A Bit Of Mango Madness . . . .

Meg was having lunch and watching the Food Network, (big surprise), when she saw the Barefoot Contessa making frozen mango daiquiris. She quickly reversed the show, wrote down the ingredients,  ran into the kitchen, made up a double batch and called Sue. Lucky for us it is mango season!

We found no need for crushed ice, we just slurped them up straight out of the freezer!

Mango Daiquiri

Mango Daiquiris
Copyright 2004, Ina Garten, All Rights Reserved

Prep Time:  10 min
Inactive Prep Time:  --
Cook Time:  --
Level:  Easy
Serves:  4 serving

Ingredients
1 ripe mango, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup lime juice (2 limes)
1 teaspoon sugar syrup
3/4 cup white rum
Crushed Ice

Directions
Place the mango, lime juice, sugar syrup and rum in a blender and process until smooth.
Pour the mixture over a glass full of crushed ice.

Note: To make sugar syrup, heat 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves.


Once started down the mango road, we found  ourselves in the tropics, and this Thai shrimp noodle salad sounded exotic and perfect for a summer meal. 

The noodle salad provided the opportunity to add three new ingredients to our pantries; Kecap manis, sweet chili sauce and “instant” Asian egg noodles. We found all three in a local Asian market.  We had never heard of the kecap manis, which prompted an internet search where we found this description:

Kecap manis
Other names: kecap manise, ketjap manis

[KEH-chuhp MAH-nees] An Indonesian sauce similar to a sweet soy sauce flavored with garlic and/or star anise. Kecap manis is sweetened with palm sugar and is used as a condiment. The sauce is thick and not at all salty and has a very rich caramely flavor.

Surprisingly, this was not a spicy dish. We didn’t know how hot the sweet chili sauce would be, so we added three hot chilies on the side for extra heat. Sue used all three including the mystery (hottest) pepper in varying amounts, whereas Meg only added a little jalapeno and Fresno. (No guts, no glory.) But to be fair, Meg ate her entire meal with chopsticks, and Sue used a fork! 

Thai Noodle Salad

Serves: 4
Source: “cool food”, Laurel Glen Publishing 2002

Dressing
2 T grated fresh ginger
2 T soy sauce
2 T sesame oil
1/3 c red wine vinegar
1 T sweet chili sauce
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/3 c kecap manis

1 lb. cooked jumbo shrimp
8 oz dried instant egg noodles
5 scallions, sliced diagonally
2 T chopped cilantro
1 red pepper, diced
¼ lb snow peas

For the dressing, whisk together the fresh ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, red wine vinegar, chili sauce, garlic, and kecap manis in a large bowl.

Peel the shrimp and gently pull out the dark vein from each shrimp back, starting at the head.  Cut each shrimp in half lengthwise.

Cook the egg noodles in a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes or until tender, then drain thoroughly.  Cool in a large bowl.

Add the dressing, shrimp, and remaining ingredients to the noodles and toss gently.  Can be served with lime wedges.

 

 

 And for dessert? Oh look, more mangoes!

 

Mango Madness Fruit Salad

Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials 6/15/13

 

3 small kiwi, peeled and sliced
2 mangos, peeled and cubed
1 Asian pear, cored and cubed
2 cups strawberries, halved or quartered
1 ½ cups fresh pineapple chunks
4 mint leaves, thinly sliced
 

Dressing:
2 T lime juice
2 T agave nectar
1 T grated fresh ginger
Pinch of cardamom
 

Whisk dressing ingredients together and pour over the fruit. Stir to combine. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

We loved all of our new ingredients. The kecap manis tasted of molasses with an Asian edge and the sweet chili sauce was deliciously sweet and slightly spicy. We know that we will find other uses for both of them. Already we are thinking about barbeque sauce . . . .

The salad only needed half of the dressing. We can see stir fry or an Asian chicken salad in our futures.

Where you live (and cook) will determine the length of time needed to prepare the Asian egg noodles. At our high altitude it took slightly longer than the package directions. Like any pasta, test it for doneness.

This is yet another make ahead meal with picnic opportunities. If shrimp isn’t your thing, substitute a protein of your choice. Tofu marinated in this dressing would be great, too. There were no fresh snow peas in the market so we used sugar snap peas. 

Fresh fruit was the perfect ending for our mango madness. The lime juice, agave, ginger and cardamom enhanced each fruit and created a wonderful light syrup.

 Here's to good eating!