I never realized when I planted my mango tree in 2003, how much joy I would receive from this tree. Over the years I have tried a variety of different recipes and came up with a few favorites.
Why a mango tree? Not really sure but I already had experimented with an orange tree, a grapefruit tree, several key lime trees, and bananas, so I thought let us try something different. I went to South Florida’s Rare Fruit Council’s plant sale in search of a tree that required little care and wasn’t huge. I found a dwarf mango that was native to India but grew well in South Florida. While it might have been dwarf, it still reached heights of 15 feet and required a ladder or a really long tree pruner to reach some of the mangos. The mango tree has survived several hurricanes although the last one put the tree on its side. Despite its hardships, it has produced mangos every year.
I never had mangoes growing up, so I had no idea what to expect. I learned how to hedgehog mangoes and other creative ways to get the flesh away from the skin especially when they were green. Roger became an expert on when to pick them as they ripen and before the critters got to them.
Every year I looked forward to trying out the new mango recipes I had found throughout the year. I quickly discovered that mango recipes were very limited, mostly to chutney or salsas. I was looking for something more. After extensive searching, I came across Allen Susser’s book The Great Mango Book along with his website.
Some of the recipes like the green mango drink, where utterly despicable, just yuck. I created my very own mango blast, and some of my favorites turned out to be green mango chutney, country mango tarts, mango ketchup, scallop mango ceviche and of course the mango daiquiri.
This year I am experimenting with some new muffin recipes and finally trying out some jam recipes. Can’t wait to taste the results!
C&R's Kitchen 