Pora amer kaji: Chattogram's roasted green mango relish made at home

When green mangoes come to market in the hot season, pora amer kaji, a traditional sour dish of Chattogram, is easy to make at home. Jagonews24 published the recipe in its lifestyle section on 23 April 2026. Green mangoes and garlic are roasted over a flame, mixed with fried dried chillies, salt, chilli powder and mustard oil, and loosened with water. The report introduced it as a tangy, spicy summer drink, and suggested serving it with hot rice.

The Jagonews24 recipe uses only everyday kitchen ingredients:

• 2 green (unripe) mangoes
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 dried red chillies
• Salt to taste
• Half a teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon mustard oil
• Drinking water as needed

• Roast the green mangoes and the garlic over a flame.
• Fry the dried chillies. Mix the fried chillies, roasted garlic cloves, salt, chilli powder and mustard oil together well.
• Remove the skin and stone from the roasted mangoes and mash the flesh by hand.
• Add the spice mixture to the mashed mango and mix thoroughly.
• Finally stir in drinking water as needed and serve with hot rice.

The amount of water decides whether the kaji is thick or thin, and the dried chillies and chilli powder can be adjusted to suit how hot you like it.

The mango (Mangifera indica) originated in the north-east of South Asia, in what is now Bangladesh, north-eastern India and Myanmar, and the mango tree is Bangladesh's national tree. South Asian cooks use unripe mangoes in pickles, chutneys and drinks; in North India a drink of raw mango, cumin and other spices is known as aam panna. The sourness of green mango comes from the citric, malic and oxalic acids it contains.

In Bangladesh roasted green mango is also made into a sweet sherbet. A roasted mango sherbet recipe published by Channel i Online mashes the roasted flesh in water, strains it, and adds tamarind water, sugar, ground coriander leaves and green chilli, cumin powder and mint. Pora amer kaji is different: it has no sugar, and its bite comes from garlic, dried chillies and mustard oil.

Citing a study of when mangoes ripen across the country, Prothom Alo reported in April 2023 that mangoes ripen first in Chattogram, Cox's Bazar and the Chittagong Hill Tracts, between the first and last weeks of May. In the weeks before that, through April, green mangoes are the main ingredient for sours and sherbets like these.

Photo: Niriho khoka / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Channel i Online, Prothom Alo, Wikipedia