Mango Mania

I am loving mangos this summer. Did you know that they have been called the "fruit of the gods"?  Most of the mangos in the world are grown and eaten in India.  They also pack a powerful punch in the area of nutrition.    They have the largest amount of vitamin A of any fruit.  They are also good sources for vitamins C, B1, B2, and B6 and Potassium.  [my reference is The Fruit and Vegetable Stand:  The Complete Guide to the Selection, Preparation and Nutrition of Fresh Produce, by Barry Ballister--a book I go to quite a bit.  Don't forget I'm a librarian!]  Mangos are increasingly available in supermarkets here.  I never had one until about five years ago.  Now, I buy one or two every week.  I like the ones that get a nice reddish bloom with a bit of yellow and green.   Choose a mango that feels heavy for its size, that give slightly to a gentle pressure, and that has a tropical fruit scent. Don't store it below 45 degrees for more than a day or two.


The biggest issue about mangos is how to get at the fruit.  The mangos have a large flat oval seed that parallels the shape of the fruit.  If you don't know what you're doing, you're likely to get mangled fruit with too much left on the seed and rather ragged pieces.   I recently read someone's blog (Diane's?) where she asked about the best kitchen gadgets.  A few people commented that it was their mango seed gadget.  I bought one last week and used it for the first time tonight. I'm in love. It did a great job and I got so much more usable fruit for my salsa. The Oxo splitter to the left was the one I bought. There may be other brands that are similar, but I like how sturdy Oxo kitchen gadgets are and I'm getting quite a collection of them. I was curious about what would happen if the seed was bigger than the metal cutter part. My seed tonight was slightly bigger. It just cut down over it and there was a tiny bit of seed still attached to the fruit. I cut the fruit in long wedges and had no problem trimming off the little part of the seed that was still attached. This gadget is really a time saver and does something that is almost impossible to do as well by hand.

I used my mango in a mango, avocado, and tomato salsa.  I don't really use a recipe, just add 1 chopped mango, 1 diced avocado, some chopped cherry tomatoes, a bit of diced red onion, a generous bunch of chopped cilantro and lots of fresh lime juice.  I served this alongside my night-before-WI baked cod fish, whole wheat rotini pasta, and some leftover carrots and peas.  Very eye-appealing, very quick, and quite tasty.  


Tuesday is always a gym night and I had a good workout.  DH and I go together and each has a set routine.  It usually takes us about 50 minutes.  I do my routine while listening to a book on my ipod.  It really makes the time go faster.  Before I had the ipod, I often ended up counting the ceiling tiles!  Hearing a good book is much better. Right now I'm in the middle of Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear.


Tomorrow is my WI.  As usual, I can't predict what will happen.  I have done well on my eating and on exercising this week and don't expect to gain, but the scale today was nearly the same as last week. We'll see what tomorrow brings.  


Tell me about your favorite kitchen gadget!  I love finding out about new, useful tools.