House of Annie

We were at Costco the other day when Annie noticed that there was a large group of people congregating in and around the fruit aisle. They seemed to be especially thick and frantic around one particular fruit. Curious as she always is, she went over to investigate and found what everyone was so excited about:

Mangoes

Apparently, there was a shipment of mangoes that happened to be particularly sweet, and all the folks were busily opening the plastic six-pack containers of mangoes to find the absolute best ones. If there were any mangoes in the pack that didn't look as good as those in another pack, they'd swap them out. (Come on, I know you do it too, just like you do for egg cartons!

Annie snatched up three six-packs and put them in the cart. All the way home she was dreaming of what to do with these luscious, oblong fruit. Of course, we'd be eating them straight off the skins, but she also had something else in mind for these mangoes.

Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa Recipe

2 mangoes, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1/2 of an English cucumber, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch dice
1/2 of a red bell pepper, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1/2 of a red onion, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1 seeded jalapeno pepper, finely minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1/2 a lime
salt and pepper to taste

Mango Dicing Method

The first mango that Annie diced, she did it the standard method, which is to remove the cheeks of the mango, score the insides of the cheeks in a cross-hatch, push the skin inward (thereby making the mango cheek look like a turtle), and then cutting the chunks off the skin. The problem with this method is, you can't get a very uniform dice on the mango. You're cutting horizontally across a curved surface, so you end up with some nice, regular dice but most of the rest of the mango are wedges and triangles.

For the second mango, Annie wanted to try something different. First, she skinned the mango. Then she made thin cuts lengthwise along the mango, all the way to the pit. Then she cut perpendicular to the first cuts, again all the way to the pit. Finally, she cut the mango flesh parallel to the pit so that the mango was now evenly diced.

Here is a video I took of the mango dicing process:

After that, mix the rest of the ingredients together with the mango in a large bowl. Squeeze on the juice of half a lime. Add salt and pepper to adjust the flavors to your liking.

You can serve the mango salsa with a lot of different dishes. That night, we went with grilled chicken thighs and a Spring mix salad with bread and dressed with an olive oil - tapenade dressing.

Aloha, Nate

Related post: Rotisserie Chicken, mango salsa

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