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Resourcefulness

Mango season in Southern California is short but fragrantly sweet. And without fail, the mangoes ripen faster than I can eat them—as if quietly conspiring to challenge my resourcefulness.

I usually call on mango sorbet to save the day, but turned to my cookbook library this year for some new ideas. Predictably, that exercise took on a life of its own. As the list of "that sounds delicious" grew, I realized it should live here for any other panic-stricken mango lovers. Cornbread, salsa, caramel, pancakes, quickbread, and more from a wide range of cookbooks—London's Dishoom, Chez Panisse Vegetables, Carla Hall's Soul Food, and 30 more. This will be a living document, so there are some notes scattered throughout that will evolve as I try the recipes and add new ideas.

Farmers | Artisans

I make an effort to source my food from California artisans with a special focus on the Santa Monica Farmers Market.

Wong Farms // Valencia Pride Mangoes (pictured above)

Flavor Pairings

A handful of ingredients that play particularly well with ripe mangoes.

Housekeeping

Below is a list of 50+ ripe mango recipe ideas from 30+ of my cookbooks, not from the internet. It's curated rather than exhaustive, and I don't feature any green mango recipes as that's a different category. Along the lines of The Flavor Bible and Flavour Thesaurus, the goal is to spark an idea for what to cook next. The cookbooks span decades rather than favoring new releases and a handful are out of print (but easily found online in good condition). Similar to My Favorite Cooking Tools—which features gear I've been using for 15+ years—I don't generally gravitate to the newest and shiniest thing.

May this list help us all through to the other side of mango season.

Ripe Mango Recipes

Breakfast & Bread

• Coconut and Lime Pancakes with Mango — Honey & Co., Sarit Packer & Itamar Srulovich Note: Planning to adapt my Sourdough Pancakes for this one.
• Fresh Mango Bread — Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan Note: I haven't made this bread, but noticed that it's very sweet on paper. Watch out for that if your mangoes have a high sugar content. Making some kind of mango bread is at the top of my list.
• Mango Brioche — Modernist Bread, Nathan Myhrvold & Francisco Migoya Note: This recipe replaces fresh eggs with powdered eggs to manage hydration since there's a high percentage of mango purée in the dough. I plan to tinker and see if I can use raw eggs and skip the vital wheat gluten. The combination sounds too good.

Savory

• Cucumber, Mango, and Red Onion Salad — Chez Panisse Vegetables, Alice Waters
• Jicama Salad with Mango, Fennel, Cucumber, Peanuts, and Lime–Fish Sauce Vinaigrette — Bäco, Josef Centeno & Betty Hallock
• Paneer and Mango Salad with Lime-Chile Dressing and Crispy Onions — Dishoom, Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar & Naved Nasir

Sauces, Curds & Components

• Overnight Fruit (Mango) Vinegar — Memories of Philippine Kitchens, Amy Besa & Romy Dorotan Note: The authors write about how specific fruit vinegars in the Philippines define an adobo, but due to their scarcity, substitutions have to be found. "Romy's Fruit Vinegars" is a wonderfully simple recipe and I'm excited to make it along with the chicken adobo.
• Amba Sauce — Honey & Co., Sarit Packer & Itamar Srulovich Note: Amba is traditionally made with green mangoes, but this recipe uses ripe fruit and the chefs seemed thrilled with their results.
• Mango Ketchup — The Professional Chef, The Culinary Institute of America Note: Basically mango BBQ sauce.
• Mango Compote — Everyone Can Bake, Dominique Ansel
• Chile-Lime Mango Jam — Carla Hall’s Soul Food, Carla Hall Note: I make cooked jam, but freeze it instead of using a water bath. I plan to adapt that recipe.
• Mango Sauce — Ready for Dessert, David Lebovitz
• Mango Sauce — Desserts, Nancy Silverton
• Mango Curd — Sweet, Valerie Gordon Note: This would be excellent with rice pudding. Apparently you can freeze curd, so I plan to make one of these recipes and squirrel it away.
• Mango Curd — Pastry Love, Joanne Chang
• Mango Cream Cheese Frosting — Sweet, Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh
• Mango Cream, Made with Mango Curd — Sweet, Valerie Gordon
• Mango Caramel — Dessert Person, Claire Saffitz Note: One of these mango caramel recipes is definitely on my list. It also freezes well, per what I found online.
• Mango Caramel Sauce — Memories of Philippine Kitchens, Amy Besa & Romy Dorotan

