Delicious Mango Recipes and Ideas

When I was in my 20s lots of new-to-the-UK ingredients were appearing; avocado, aubergine, chillies and so on. Exciting times!

 One day, after an interesting shop, I said to my Mum ...

“Have you ever had a mango”

To which she replied ...

“No, Suzy, all my men stayed”

I miss my Mummy.

I recently had occasion to fiddle with a mango as part of an article I am writing for Men’s Health Magazine (the article comes out in the Jan/Feb edition, therefore in December, and is about Christmas leftovers).  

This put me in mind of times gone by when, living and cheffing on the beautiful little island of Tortola in the Caribbean; mangoes grew all over the place so were frequently on my menu.

Simple Ideas for Mangoes

Here are some of the things I did with this luscious fruit …

~   Added mango to seafood and chicken salads.
~   Chargrilled slices of fresh mango and served them together with my Seafood Mixed Grill.
~   Added to fruit salads – the best kind of fruit salad in which to incorporate mango is one of tropical fruits tossed with freshly squeezed lime juice and a little Chilli Syrup (the syrup recipe is here).
~   Added diced mango to breakfast cereals and to yogurt.
~   Tossed with sugar and lime juice (and sometimes chilli syrup) to top Pavlova.
~   Shredded under ripe mango into coleslaw.
~   My friend Roberta used to make a wicked Mango Jam. 

Mango Recipes

Mango Vinaigrette

75ml of fresh mango purée
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
60ml olive oil
60ml cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

~   Whisk together the first 5 ingredients and season to taste.  If too thick dilute with a little warm water.  

24 more ideas and recipes for vinaigrettes here. 

Spicy Mango Salsa 

2 tablespoons fresh mango
2 tablespoons red onion or spring onion
2 tablespoons red pepper
1 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
1 teaspoon minced fresh chilli
juice of one lime
salt to taste

~   Finely dice everything but the coriander, chilli, lime juice and salt.
~   Mix all together but the salt then taste and add salt till it tastes right.
~   Chill till needed.

I often served this with seared fresh tuna.

Sweet and Spicy Mango Dip

175g fresh mango – coarsely chopped
80ml thick coconut milk (tip)
juice of half a lime
2 or so teaspoons honey
a drip or two of Caribbean hot sauce
salt

~   Purée together the first three ingredients.
~   Add honey, hot sauce and salt till it tastes delicious.
~   Chill till needed.

Simple Sweet Potato & Mango Curry – serves 4 as a side dish

½ tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp mild curry paste
1 medium sweet potato – peeled and diced
1 firm mango – peeled and diced to the same size and the sweet potato

~   Cook the curry paste in the oil over medium heat for 3 minutes.
~   Add the sweet potato, stir to coat with the paste and fry stirring frequently for 15 minutes till almost tender.
~   Add the mango and continue cooking and stirring till all is tender.  If anything is sticking add a splash of hot water.

Mango Daiquiri for 2

½ a ripe mango, peeled and diced

juice of 1 lime
60ml golden rum
crushed ice
maybe a teaspoon of the chilli syrup mentioned above!

~   Fill two tall glasses with crushed ice.
~   Purée together all the rest of the ingredients and pour over the ice.

Mango-Lime Ice Cream – serves 4-6

The fruit flavour in this is so fresh and sparkling that the ice cream tastes almost fizzy!

2 large ripe mangoes – peeled and coarsely chopped
2 washed and dried limes
100g sugar
500ml double cream
200g condensed milk

~   Finely grate the zest (just the green skin, none of the white pith underneath) of the limes and set aside.
~   Squeeze the juice into a small pan and stir in the sugar.
~   Bring to a boil stirring till the sugar has dissolved then simmer together for 3 or 4 minutes.
~   Add the reserved zest to the simmering lime juice and cook another minute or so.
~   Add the chopped mango, return to a simmer and cook until you have a bit of a syrupy situation going on – about 3 minutes
~   Mash or purée as you prefer – for a chunky or smooth ice.
~   Cool completely.
~   Whisk the cream till thick.
~   Fold in the condensed milk and then the mango sauce.
~   Freeze.

