Posts tagged mango
Mango-Tango – Mango pudding with coconut milk and raspberries
Jun 3rd
Mango-Tango – Pudding de mangues au lait de coco et fraises
Here is a refreshing pudding for the summer, filled with fruits and exotic flavors. My lovely neighbor Rui gave me this mango pudding a couple of months ago and I fell in love with it. This is an Asian dessert, served in many Chinese or Indonesian restaurants. It’s usually topped with condensed milk. Of course, there are many recipes, some of them use condensed milk, some others coconut milk, some add mango pieces inside the pudding…so there are a lot of variations to this dessert. The last time I had one of those mango puddings was at a Chinese restaurant, and it was topped with condensed milk. What a delight!
This pudding is creamy in the inside, so if you like it more gelatinous and hard, add more agar-agar (or gelatin). Instead of condensed milk I poured coconut milk that I sweetened with a tiny touch of sugar. So for those who like coconut, please try it, it’s such a wonderful combination. I ran into so many people who don’t like coconut lately, how is that possible? I thought coconut was like chocolate, one of those things that is universally loved. I was wrong.
If you want to make this dessert vegan, instead of condensed milk, use coconut milk and agar agar instead of gelatin, it will work perfectly fine.
I am due for my bi-yearly trip to France visiting my parents. I will try to post something before I leave on June 8, if not then I will post new recipes while I am there. I am so excited to get all the new summer fruits, and hopefully get lots of fruity recipes.
Ingredients for 6-7
- 2 large and well ripe mangoes, peeled and cut in pieces
- 1 2/3 cups evaporated milk
- 3 packs of gelatin powder (or the equivalent of agar agar) dissolved in water
- 1/3 cups agave nectar
- 1 cup coconut milk (for topping) + sugar to taste
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
Preparation
Puree mangoes with a condensed blender and place in a large container. Mix condensed milk with agave nectar, and heat it up but do not boil. Dissolve gelatin powder in 4 tbs warm water. Add gelatin to the milk mixture. Mix well. Pour milk into the mango recipient. Mix well. If you want to add fresh mango pieces, add them at this stage.
Divide the mango mixture to small glass containers. Place in the refrigerator overnight.
Un-mold pudding in plates, pour some sweetened coconut milk on top, and decorate with fresh raspberries.
Pudding or not pudding? – Mini mango, coconut and brioche pudding with caramel
Mar 16th
Pudding or not pudding? – Mini pudding à la mangue, noix de coco et brioche au caramel
I am not sure this can be called pudding, but a friend of mine came for dinner some time ago and I served her this as a dessert, and she said with enthusiasm “Oh Silvia! j’adore ton pudding!!”, so I figured she must knew what she was talking about and decided to call this a pudding. Is it a pudding, technically speaking? I don’t know.
I am not really a sweet tooth (I’m sure you are doubting this statement due to the quantities of desserts I made lately) but I do enjoy fruit based desserts like this one…and do take great pleasure to make them maybe even a little bit more so than eating them. The great thing is that I have the sweetest, kindest, and most adorable neighbors anyone can dream of, who happen to have a passion for desserts and sweets, so that is the perfect world. I bake, they eat. Everyone is happy. Actually I haven’t baked too often recently, but I promised them I will. I am always delighted to please anyone and more so someone I really appreciate, like my neighbors.
Those are small bites, so you can serve about two or three each, they’re light and always a pleasure to have a after a heavy meal. I think no matter how heavy a meal is, something sweet needs to be served, even if it’s fruit. We have a saying in French” Il faut toujours laisser une petite place pour le dessert” (you always need to leave a small space for dessert) but I know, the size of the space depends on the sweetness of your tooth!
I had a lot of mangoes and a whole coconut that needed to be used, but this dessert works with other fruits as well, like pineapple, peaches, and pears too! Any fruit can be combined to coconut which to me is like a magic ingredient. If you don’t have a whole fresh coconut, the dried one works fine. I also made brioche again, so instead of just eating it for breakfast, I used it in the pudding. Try a pudding with brioche instead of the bread, the texture is softer, and I just love the idea that I am biting in a slice of brioche instead of bread. Muffin silicon molds would be perfect for those bites
So if you don’t live on the Islands like me, but feel like taking a trip there, you can start with this dessert, the coconut and mango will definitely give you that feeling.
Ingredients for 6 mini puddings
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbs sugar
- 7 tbs coconut milk
- 2 oz milk
- 3 tbs shredded coconut(fresh or dried)
- 1 tbs rum
- 3 slices brioche
- 1/2 mango, peeled and cut in small slices
- 5.20 oz (or 150 g) sugar for the caramel
Preparation
In a mixing container, mix eggs, sugar, coconut milk, milk, shredded coconut (or coconut flakes), rum.
Cut brioche slices in rings about 1 cm thick and the size of your mold.
Start making caramel. Let sugar melt in a pan at medium heat and let it brown to desired color (do not burn, the caramel will be dark and bitter).