Drinks & Cocktails

• Breakfast Lassi — Dishoom, Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar & Naved Nasir
• Mango Coconut Frappe — Carla Hall’s Soul Food, Carla Hall
• Pasión de Oaxaca — Oaxaca, Bricia Lopez & Javier Cabral

Salsas & Chutneys

Many of these recipes highlight mango's relationship with spices and onions.

• Mango Salsa — The Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie Katzen
• Mango Salsa — The New Best Recipe, Cook’s Illustrated
• Black Bean and Mango Salsa — The New Best Recipe, Cook’s Illustrated
• Spicy Mango Chutney — The Best International Recipe, Cook’s Illustrated
• Fresh Mango Chutney — The Professional Chef, The Culinary Institute of America Note: My copy is the eighth edition (2011), but the most recent edition is linked and appears to have the recipes listed in this post.
• Spicy Mango Chutney — The Professional Chef, The Culinary Institute of America
• Sweet Mango Chutney — Rick Stein’s India, Rick Stein
• Fruit Chutney Base (adaptation opportunity) — Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making, James Peterson
• Basic Apricot Chutney (adaptation opportunity) — Little Flower: Recipes from the Cafe, Christine Moore
• Spiced Peach Confiture (adaptation opportunity) — Taste & Technique, Naomi Pomeroy

Desserts & Pastries

• Mangoes and Strawberries in Sweet White Wine — Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan
• Mango Sticky Rice, Microwave Method — Night + Market, Kris Yenbamroong Note: I don't usually seek out shortcuts, but this one is worth trying when making a dessert for one or two.
• Mango and Sticky Rice — Bangkok Street Food, Tom Vandenberghe
• Flambéed Mangoes — The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, Diana Kennedy Note: A fun party trick dessert.
• Financiers Topped with Mango — Bourke Street Bakery, Paul Allam & David McGuinness
• Zabaglione with Mango — Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan
• Gadbad Mitha (“A Sweet Mess”) — Dishoom, Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar & Naved Nasir
• Cardamom Shortbread with Chilled Mango Fool — Rick Stein’s India, Rick Stein
• Mango Custard — Good & Sweet, Brian Levy Note: This looks very good, though I plan to reduce the lemon zest a bit. Preserved lime could also be a nice twist.
• Rice Tart with Mango — Desserts, Nancy Silverton
• Orange–Poppy Seed Layer Cake with Mango — Desserts, Nancy Silverton
• Mango Upside-Down Cake — BraveTart, Stella Parks
• Mango Tart with Quick Puff Pastry — Memories of Philippine Kitchens, Amy Besa & Romy Dorotan

Frozen Desserts

• Paletas de Mango con Chile — Nopalito, Gonzalo Guzmán & Stacy Adimando
• Mango Kulfi — Dishoom, Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar & Naved Nasir
• Mango-Coriander Sherbet — Desserts, Nancy Silverton

Beyond the Library...

• Mango hot sauce Note: This is a no-brainer given mango's affinity for jalapeño and other chile peppers.
• Mango cornbread with cardamom butter Note: I have a solid cornbread recipe and plan to try making it with some mango purée. The cardamom butter idea came from When Southern Women Cook. That book pairs it with fresh corn muffins.
• Mango thumbprint cookies Note: Raspberry jam is my true love with thumbprint cookies, but maybe mango could work?
• Mango tea cake made with purée Note: I was immediately drawn to Dorie Greenspan's Mango Bread but may prefer to use purée instead of chunks. République has a persimmon tea cake that could be adapted to work with mango.
• Preserved lime mango sorbet is outstanding so I'll need to publish my recipe for that.

Newsletter

Subscribe at the bottom of this page for the Chic Eats roundup. It includes new and updated recipes along with a grab bag of unique content that was interesting enough to share around the dinner table.