This recipe is made using my Genius Ice Cream method which I developed whilst working in Tortola. It was difficult to get good ready-made ice cream there and ditto for ice cream machines. Naturally, however, in all that delicious hot sunshine iced desserts were much in demand and I managed, indeed more than managed to come up with the goods without using an ice cream machine. I wasn’t messing with ice and salt either!  Read more about this genius no-churn ice cream method here.

See here for how to prepare a mango.

In Other News …

We saw this very informative sign whilst walking on the stunning North Cornwall Coastal Path the other day – I'm sharing as I thought it might be useful to others.

Seafood Chowder & Pepper "Wine"

~   Menu   ~

Seafood Chowder without ...

Hot and Potent Pepper Wine!

Croutons

A glass of Sauvignon Blanc

You know when you have a little this or that leftover and it's 'not worth keeping'?  Well it is, so there!

I keep several collecting boxes in my freezer; bread scraps, meat scraps and fish scraps, for instance.  This last collection came delightfully into play today when I made myself some Seafood Chowder. 

This was a good idea I had when I was cooking at the Tamarind Club in Tortola.  In theory it was a cunning plan to use up all the fishy scraps we had left over after preparing whole fish for other dishes.  Sadly it became so popular, especially after I had My Other Good Idea, that we were making gallons of the stuff two or three times a day. 

Seafood Chowder

Useful Pinterest friendly
image ~ give it a go!

2 medium onions - coarsely chopped

2 carrots - coarsely chopped

2 celery stalks - coarsely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil.

3 medium potatoes - peeled and thinly sliced

fish stock or water

a collection of fish scraps

~   Gently sweat the onion, carrot and celery in the oil till softening and just starting to colour.

~   Add the potatoes and add just enough water or stock to cover. 

~   Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and cook till the potatoes are tender.

~   Whilst this is cooking prepare your fishy scraps.  As I say this was originally a use up recipe and we had, to my mind, three categories of fish to use up: 1) raw fish, 2) raw shellfish, 3) cooked fish and shellfish.  So, whatever you have of these categories, cut into similar sized pieces but keep separately in their groups. 

~   When the potato is tender mash with a potato masher (grumpy or not!) so that they are almost smooth but a little chunkiness remains.

~   Taste and season and add milk or cream or a mixture to make a rich thick soup.

~   Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and add the raw fish scraps.

~   Return to only just boiling, add the raw shellfish, return to only just boiling one more time and  add cooked fish and shellfish. 

~   Immediately turn off heat and allow the chowder to sit a few minutes to allow the last addition to heat through. 

~   If using later REHEAT GENTLY.

This is such a brilliant method for making soup that I have written an entire soup cookbook, containing 60+ delicious soup recipes based on one easy flexible key recipe together with instructions for stock making, guidance on adding herbs, spices and other flavourings plus additional recipes for roasted garlic, pepper coulis, frazzled leeks, compound butters and other garnishes and accoutrements.

My Other Good Idea was to serve the chowder with a pretty glass bottle of “Pepper Wine” for drizzling purposes.  In this case, as is often the way in the Caribbean, pepper means chilli and wine means rum.  A little really contrasts with and enhances the creaminess of the soup.

Caribbean Pepper "Wine"

Just bung some dried chillies or even pepper flakes in a bottle of rum and wait a few weeks.  After this went on the menu there was no going back!

Soup Fritters!

This chowder featured in possibly the most bizarre thing I have ever cooked – soup fritters.  We had a very on/off function pending and, eventually, it was off,  Then suddenly one Sunday afternoon, half way through a busy brunch, I was told it was on again.  Eighty people were due in a couple of hours hoping for up-market nibbly bits.  I would have liked to panic but didn’t have the time. 

Save to Pinterest so you don't forget!

What I did do was make fish cakes out of the remains of the seafood chowder.  I can’t remember how but if I had to do it today this is what I would do.  

Strain the chowder, reserving all lumps, and bring the juices to a boil.  Thicken quite substantially with a beurre manie (flour and butter munged together) and whisked in.  Cook a few minutes and cool a while.  Mix in reserved fish etc. and enough breadcrumbs to make a malleable consistency.  Taste and flavour up – lime zest and hot sauce spring to mind.  Spread onto a cooled shallow dish and chill to firm.  Roll into balls, flatten, coat in breadcrumbs (panko are great) and shallow fry to crisp and golden.   They were such a success people asked for the recipe but I was too embarrassed to tell them.