Divide the caramel in the molds, add mango slices, then brioche and pour egg mixture. Fill to the top of the mold.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F until the top of the brioche is golden brown (about 20 minutes)
Remove from the oven, let them cool. Flip puddings over (with the mango slices on top) and serve at room temperature with vanilla or caramel ice cream.
Monday crisy crisp – Warm mango, banana and pineapple crisp with mascarpone cream
Feb 8th
Le petit croustillant du lundi – Croustillant chaud de mangue, banane et ananas, crème au mascarpone
I adore filo dough but never use it. Do you believe it? I can drool over appetizers and desserts made with filo dough but when it’s time to buy it, I always forget or buy something else. So people would say, then you just don’t adore it. It’s like saying I adore this friend but I never call her, then you don’t love her that much. In French we use the word adore quite often and is not as strong as its equivalent in English. It’s used as Americans would use “I love”. J’adore la nutella!!
It’s a shame not to use filo dough more often because it’s lighter than its cousin “Puff Pastry”. It has a very delicate crispy texture, and makes beautiful sweet and savory dishes. One sheet has 30 calories and I used about one sheet per crisp if you want to keep completely light, you can just omit the mascarpone cream, but I would not recommend it, it completes the crisp to perfection.
The particularity of this filo dough is that it’s wholewheat, so basically, you’ll get a light dessert, extremely tasty, warm and crispy that will satisfy any sweet cravings. My other “secret” ingredient is vanilla powder, which I adore, oui j’adore la poudre de vanille!!!! I almost use it in all my desserts. It’s vanilla bean ground that is perfect to replace the actual vanilla bean.
The combination of mango and banana’s textures complete one another, also pineapple adds a little extra exotic touch to the crisp. You need to select fruits that are not too ripe, or in the sauté process, especially the banana and mangoes will get mushy.
You can serve it warm at room temperature or lukewarm, then you need to serve it immediately or the cream will start melting.
Ingredients for 3 crisps
- 1/4 pineapple, cut in small sliced (1 inch size)
- 1 mango, peeled and cut in small slices (1 inch size)
- 1 banana, sliced
- 3 whole wheat filo dough sheets, cut in 6 squares
- 1 tbs sugar
- 2 tbs mascarpone
- 2.7 fl oz (or 80 ml) heavy cream
- vanilla powder
- 1 tsp powder sugar
- 1 tsp butter + 1 tsp melted for the filo dough
Preparation
Cut all the fruits, add sugar and saute in butter for about 5-7 minutes. remove from the pan.
Using a brush, apply melted butter in one filo dough sheet, then cut dough in 6 identical squares.
Place the 6 squares in a ramequin or small muffin trays (then insted of 3 crisp, you’ll make 6 due to the smaller size of the muffin trays). Divide fruits in each ramequin and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 15-20 minutes or until the filo dough is golden brown.
remove from the oven and let it cool.
Whip heavy cream and add powder sugar at the end, add mascarpone and keep beating a little more. Add vanilla bean powder.
Serve each crisp with one tsp of mascarpone cream on top.
One spoon for me and two for you – Scallops with mango and blood orange vinaigrette
Feb 6th
Une cuillère pour moi, et deux pour toi – Cuillères de St Jacques à la vinaigrette de mangue et orange sanguine
I bought so many different kinds of those cuillères (spoons) while in France, which was not really a necessity since they are also available in the US, but my mom shoved them in my suitcase because she said her house is filled with stuff I buy and then I leave at her house, so the closet in my bedroom is filled with kitchen utensils and all kinds of gadgets that I have been accumulated over the years. I am a real pack rat. I still have my own bedroom with clothes and a few teddy bears since my parents still live in the house where I was born and raised (well I was born at the maternity to be clear not in the house), so I guess the “pack-ratting” activity is inevitable.
Today I finally decided to use those cuillères. In France, apéro à la cuillère (spoon apéritifs) is quite in fashion and most home cooks and restaurants use them as their favorite ways to serve hors d’oeuvres. Besides I think they’re really elegant on a table, and easy to prepare. They’re seriously ready in a blink of an eye.
Enough of savory muffins, quiches, etc… and all those heavy appetizers that make you feel already stuffed before dinner. Those are so quick to make, that it’s not even funny…and incredibly delicious, fresh, zesty and so light. I think you know by now that light is a key word for me, as long as a dish is light and flavorful, send it my way.
I bought some mangoes because my new little parrotlet Lilou loves mango, I am trying to discover what fruits and vegetables he likes, and it seems like mangoes, carrots and kale are on the list (wondering if it has to do with the color), so I bought a lot of mangoes, as if he will eat two pounds of mango in a few days. I guess I will have to help him out, and more mango recipes are coming shortly.
I am not really a huge fan of mixing sweet and salty flavors together, it’s not too common in French or Italian cuisine and it took me a while to combine them together. Some fruits are used like orange, apples, plums, etc…in game meat but it’s not too common. The mixture of scallops and mangoes has been something I have been thinking about for a while. I made grilled halibut with mango and red bell pepper salsa that I really enjoyed, so I thought sea scallops would work as well, but I didn’t want to bury the natural scallop’s sweet flavor and add too many ingredients like red bell pepper, red onion, etc…
You can either grill the scallops or sauté them in a pan with a little butter and If you don’t have those spoons, no worries, you can serve two or three scallops in a small plate. Et voilà, aucun problème!
