Preparing Mangoes Recipes

PREPARING MANGOES

Steps:

• UNRIPE MANGOES:Sour, unripe green mangoes are integral to Indian cuisine, for pickles, chutneys, and other dishes, but they are not the source of rapture that ripe mangoes are. They are prepared as a vegetable. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin from unripe mangoes, and slice the flesh around the large center seed.RIPE MANGOESTo make a sure mango is ripe, sniff it--it should be highly aromatic and sweet-smelling, with no hint of sourness. Ripe mangoes give to light pressure when held in your hand, much like an avocado. The heavier it is for its size, the juicer the mango.Ripe mangoes are prepared in a number of ways. There are deliciously indelicate ways to eat a mango, but for serving others, one way to prepare a mango is to hold it upright and establish where the "cheeks" are. The cheeks are the fattest sides of the fruit, on both sides of the center seed. Slice off the two cheeks, and serve them with a spoon as you would a papaya. Peel off whatever skin is left on the seed then cut off the fruit around it.For preparing fruit salads, ice creams, and other sweet treats, you can first remove the peel with a peeler or knife, then slice off the fruit around the center seed and cut as needed. Or, slice off the cheeks, cut a cross-hatch pattern in the flesh of each mango cheek (without cutting through to the peel), then push the mango cheek inside out and cut off the fruit.From "1,000 Indian Recipes." Copyright 2002 by Neelam Batra. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.