Mango Mousse

Let me be honest. I have a love-hate relationship with mangoes. When they're good, I love them. Totally love. But it seems like I also sometimes end up with mangoes that are mealy or that just taste ... weird.

I have a better track record with peaches, plums, and all their relatives.

Also, mangoes are not the most fun thing to peel. So I dragged out my mango splitter. I don't use it often, but it has its place in my drawer full of things that I don't use often, but I use enough.

That said, the little yellowish mangoes tend to be more successful for me, and when I saw them on sale, I grabbed a few of them. And then as I was browsing through a cookbook that just appeared from a publisher - Farm-to-Table Desserts by Lei Shishak - I found a recipe for mango mousse that looked pretty intriguing.

Most of the mousses I've made have been chocolate, and they've been rich and calorie-dense. This mousse is much lighter.

I figured I'd make it as written, and if it worked, I could certainly adapt it to other fruits. Like peaches. A peach mousse, in season, would be pretty awesome.

So anyway, the book's tagline is "80 seasonal organic recipes made from your local farmers' market." Well, mangoes don't grow here and it's only May as I write this. We had snow not that long ago, so there aren't a lot of local crops at all.

But that's why we have grocery stores. That carry in-season fruits and vegetables that are in season in other parts of the country. Otherwise, I'd be fruitless at this time of year, and still living on root vegetables and petrified winter squashes from last season.

So anyway, the mousse was really nice. Fruity and soft and silky and and just sweet enough without being overly sweet. I think it would make sense to make this in a larger quantity, for best blending in the blender and also to have more mousse for dessert.

I think my mangoes were a little smaller than what the author imagined, so what I ended up was probably not four servings. I didn't put it into individual ramekins, as suggested, because I thought one container in the fridge made more sense.

This is one of the easier recipes in the book, which has a nice range of recipes from simple all the way to ones that are a little more of a project. There are baking recipes, ice cream recipes, and some that are uncooked. And kettle corn, too. Lots of variety.

Mango Mousse
Adapted from Farm-to-Table Desserts by Lei Shishak

1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons water, divided
2 medium mangoes, ripe
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
5 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup yogurt (she suggested Fage, so use a Greek-style)

Sprinkle the gelatin over 1 tablespoon of water and set aside while you wrangle the mangoes.

Peel the mangoes, cut the fruit away from the pit, and cut the fruit into chunks. Or use a mango pitter, then use a spoon to slide the fruit out of the skin.

Put the mango pieces and the lemon juice in a blender, and blend until smooth.

Add the softened gelatin to a small pot and add the sugar and the remaining tablespoon of water. Heat on medium, stirring, until the sugar and gelatin have dissolved. At first, this will look like you don't have enough water, but it will be fine. Pour the gelatin into the blender and pulse to combine.

Strain the mango mixture into a small bowl. If you have a super-powered blender, you might not need to do this, but I found that it was even smoother after straining. So, your choice. Whisk in the yogurt.

Chill the mouse for at least 2 hours. You can divide it into individual servings before chilling, or put it into a storage container and scoop it out to serve.

YUM.

I received the book from the publisher at no cost to me.

Mango-Matcha Smoothie

A while back, I mentioned that I'll be working with The Republic of Tea for the next few months. I just got a whole boatload of Matcha tea along with a bowl and crazy little whisk.

I'll be honest here and say that I've never actually tried matcha tea, so this was a completely new experience for me. I've tried a lot of other teas before, and I'd heard of matcha. And I knew a lot of people used it in cooking and baking.

Matcha is actually very finely ground green tea (which is supposed to be really good for you, right?) and it's the tea used in Japanese tea ceremonies, according to info I got from The Republic of Tea.

Here are the descriptions of the teas I got (quoted from The Republic of Tea):

• Our premium U-Matcha Natural tea contains tender, shade-grown leaves that have been ground to a fine powder creating a rich balance of flavors. This matcha tea is ideal for blending with water for sipping or for cooking. 
• Our premium U-Matcha Yuzu tea blends fine matcha powder with yuzu for a citrus flavor. This matcha tea makes a bright addition to mixed drinks, spice rubs and sweet desserts. 
• Our premium U-Matcha Ginger tea blends fine matcha powder with ginger. This matcha tea boasts a spicy kick and wakes up the flavors of miso soups, stir-fry and other savory dishes. 
• Our premium U-Matcha Roasted Rice tea blends fine matcha powder with roasted rice to create a nutty finish of flavor. This matcha tea provides warm nuances for sweet baked goods, savory dishes, shakes and lattes. 

So there we go.  Now you probably know more about matcha than I do. What I thought was interesting was the brewing method. For a hot tea, you're supposed to whisk it for a minute or two until the tea is frothy. I's way different from my usual brewing method. For cold tea, you can just mix it in, without all the whisking.

And of course, you can cook with it. They sent me a whole bunch of recipes and there were also recipes inside the can the tea came in. And it wasn't just drinks - there's soup, salad dressing, dessert ... lots of stuff.

The U-Matcha Ginger was my first taste on an evening when I thought the ginger would be good for a slightly unsettled tummy. Then I decided to make a chilly fruity drink. I've got to say that this stuff really makes things green. I'm looking forward to adding it to foods that I want to color naturally.

