Mango Count

Yesterday (Thursday 15th): 43 mangoes
Today (Friday 16th): 33 mangoes

Menu:
Yesterday: plenty of smoothies, and we tried our first dish of chicken in mango and soy sauce. With very large macaroni pasta. Delicious! (Though Sam reckons it needed more soy sauce ... too sweet).

Tonight: mixed veggies in mango and soy sauce (and a dash of white wine) on rice.

Tonight's Mango Menu

We all enjoyed mango smoothies throughout the day, making use of the blended pulp I made up last night - and which when frozen our family refers to as mango ice-cream. It kind of tastes like mango gelato ...

Then I had the 35 or so mangoes from today's drop to deal with.

I very nearly ignored the problem, or wondered if I should ask if anyone needs 35 mangoes. But I finally found the energy to deal with the issue. It's not like they'll go away. And there will be 35 more tomorrow to deal with.

So I figured I go with Sam's mango sauce idea.

Mango & Soy Sauce

1 large bowl of cut up mangoes
1 cup soy sauce
1 garlic 'pod' - what do you call the whole garlic thing?
2 onions
2 red peppers
1 tbsp oil

So basically, fry up the onions, add the garlic, then the peppers. Once they look done I threw in almost all the mango (enough so it wouldn't fall out of the frying pan) and then added the soy sauce. I was a little scared I'd thrown in too much soy sauce, but the taste test seems to suggest a winner.

I tried canning them, but the jars were too big for my big pots, so I'm not sure it worked properly. We'll just have to eat them quick.

Mango Count for Wed April 14th

25 Mangoes. Twenty-four from the tree behind the water tank. One from the tree near the train station.

Tonight's Mango Menu

Tonight I finally pulled myself together enough to battle the growing mound of mangoes in the kitchen. I think nearly 10 more dropped from the tree since 9am this morning.

I decided not to use all the mangoes from today, just the large bowl - so about 35. I have been searching the web for different mango recipes, and there's some interesting ones out there. Mango chutney and mango sauce look pretty good. I'm going to give them a try soon.

Today I couldn't get around to the hassle cooking a major mango fantasy - although last night I pulled together a pretty tasty mango chicken with soy sauce (if I may toot my own mango horn). Sam (wife) thinks I should come up with a mango bbq sauce of some kind.

Back to tonight. Well, we'd used up all our mango puree / ice cream yesterday so I decided to replenish our stocks. So after peeling (it's more like flaying) 35 mangoes, I blended and have a full medium-sized tuppaware (or Lucky Supermarket equivalent) of mango puree. Probably close to 2.5 litres. I'll freeze it tonight.

But I decided I couldn't really stop there. I had to enjoy the fruit of my labour (!) and asked Sam if a mango smoothie was in order. She readily agreed. I spooned about a cup and a half of mango puree back into the blender, another cup and a half of chilled milk (the carton straight out of the fridge, that is) and added my secret masala spice mix - about a teaspoon and a half - and blended till it looked mixed up well and good.

The result? Well, in my opinion, it was a rather muted flavour. Not the full-bodied sweetness of a straight mango smoothie, and the spices started off with a kick and then faded a little. I think the spice mix needs a little work. Perhaps just stick with cardamom.

Mango Count for Today

As of 9am this morning there are 35 mangoes (all of which fell from the tree).

Here's a picture of the ant's nest I mentioned in yesterday's blog. (photo courtesy of friend, Simon). Each tree has three or four of these natural disaster areas in them.


If you ever wondered what ants sound like I can tell you. Like rice bubbles. That "snap, crackle, pop!" sound of breakfast cereal fame. It's weird walking past a tree and hearing that sound.

Mangoing Around

It's hot season. Let me repeat. It's HOT season here in Cambodia. There is little to do other than mope around feeling hot, sweaty and itchy as the heat rash works it's way into every sweaty little crevice - elbows and backs of knees usually!

The benefit of hot season in Cambodia is, of course, MANGOES! I've lived in Cambodia a little over 6 years and we've only recently moved to a place where we have a real mango tree - five of them. And every day I pick up somewhere between 10 and 20 mangoes. It's getting a little overwhelming.

The first week we kept up - cutting, peeling, eating those freshly ripe mangoes. Then it got to be a little too much. Not to mention the mango allergy rash from the sap. Very itchy (adds to the heat rash). The other thing you have to watch out for is the nasty red ants that make their home in our mango trees. They pull several leaves together, stitch them up with what looks like spider's web, and make a nest. Bump one of those babies and you'll find thousands of angry acid biting ants crawling down the back of your shirt. Ouch!

So today I decided on a slightly different course. I had been cutting out the pulp, using the blender and freezing it - making really great mango ice-cream, which then goes into mango smoothies very well. Today it was time to take it to a new level - mango jam!

Not just mango jam, but spiced mango jam. I hit a winner on this.

I found a simple an interesting recipe on the web from eCurry (http://www.ecurry.com/blog/condiments-and-sauces/mango-jam/). And a few hours later, voila!, mango jam. I even was able to can them in old jam jars, which amazingly sealed! Awesome. 7 jars of spiced mango jam ... thats a lot of jam. What will I do with tomorrow's mango's?


Re: Recipe
> There are no lemons in Kampot, so I omitted the lemon juice.
> I had WAY more mangoes than three - I didn't count them, but 20 is a conservative estimate. It came to 10 cups of mango pulp.
> I estimated one mango equaled one cup of pulp and added one cup of sugar for every 3 cups of pulp
> I also included star anise to the spices

Re: Canning
> I washed old jam jars then heated them in the oven for a few minutes
> then I followed the instructions from the Wycliffe recipe book for sterilising the jam jars, which also seals them. I wasn't sure this would work (this being my first jam-making attempt) but 6 of 7 jars sealed. Cool.