel, Amba is kind of mango chutney
posted by growabrain at 5:52 PM on February 18, 2007

I think that amba is begun with a pickled mango. I have never even had pickled mango before so I have no idea what it tastes like. Do you think I could use the pickled mango in place of the fresh in the methamba recipe? This is an Israeli sauce.
posted by Foam Pants at 8:07 PM on February 18, 2007

While I am no expert, I agree with growabrain that amba is a kind of mango chutney.

Compared to Indian mango chutney, amba has larger pieces of mango. The ingredients include mangoes, vinegar, salt, mustard, turmeric, and chili but amba uses more vinegar and no oil.

If you search for mango chutney you can find several recipes that will probably get you pretty close to where you want to be:

• Mango Chutney results from Cooks.com
• Mango Chutney from Food Network
• Mango Chutney from FatFree
• Mango Chutney from DeliaOnline
• Mango Chutney from BBC Food
• Mango Chutney video tutorial on VideoJug

While searching for amba, I found a falafel recipe and a Meurav Yerushalmi (Mixed meat, Jerusalem style) recipe that mention the sauce but, unfortunately, no recipe.

The above chutney recipes should give you an idea of the main ingredients. Try a few of them and then modify the recipe to suit your tastes.
posted by stringbean at 10:10 PM on February 19, 2007

Someone who knows Hebrew could perhaps translate the recipes in this page and here and here and here.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:16 PM on February 20, 2007