Mango Salsa

If you’re hosting a bbq or other summertime gathering of hungry folks, add this mango salsa to the menu and your guests will rave. This simple throw-it-together salsa is so fantastic and versatile I already can’t wait to make it again. It wakes up simply grilled meats, makes burgers sing and begs to be double-dipped into by tortilla chips. Serve alongside a roasted tomato salsa and some fresh guacamole and you’ve got yourself a nifty chip n’ dip bar. I used this mango salsa as a topping for lime-marinated pork tenderloin, served with coconut rice and black beans for a Latin-inspired meal. Like the harissa sauce I posted about earlier in the spring, you’ll run out of summer days before you will uses for this delicious stuff.

There’s a bit of an art to peeling and dicing a mango. You don’t want to treat it as you would peeling a potato. And even if you got that far with a vegetable peeler, then you’re left holding a slippery fruit in one hand and a chef’s knife in the other – never good. Mango’s have a long slender pit that runs more or less the length of the fruit. So what you do is lop off a good third of the fruit lengthwise, skin-on, on both sides.

Then score the fruit in a cross-hatch pattern cutting down to but not through the skin. Invert the fruit so the cut-out cubes pop-out, and use a spoon or pairing knife to free them.

You can usually, carefully, cut away a few more slices from the center of the fruit so good delicious mango doesn’t go to waste. Then you can fine dice your larger cubes into smaller cubes if you like.

Even if you’re not usually the meat-and-fruit sort, try the mango salsa over some grilled chicken or grilled pork. You just might become a convert.

Buon Appetito!

mango salsa

• 2 small mangos or 1 large mango, peeled and diced
• 1 small red bell pepper, seeded, ribbed and diced
• 1/2 jalapeno, minced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbs rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• Juice of 1 lime
• salt/pepper

1. Combine all ingredients in medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If desired, add additional minced jalapeno for more heat. Enjoy!

Serves 2 as a condiment for a main course

Recipe adapted from Emeril Lagasse