Saturday, May 9, 2015

How To Peel Mangoes!

...careful they are slippery suckers...


   Are you making the Mango bread from my last post? ...or maybe just eating a Mango straight. Here's how I do it...



First, cut off the stem.



With, what was the stem end facing you, cut along the seed on one side. In the pic, you can see the seed showing through. Slice the other half the same way.




Run your knife around, the seed portion of the Mango, to remove the skin. Very easy to do with ripe Mangoes.


Ooh, the fun part! With your knife, make a few hash mark slices into the Mango halves. Don't go through the skin. Then flip it inside out. Looks like a star. :) You can eat the cubes of Mango right off of the skins, or use a spoon or knife to scrape it into a bowl. 




If you are eating your Mango, just to eat a Mango...you can eat the remaining flesh off of the seed as is. If you are making the Mango bread from my last post, use a knife to cut away as much flesh as you can. Then, with your hand, squeeze the Mango seed of it's juice. Good luck and be careful....Mangoes can be slippery. 



Mel's Mango Bread

...It's that time of year again...


    Every year, at the end of Spring and through out the Summer, I make several loaves of Mango Bread. I don't know if I can claim this as, MY creation,...but I have made changes to an original recipe. The biggest change, is that I made this a Mango bread recipe, rather than a Banana bread recipe. (So, if you don't like my bread recipe, take your favorite Banana bread recipe and use mango.) If you want to try mine....let's begin here:



Get some really ripe Mangoes. Try to pick the ones that are red/yellow. Give it a little squeeze...think you've got a juicy one? Great! Snatch it up. For one batch you need at least two Mangoes, but I like to get one more than I think I need. I use heaping, not level cup fulls, when I measure. Once you've got your Mangoes, gather up these things too....

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp salt (I use Kosher)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
  • 2 Tbsp pure Vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups ripe Mango
  • 1 cup shredded coconut (sweeten or un-sweeten)
  • 1/2 cup Walnuts (chopped)
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • non stick cooking spray
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your bread pans by spraying with cooking oil. (I'm using 9x5 loaf pans)

Gently whisk together your flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and oil together until combined. 



Add your flour mixture...mix again until you get a thick dough. Next, add your Vanilla extract, Butter Milk, Mango, Walnuts and Coconut.



Mix again until combined. Split the batter between the two pans. If you have too much...I sometimes bake off a smaller 6x2 bread pan.(40-45 min bake time.). :) Bake your 9x5 loaves for 60-65 minutes. To check if the bread has baked properly, stick a skewer into the middle of loaf, if it comes out clean it's done. Still see batter? Try another 10 minutes.



When your bread is done, let it cool until you can handle the pans with your bare hands. Gently run a butter knife around the edges. flip it over onto some foil...give the bottom of the pan a few light smacks. Bread will eventually fall out. You can wrap it up and place it in the freezer to have at another time, or wrap it up and keep it in the refrigerator while you enjoy it the next couple of days. :)



Here's the bottom of a loaf. See the golden Mango peeking through? Yummy! 

Check out my next post if you don't know how to peel a Mango....or even if you do know how...we might have a different way of doing it. :)