What's the Worst Thing you've ever Eaten?

The other day my friend Debbie asked me …

“What’s the worst thing you have ever cooked?” 

To which I said ...

“Moi!  Cook a bad thing!” 

She hastily amended her question to …

“What’s the worst thing you've ever eaten?” 

I think the worst thing I have ever eaten is:

Stinky Toe aka Pig Turd! 

This is the seed pod of the West Indian Locust tree and, the hard outer shell (the shape of a big toe so they say, apparently a really big big toe!) encloses a hairy, dry, grayish-yellow powder which smells strongly of sweaty feet.  Why, you may ask, did I eat one?  Well the girls in the kitchen dared me into it:

“C’mon, you’re interested in food, why won’t you try it?  We try white people food.”  

It is said that the stinky toe smells unbearable but tastes delicious.  I disagree, it is sweet-ish but has an unpleasant sulphurous taste and the texture is nothing like food.

I can think of nothing to do with leftover stinky toe although I have seen a recipe to make a drink from it which I shan’t bother to pass on.  Yuk! 

Fermented Fish in Thailand

The second thing and I don’t think I've actually eaten it, just chewed on the smell, is Pla Ra which is a type of fermented fish, often something called mud fish, popular in Thailand.   
Probably if I’d had some it would be No. 1 on my list.  The smell was enough for me; it absolutely stinks although some people must like it.  

I was back packing with a husband I used to have and once when we were on a train travelling to Northern Thailand some vendors came through the carriage with great baskets of fermented fish for sale.  Rory (I’ll call him that as it’s his name) lamented that we hadn’t got enough money to buy the lot – he wanted to throw it out the window!  I cannot find a picture that does it justice.

Camel Steak

I was served a thick slice of camel meat in 1971 in Tunisia.  The meat was dry and stringy and chewy and didn't have much flavour but, for all I know, it might have just been badly cooked.  What I mainly objected to was the huge vein in the middle of the meat, about ½” across and through which I could clearly see the plate.  Most off putting and in any case who’d want to eat a fine looking chap like this?

So come on – what is the worst thing you have ever eaten?  Please leave a comment so I that I can be disgusted but please just food, nothing else, not body fluids etc.  Remember this is a food blog and we must be hygienic!

A Trip to St. Thomas

~  Menu  ~

Tuna & Sweet Potato Salad in Chilli Lime Mayo

Amstel Light 

(but I really wanted white wine)

My Real Man likes, in these climes, a tuna sarnie for his lunch but, unfortunately, I recently bought a few cans of The Wrong Type; chunky white albacore, I’m afraid.  I am, therefore, trying to use them up like the good girl I am.

Luckily I had the end of a sweet potato in the fridge plus a few fingerlings so I cooked them a couple of hours before lunch (sweet potatoes cook quicker than normal so I added them after the fingerlings had been simmering a few minutes), drained them and immediately tossed them in some mayonnaise flavoured up with a little hot sauce and some grated lime zest and juice.  It is best to dress potatoes salads when warm as they absorb the flavour and fluff up a bit – a lot of people know that!

I’ll be frank with you – I’d have preferred this salad if it had been just sweet potatoes; the fingerlings didn’t seem to be right in it.  For a finishing crunchy touch I sprinkled over the crumbs in the bottom of a packet of Ritz Toasted Chips which I have just discovered and which I hope are available in the UK.  Let me know if you know!

On Thursday last I went to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a girly day out with my friends.  We went to a fabulous place at Havensight called The Barefoot Buddha where I drank a delicious Cubano coffee and ate the vast piece of Cinnamon, Pumpkin, and Enormous Chocolate Chip Cake pictured below.

Lovely place including a shop section full of excellent clothes and jewelry.  If you are in St. Thomas give it a go – I recommend it.

Later in the day my friend Mrs. Gweenie (which is not her name but I call her it anyway – just to confuse her) ate a delicious Feta and all sorts of Mediterranean Stuff Pizza and a fruity, nutty salad for lunch at Calico Jack’s in Charlotte Amalie.

