Mango season in India is the compensation for the hot months, the soggy inconveniences during the monsoon, and much else that might vex us. The varieties are near endless, though one of the best-loved is the Alfonso. Small, sweet, and plump, they smell divine and taste incredible. Prior to coming here, my husband didn’t “get” the love of mangoes, but he has since come around. They truly are one of the most perfect fruits. And in season, they are abundant. When I last asked our driver to buy us some if he saw them at a good price, we ended up with 2 dozen. It just wasn’t possible to eat all the mangoes before they started to turn, so I just peeled and dropped into a big ziploc, mushed around from the outside, and picked out the pits, making up a big bag of mango puree which I froze. My husband defrosted it to use some in a milkshake, and I knew I wanted to make some sort of dessert. But we’ll get to that in the next post. For right now, let me revisit some previous mango wins.
Now, I’d already had a couple of successful forays into mango desserts. The easiest of these, of course, is mango mousse. Basically the pureed mango, unflavored gelatin, fold in whipped cream. Vanilla is optional, as is sugar depending on how sweet the puree was, and powdered ginger can be a nice addition, too. I’ve made a ginger cookie pie crust, baked, added chocolate on top to melt it, and brushed it all over to make a chocolate coating. Once it cooled, I filled it with the mousse and topped it with mango pieces.
My next success, upon having a big batch of mango puree on hand, was mango cream puffs. I did a good amount of reading online, and I ended up relying primarily on this recipe: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/chouquettes-chantilly-cream. I kept to the 1:1:1:1 ratio, basically a cup of liquid (some mix of water and milk), a stick of butter, a cup of flour, and a cup of eggs (for me this is 4, but crack them into your cup as egg sizes vary wildly. You put the butter and liquid over medium heat, add a pinch each of sugar and salt, and let all the butter melt and the liquid come to a gentle boil. Dump in the cup of flour, and stir away for 3-5 minutes, forming a ball of dough which you slap against the side of the pan. Once that’s done, let it cool for a decent amount of time before stirring in the eggs, one at a time. If you’re not overly fancy, transfer to a ziploc baggie, snip the end, and pipe onto parchment. Follow the rest of the baking instructions in the linked recipe for timing, how to poke a hole in the bottoms and let them dry out, etc.
I sliced them in half and spooned in some mango mousse. For a glaze on top, I cooked down some of the mango puree with a squeeze of lemon, some vanilla, and a bit of sugar.
These forays into mango desserts only whet my appetite for more. Stay tuned to read the denoument.