Savouring the Natural Taste of Ripe Mangos
15 October 2007
When I prepare mangos for dessert I often go for their natural taste, without any additions. I absolutely love this taste and I think it does not need anything else to it - it is sweet enough to do without additional sugar and characteristic enough not to need any vanilla, lemon or any other of the seasoning I usually like giving my desserts. Very handy, as this makes preparation time very short: I just purée the mangos in a blender and serve the pulp on top of some creamy lime yoghurt (also a quick fix), without mixing the two.
However the natural way really only works if the mangos are very ripe and have developed their optimal flavour, otherwise the purée will just be bland. Ideally the fruits should be already extremely soft and the flesh should be kind of pulpy even before blending. Peeling and cutting the stones out will be a bit of a mess, but the taste is all the better!
Mango Purée on Creamy Lime Yoghurt
| serves 4 |
| 2 very ripe mangos |
| 2 limes (or lemons) |
| 400g yoghurt |
| 400g curd cheese (Quark) |
| 50-80g icing sugar |
| 2 packages of vanilla sugar |
| 1/2-1 bottle cap of rum |
Peel the mangos with a peeler and cut off the flesh bit by bit to remove the stones. Then purée the flesh in a blender until you get a smooth pulp. Avoid preparing this too long in advance; if you keep it in the fridge for more than a few hours the mangos will turn to a pale brown colour which does not really look very appetising!
Mix the yoghurt, the curd cheese and the vanilla sugar with the juice of the limes. By the way, replacing the latter with lemons also gives a fine taste, or you can also decide to take one of each. Season to your desired level of sweetness with the icing sugar (disperse it through a fine sieve so it does not build any lumps), and finally a few drops of rum (just about 1/2-1 bottle cap).
To serve fill the yoghurt into glasses, bowls or spread it on plates and arrange some of the mango pulp on top, but do not mix the two.
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