St. Thomas is very different from Tortola, much busier, much more American (which I suppose it would be), not such a small Caribbean community type of place.  It’s great and useful (K-Mart etc.) to visit but I’m glad we spend our time in the BVI.  Some of waterfront Charlotte Amalie is pretty, however, and easy to see its Danish history in the narrow lanes and architecture.

Oh, and the ferry ride over's good too. 

Fire Balls, Fungi Music, Moko Jumbies ~ Full Moon Party!

I REALLY DO APOLOGISE FOR MY TARDINESS IN POSTING ~ NO INTERNET IN THE BAY (where our boat is parked) FOR AGES!

~  Menu  ~

Mozzarella stuffed Fungi Cakes

Spicy Tomato Salsa

Glass of Amstel Light

Friday night was full moon and what a beauty it was.  We sat in the pointy end romantically eating our leftover pizza dinner and watching her rise and form a silver path across the sea straight to us.  Great, but …

The bay was heaving with boats, overloaded rubber dinghies full of people whooping Americanly (no offence, Americans, but many of you are a bit on the whoopy side!) criss-crossing in front of us, almost hitting each other.  Long term liveaboards like us scurrying home to their boats, hoping not to get run down.  “It’s gonna be a rough night” they say, scowling (many liveaboards are middle aged).  

Every month Trellis Bay holds a Full Moon Party and it’s pretty good, actually.  Great if you are a visitor with all sorts of interesting delights; limbo dancers, fire jugglers, live music, mocko jumbies * – I do like a nice moko jumbie, me! – and large sculptured metal balls in the sea filled with fire.

The live music can also be both pleasant and interesting especially if a fungi ** band is performing.  Unfortunately for grumpy people such as us the recorded music which fills in between live acts can be, to our old ears, crap (to use a musical term).  That rhythmic beat with indecipherable talking over it, interspersed with the relaxing sound of sirens or, possible, a guy going “Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaah” does nothing for us so after the best bit of the show we batten down the hatches and try to get engrossed in a good book.

Still, mustn’t grumble – it’s a great evening, well worth a visit you happen to be in the area.

Moko Jumbies

* Jumbies are spirits and moko jumbies are human beings dressed up and dancing (brilliantly) on high, high stilts with the purpose of mocking the spirits although I’m not sure why!

Fungi Music

** Nothing to do with mushrooms this is traditional British Virgin Island Music, sort of skiffley, using homemade instruments such as gourds, bottles, washboards etc. and usually telling a story either from folklore or real life; maybe a bit of gossip.  It is apparently a “mix up” of African and European music; the beat of Africa combined with the Waltz, 2-step etc. as overheard by slaves!!  Strange but true.

The music is, apparently, named after the traditional island dish of fungi which also has nothing to do with mushrooms and is also a “mix up”; cornmeal mush with vegetables, usually including okra, mixed into it.  Cornmeal mush (variously called polenta, fungi, milho, etc.) is a staple dish all over the world.  Down island it is called coo-coo which makes B.V. Islanders snigger as this means poo here!  On that unappetizing note here is a recipe for a particularly delicious fungi …

Fungi Recipe

4 spring onions or a small red onion

½ a red or yellow pepper

6-8 pieces of okra

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp vegetable oil

750ml water

125ml milk

170g coarse cornmeal

40g butter

salt and white pepper

~   Coarsely chop the vegetables and sauté in a saucepan in the oil till softening and browning. 
~   Remove and set aside.
~   Use a little of the water to moisten the cornmeal so that it resembled wet sand. 
~   Put the rest of the water and the milk in the pan and bring to a boil.
~   Add the cornmeal, in as much of a slow stream as you can manage with wet sand, to the pan and return to a boil, whisking. The mixture will thicken considerably, but …
~   Turn the heat down and simmer and stir constantly for about 10 minutes till thick and creamy.
~   Taste and season and stir in the cooked vegetables. 
~   Simmer for a few minutes more and serve as a side dish to something tropical – grilled fish or jerk chicken, for instance.

3 Notes on Making Polenta ...

~   I am inclined to use stock instead of water but this isn't traditional.
~   If you just want to make polenta leave out the vegetables and instead stir in a knob of butter and 30g finely grated Parmesan.
~   The moistening of the cornmeal is handy hint, told to me by a fine cook who worked with me; Cardella.  It stops the cornmeal clumping and makes for a smooth polenta/fungi/coo-coo or whatever.