Mango-Matcha Smoothie
Recipe © by www.cookistry.com. Do not republish without permission.
1 mango
2 bananas
1 teaspoon matcha ginger
1 cup milk (plus more as needed)
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon honey (optional)

Peel the mango, remove the pit, chunk it, and toss it in a blender. Peel the bananas, chunk them, and add them to the blender.

Add the matcha powder, milk, salt, and honey (if you're using it.). Blend until smooth.

This is pretty thick as-is. If you want something a little thinner, add more milk and blend again. If you want it sweeter, add a bit more honey - the sweetness depends a bit on how sweet your fruit is, so make it to your taste.

I received product from The Republic of Tea as part of the TEAm blogger program.

As a special bonus for my readers, you can get a free electric matcha frother with any order of U-Matcha Tea from The Republic of Tea when you use the promo code #MATCHA4.from March 22, 2013 through March 29. Cheers!

Shrimp, Mango, and Guacamole Bites

Apparently I've become addicted to little cooking contests, so when I ran across one at a site called Kitchen Play, I had to give it a whirl.

The deal is that Kitchen Play posts a menu each month, and each of the six menu items has already been prepared by bloggers who post the recipes and prep instructions on their sites. Everyone else is invited to make one or more of the recipes, blog about it, and post links hither and yon.

Prizes for this month's contest are from Sur la Table and include V-Slicers and a Le Creuset French Oven. Not exactly a complete kitchen makeover, but those are nice prizes. So it seemed worth buying a few ingredients I hadn't planned on.

I decided to go with the Shrimp, Mango and Guacamole Bites recipe that was posted on Kitchen Runway.

For a "bite" it's a long recipe, with three separate parts before you assemble. First is the shrimp which has to be marinated and then grilled. Mango has to be peeled, slices cut off, and grilled. And then there's guacamole. Then the whole thing is assembled on a tortilla chip to make the bite. None of it is very complicated, though, and it can be done ahead of time. Shrimp is just as good warm, room temperature, or cold, so you can make all the components ahead and do the assembly at the last minute.

But of course on the day I decided to do this. the weather looked unfriendly for grilling and I wimped out and cooked indoors. I cooked the mango on my grill pan and cooked the shrimp in a skillet. Since I'd already gone off the map, I decided to toss some extra chopped onions (left over from the guacamole) into the marinade with the shrimp, and since I was cooking the shrimp in a skillet, it went in with all the marinade. Yeah, I'm a radical. And I tweaked the flavor just a bit in the guacamole. Yeah, I'm wild and crazy.

The recipe below has directions for both methods.

The blogger who made this used a cute little chopper for much of the prep and the recipe at the link above has those instructions. I used a knife, so that's what I wrote here.

The guacamole is very similar to one that I make, so obviously I liked that. The grilled mango was a grilled mango. Either you like them or you don't. I thought it made a nice sweet accent for the dish. The shrimp was pretty good. I could see serving them over rice, with the mango mixed into the rice and the chips and guacamole served separately.  

Grilled (or not) Shrimp, Mango, and Guacamole Bites

Cilantro Garlic Grilled Shrimp

Here's a pile of my not-grilled shrimp

3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
24 medium shrimp, peeled, cleaned, and deveined
lime juice

Note: the shrimp are supposed to fit on a tortilla chip as an appetizer, so choose the size based on that. You can use larger shrimp and cut them, but the presentation won't be as pretty.

Chop cilantro and garlic and place in a medium bowl. Add olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add shrimp and marinate for at least 30 minutes.

If you planning on grilling the shrimp and will use wooden skewers, soak them in water so they don't burn on the grill.

Skewer the shrimp and place on grill (medium low heat), Grill for about 2 minutes on each side or until done.  Pull off of skewer, remove tails and squeeze a little lime juice over the shrimp and season with salt if needed.

Note: I added the lime to the marinade along with some diced onion left over from guacamole, let it sit for a much shorter time, and cooked the shrimp with the marinade in a skillet. And I removed the tails earlier rather than after they were cooked.

Grilled Mango
1 mango

Peel the mango. Slice the two wider "cheeks" off the mango. These are the parts you'll grill. You can eat the rest of the mango, or remove the rest as best you can, chop it up, and add it to the guacamole.

Place the mango on grill on medium-low heat. Grill for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Once mango is cool enough to handle, dice into small chunks. Note: I grilled on my grill pan and sliced thin instead of dicing. Oh, I'm such a radical.

Guacamole
1/4 of a medium red onion
1 jalapeno, quartered and seeded
2 large cherry tomatoes or 1 Roma tomato
1/4 cup cilantro
3 Hass avocados
1 lime
sea salt and onion powder, to taste
Tortilla chips, for final assembly

Dice onions, tomato, and jalapeno. Chop the cilantro. Add it all to a bowl. Scoop the avocado out, add it to the bowl, and add lime juice and salt to taste. Add the onion powder (I didn't use it.) Stir and mash the avocado to your desired consistency.

TO ASSEMBLE: Place a small spoonful of guacamole onto the tortilla chip and artfully arrange the shrimp and of mango. Serve immediately.