Mad for mangoes

One of our most delightful summer treats are the wonderful mangoes, both green and ripe, that grow across the country. Although sliced fresh mangoes are an indulgence in themselves, the flavour can be enjoyed in many ways, including in desserts, savoury dishes as well as beverages.

On top of the great taste, eating mangoes, particularly in the summer heat, has several important health benefits. They are rich in Vitamin C, but are also said to help in coping with the heat by controlling secretion of excess salt in sweat. They also help to soothe digestion, keeping the stomach cool.

Easy Kashmiri aachar
Ingredients:
1 kg green mango
2 to 2½ kg sugar
2 cups vinegar
5 tbsp dry red chilli (cut into rings with scissors and seeds removed)
½ cup ginger, thinly sliced
1/3 cup garlic, thinly sliced
Method: 
Wash the mangoes and peel off the skin. Cut the mangoes into thin slices and mix with sugar and leave for an hour. Put vinegar in a pot and bring it to a boil. Add mango, chillies, ginger and garlic. Cook on slow fire until syrup thickens and mango slices are soft but not soggy. Put in glass jar when cold.  

Green mango aachar
Ingredients:
4 medium-sized raw mangoes (stone removed and cut into small pieces with the skin intact)
2½ tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric powder
¼ cup finely sliced ginger
8 dry red chillies
2 tbsp paanch phoron
4 tbsp and some more mustard oil
2 tsp vinegar
¼ tsp asafetida (hing)  
4 green chillies (chopped)
1 tbsp sugar
Method:
Mix together mango, salt, turmeric and ginger very well and put in sun for 4 to 6 hours.  Dry-roast the dry red chillies and paanch phoron until fragrant and light brown in colour. Grind to a coarse powder when cool. Now heat 4 tbsp of oil and add mango mixture, sauté for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, add vinegar, asafoetida and green chillies and mix well.  Add sugar and paanch phoron powder to the mangoes and toss them well.  Pour this into a glass container and add more mustard oil, enough to immerse the contents. Mix with a spoon and leave it at a place which receives good amount of sunlight. This pickle is ready to use after 4 days. For the best result, keep the jar in sunlight everyday for about a month.  

Gujrati mango kadi 
Ingredients:
To be mixed together into a smooth yoghurt-mango mixture -
1 cup fresh mango pulp
1 cup yoghurt
3 tbsp besan (gram flour)
1 tsp ginger-green chilli paste
¼ tsp turmeric powder 
1 tbsp jaggery 
Salt to taste
2 cups water
Other Ingredients -
2 sticks cinnamon 
2 to 3 cloves 
¼ tsp dried ginger powder
1 tbsp oil
¾ tsp mustard seeds 
¼ tsp cumin seeds 
2 to 3 small red chillies 
¼ tsp asafoetida (hing)
6 to 8 curry leaves 
Fresh coriander leaves for serving
Method:
Combine cinnamon, cloves and dry ginger powder and pound into a coarse powder. Keep aside. Heat the oil in a deep pan and add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When the seeds crackle, add the red chillies, asafoetida, curry leaves and the pounded spices. Sauté on a medium flame for 2 minutes. Add the mango-yoghurt mixture, mix well and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, while stirring occasionally. Serve hot garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Mango cheese cake  
Ingredients for the crust -
50g almonds, toasted and cooled
120g Graham crackers or Digestive or Marie biscuits
50g unsalted butter, melted
Ingredients for the cream cheese -
250g ricotta cheese (drained) at room temperature
500g cream cheese, at room temperature
250g castor sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
100g mango purée
100g mango chunks
20g all-purpose flour (sifted)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 160 C. Cover inside of the spring foam pan with aluminium foil. This is to prevent the water seeping into the pan while baking.

Method for the crust -
Place the almonds into a food processor and process them till the texture becomes coarse. Add the crackers/ biscuits into the processor and process again till the mixture is coarse. Finish by adding the melted butter with the crumb mixture and blend everything together until the crumb mixture gets moistened evenly.
Transfer this crumb mixture to the prepared spring form pan and press the mixture evenly over the base of the pan.  
Place the pan in the fridge until the crust gets firm.

Method for cream cheese filling:
In a large bowl put cream cheese, ricotta cheese, flour and sugar. Beat them together until the cheese becomes smooth and creamy. 
Gradually add in one egg at a time beating each for a few seconds just to combine them together after each addition. Pour in the mango purée next and a few chunks and beat it until smooth. Do not over beat at this stage.

Now pour the entire mango cheesecake batter into the spring foam pan containing the frozen crumb crust and spread it evenly until the batter is filled till the edges. 

Place the cheese cake pan in a dish that is filled with hot water. The water will be about quarter way up the sides of the spring form pan (be very careful so that the water does not get into the cheesecake batter).

Carefully push the dish into the centre of the oven rack and bake until it sets around the edges and the centre of the cheesecake slightly jiggles when the pan is gently shaken. This takes about 40 to 45 minutes.

Once the mango cheesecake is set remove springform pan from the oven and allow to cool down completely; refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving. Serve the mango cheesecake along with whipped cream. 

Photo: Collected