And so to lunch …

Cold leftover fungi is delicious fried – for lunch I rolled cold fungi into balls and stuffed them with a nugget of mozzarella.  Flattened into cakes, coated in cornmeal and fried to crisp they made a fine lunch together with some spicy tomato salsa and a refreshing glass of beer

See here for lots more ideas for leftover polenta. 

3 Sudden Breakfasts in a Row

Day 1 – Porridge Pancakes

My man likes a wee bit o’porridge for his breakfast and I don’t; I like its taste but not its texture.  It is a hard thing to do but the other day I managed to persuade him to make a double batch of porridge for me to experiment with – I had an idea (2 actually but I’m trying the other one later this afternoon).  What I had in mind was porridge pancakes – good idea as it turned out. 

½ cup/ freshly cooked porridge

1 tbsp flour mixed with ½ tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt

a little milk

~   Mix together the porridge and the dry ingredients.

~   Add enough milk to make a dropping consistency.

~   Dollop into a hot greased (bacon fat?) pan and cook, turning once, till crisp and golden on each side.

~   Serve with honey or maple syrup.

Don’t worry – any inherent goodness in the pancake is utterly offset by the butter, syrup, honey or whatever that you add to it.

Day 2 – Mangoes on Toast

We had a ripe mango laying about the place getting a bit anxious to be eaten so I made myself some toast, buttered it, topped with sliced mango, sprinkled with sugar and grilled till heated through.  With a dollop of cream cheese I found in the fridge this was even more delicious that I had anticipated.  Might do it again.

Day 3 (today) - Bacon Singin’ Hinnies

Why not pin this for later?

Singin’ Hinnies are a kind of pan baked scone like creature from Up North – they usually contain fruit and are often cooked in animal far, usually (oddly enough) lamb fat.  The sound of the fat melting on the griddle made a singing sound.  “Hinnie” is a Northumbrian term of endearment as, apparently, is “fatty”, “poopants” and “you big woofus”.
  

We often have them for breakfast, fruitless and cooked in olive oil, none of that namby pamby healthiness for us today though.  As you may know I have a supply of very nice bacon fat so it suddenly occurred to me to us some of it as the fat in my singin’ hinny dough.

225 g self raising flour OR plain flour and 1 teaspoon Baking Powder

a pinch or two of salt

50 g cold butter or margarine OR BACON FAT!

80 ml milk

~   Stir together the flour and salt and baking powder, if using.

~   Add the fat and “rub in” with your fingers until a breadcrumb texture is achieved. 

~   Add the milk and mix in, by hand is easiest, till you have a soft dough. 

~   Add a little more milk if too dry or a little more flour if too wet – you need a soft but not sticky dough. 

~   Lightly knead just a few times to bring the dough together.

~   Roll out to about 1 cm thick and cut into rounds or wedges (traditional hinny shape) or anything else you fancy.

~   Grease a frying pan which has a lid and heat on the stove. 

~   Lay the hinnies in the pan, turn down the heat and put on the lid.

~   Cook for a few minutes till the dough has risen and the bottom of the hinnies is golden.

~   Turn and cook without the lid (thus avoiding condensation dripping onto the hinnies and making them soggy) till cooked and golden on both sides.

~   Eat warm, split and buttered with whatever you fancy.

I took the liberty when making my Bacon Hinnies, of frying up one rasher of bacon till really crisp and crumbling it into the dough for lovely salty crunchy bits.

Genius Scone Recipe

Variations of this recipe can be used to make a surprising variety of things from traditional scones to cobblers, slumps, dumplings and doughnuts so I have written a book about it; The Secret Life of Scones.

Eating breakfast in our cockpit is a lovely way to start the day.  We watch the pelicans diving in their ungainly manner, our neighbour the turtle doing his thing and there are a couple of puffer fish who have lived under the boat for years.  I think they are married and, so far as we can tell they are still happy together – always kissing. 

For the past few days there have been some people camping in Hobie Cats (small catamarans) on the beach and sailing about the bay with their pretty sails up.

Hobie Cats

Non-Hobie Cat