Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa. It's probably my favorite salad. Normally we'd only use green mangoes, but this time, though, we decided to add ripe mangoes to the mix as well. The result was a slightly sour salad with a dash of refreshingly sweet and juicy mangoes. It's a perfect side dish for many things, including creamy tuna pasta. But my ultimate favorite is when it is served with crispy fried milk fish and rice. 

Mango Salsa

1 unripe green mango, diced

1 ripe mango, cubed

1 small red onion, diced

1 tomato, diced

1 tablespoon sugar

salt, to taste

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Allow it to sit in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Green Mango Smoothies

It's summer time again! Or at least it is in South East Asia, where there's only 2 seasons and 2 types of weather: rainy and sunny. Anyway, summertime always signaled the start of mango season. Mango is the ultimate summer fruit, and it's also the ingredient of my favorite summer cooler: Mango smoothie.

Now, there's several ways to go about it. You can use ripe mangoes, but I've always found that unripe green mangoes resulted in a far more refreshing drink. Maybe it's got something to do with it being sour. Anyway, I've got two versions of the Green Mango Smoothie. One is our regular smoothie and the other was an unexpected discovery.

Green Mango Smoothie (regular)

Ice (usually one ice tray)

Green Mangoes (2-3 mangoes are ideal, but 1 will also do)

1 cup water plus more if needed

Sugar to taste

Peel the green mangoes and cut it up into smaller pieces. Place ice in the blender. Pulse until the ice looks like shaved ice. Add the green mangoes and pulse until pureed. Add the water and the sugar. I usually add 2-3 tablespoons of sugar, depending on how sour the mangoes are. Pulse again until everything has a smoothie texture. Pour into glasses and serve.

The second recipe was discovered purely by accident. My mom had made green mango salsa a week ago. Green mango salsa is basically a mixture of diced green mangoes, onions and tomatoes with a little salt. Unfortunately my mom's green mango back then was really really sour. We could take a bit of it without making the funny sour face. When I told my mom that I'd like to try making green mango smoothies one day, she suddenly had the idea of turning our inedible sour salsa into a smoothie. Yes, we gave her our best reluctant look, but as it turned out, with a little sugar, it tasted quite fine. So, here's our recipe for it:

Green Mango Salsa Smoothie

Ice (one tray)

Green Mangoes (2-3 mangoes are ideal)

1 tomato, chopped

1 small red onion, chopped

1 cup water plus more

Sugar to taste

Peel and slice the green mangoes into small pieces. In a blender, add the ice and pulse until it becomes shaved ice. Add the green mangoes, tomato and onion. Blend until pureed. Add water (add more if needed) and the sugar (again, 2-3 tablespoons, depending on taste). Blend until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve.

My best tip for making green mango smoothies is to taste and taste again until you think it tastes great. Also, I understand some people prefer smoothies where you can still feel the bits and pieces of mangoes. Remember, it's all up to you how smooth you want it. Finally, you can use simple syrup instead of sugar, if you want. Enjoy!

Mangoes

Mangoes!!!! I love mangoes! I know there's many different types of mangoes, but my favorite by far are Philippine mangoes. So sweet and juicy. They usually come out during the summer months in the Philippines (meaning April, May and June). This year, though, the mangoes seem to have decided to make an early appearance. 

In the Philippines, there two commonly sold mangoes in the market: ripe mangoes and unripe mangoes. The third type sold in the market are called Indian mangoes and are generally eaten the same way an unripe Philippines mango is eaten. The biggest difference between these two mangoes is that Indian mangoes are smaller and can 

Ripe mango. Notice how beautifully yellow it is.

To eat the ripe Philippine mango, one need only to slice it correctly and scoop the flesh of the fruit out. Sounds easy? It certainly is! To find out where to slice, lay the fruit on a flat surface, like a table or a counter top. Your knife must be parallel to the side on which the mango lies. This means that your knife will be parallel to the flat side of the seed of the mango. Start with a small incision at the top of the mango, near where the mango would have been attached to a branch. Then gently slice down the mango. Don't worry and let the seed of the mango will be your guide. Repeat this step on the other side of the seed. You'll end up with something that looks like this: (The one of the left is the fleshy side and the one on the right is the seed)

Fleshy portion

Seed portion

Now, sometimes people want their mangoes to come in cubes, so they will make lengthwise and crosswise cuts on the fleshy portion of the mango. This way, you can simply invert the skin of the mango and little mango cubes will pop out. What about the mango seed? What should you do with it? Personally, I love sucking the flesh out of it. 

Unripe mango

Now, onto the unripe mango. The first step to eating it, is peeling it. Use a small paring knife or a vegetable peeler. Then, cut it the same way you would a ripe mango, so that you separate the fleshy from the seed. At this point, you can either cut the flesh into sticks, like crudites or dice it up for mango salsa. The important thing to remember about unripe mangoes is that they are very sour. So, if you plan on eating them like crudites, pair them some Filipino shrimp paste or bagoong. The saltiness of the bagoong will balance out the extreme tang of the mango. If bagoong is not for you (oh no!), you can pair your mangoes with an equal mixture of salt and sugar. Enjoy your mangoes!

Mango Salsa

1 unripe mango, peeled and diced

1 small red onion, diced

1 tomato, diced

1 teaspoon sugar (if needed)

salt to taste

In a bowl, mix the mango, onion and the tomato. If the mango is too sour, add the sugarSeason to taste and serve cold.