Ingredients for about 10 spoons
- 10 medium sized scallops (they need to fit in the spoon)
- 1 mango, not too ripe (2/3 diced in small cubes, 1/3 grated)
- 1 blood orange, half peeled in quarters and cubed, the other half juiced
- 1 tsp chives, chopped
- cayenne pepper
- 1.5 tbs olive oil
- 2 tsp orange champagne vinegar (or raspberry vinegar)
- salt and pepper
Preparation
First peel mango, cut 2/3 of the mango in small cubes 1/3 inch thick. Place in a bowl.
Peel orange, separate the quarters and remove the membrane. Cut a few quarters in small pieces and add to the mango.
In another bowl, grate the rest of the mango, add olive oil, vinegar, juice of 1/2 blood orange, orange pieces, cayenne, salt and pepper.
Grill or saute scallops in a pan until browned on both sides.
Place a few mango dices and orange pieces in each spoon, add a litte vinaigrette. Add scallops on top, and spoon additional vinaigrette on top.
As pretty as pearls – Coconut tapioca cream with mango compote
Dec 15th
Aussi jolies que des perles – Crème de tapioca à la noix de coco et compote de mangues
I was reading a French Elle magazine, I like Elle because they always have a great food/recipe section at the end called “Elle à Table” with fresh and modern recipes and tons of flavors. I got stuck on a tapioca cream recipe picture with a raspberry coulis. It looked so beautiful that I felt like eating the paper. I got inspired by Elle’s recipe for this one, eventhough I did not use the same ingredients or quantities, they somehow gave me the idea to mix fruits and tapioca. It’s a fresh and light dessert, perfect as a little treat after a heavy dinner, because as we say in French, “il faut toujours laisser une petite place pour le dessert” (you always need to leave a little space for dessert) not matter how heavy your meal was. I am not really too much into desserts, but I love fruit based desserts like this one, with a little exotic touch you get with the coconut.
In France, we use tapioca in soups, it’s not very common to see it in sweet dishes but it works perfectly well with coconut in sweet desserts. You can use raspberries instead of mango, they both tastes equally delicious.
I finally bought a car, it’s funny how a car can give you this feeling of freedom, I realized that when I no longer had one. So finally I can go shopping at my favorite grocery stores not accessible to public transportation. In Paris, public transportation is great and you don’t need a car, but even though San Francisco has a decent public transportation, a car is somehow not a luxury if you work in some parts of town.
Ingredients for 2 verrines
- 2.82 oz (or 80 g) tapioca
- 7.4 fl oz (or 220 ml) coconut milk
- 1.7 fl oz (or 50 ml) milk
- 3 tbs heavy cream
- 2.82 oz (or 80 g) sugar
- 1 mango
- zest and juice of one lemon
Preparation
Peel mango. Keep 4 slices aside for decoration, and cut the rest in cubes, add 1 tbs sugar and lemon juice and cook for about 7 minutes until it becomes a compote. Set aside
Cook tapioca in boiling water for about 5 minutes, to remove all the extra starch, then drain.
Heat milk, coconut milk and cream, add sugar, then add tapioca pearls, let it cook until tapioca becomes transparent.
Add some lemon zest, keep some for decoration.
Place mango compote in a glass and top with cream of tapioca, let it cool and place in the refrigerator. Decorate with mango slices, and extra lemon zests.
A little snow and sun in a glass – Yogurt mousse with mango vanilla compote
Jun 4th
Un peu de neige et de soleil dans un verre – Mousse de yaourt à la compote de mangue et vanille
Did it ever happen to you to really want a dessert but just something light, refreshing and fruity? no chocolate, no cake, no cream, just a light dessert? Well today that’s what I really wanted. I had two beautiful mangos that I would have preferred to eat fresh, sliced and not cook it, but I needed a nice fleshy and sweet fruit for my mousse, so I killed those two mangos with a lot of regrets. They were so sweet that I did not add any sugar.
I love fruit based dessert and this one is a winner. If you are trying to watch your weight, but still have a little craving for something sweet, this is perfect for you. It has very low calories, I used the non fat Greek yogurt “Page”, you could use the 2% fat also.
Ingredients for 4 verrines (glass cups)
- 1/2 lb Greek-style yogurt (non fat or regular)
- 2 tbs powder sugar
- 2 egg whites
- 2 tbs almond milk
- 2 gelatin sheet
- 2 ripe mangos
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 vanilla bean
Preparation
Mix yogurt with sugar, beat well. Heat almond milk and soak gelatin sheet in it and add to the yogurt. Mix well. Beat egg whites and add to the yogurt mixture. Place in the refrigerator
Peel the mango and cook at low heat. Cut vanilla bean and scrape beans, add to the mango, add lemon juice. Cook until the mango are cooked and make a jam-like mixture. Let it cool, then add on top of the yogurt mousse. Place in refrigerator overnight or at least for 6 hours to enable the mousse to thicken.
