Mangos

The recent news of Indian mangos being allowed into the United States has worked me into a sort of mango frenzy. I haven’t had the opportunity to buy Indian mangos yet but that hasn’t stopped me from trying to cook with mangos from other countries.

My idea with mangos was to pair them with fish. One night I bought a relatively ripe mango and ate it with slices of tuna sashimi. The flavors worked nicely together but texturally the combination left something to be desired. I then decided to make the mangos into a sauce and had to figure out some additions to make. I thought about what would go well with raw fish and I decided that I should try to find a way to add a little kick to the mangos to get the taste buds going.

The process caused my taste memory to kick in and I started to think about the hamachi/ edamame-horseradish puree/ nori dish at Momofuku Ssam Bar and thought that that a similar type of puree could work for mangos. Finally I got to grating my horseradish and pureeing it with the mangos. The final step was passing the mixture through a fine chinois (think really fine strainer) to get the desired consistency. The end result was a thick golden sauce that had the wonderful sweet fruity flavors of mango and a spicy kick.

I served the sauce with a duo of scallop and tuna sashimi on Friday night and used the leftovers last night in my weekly Sunday dinner. Here is a picture of the puree with swordfish, spicy braised red chard and currants: