Who doesn't love mango? Besides avocado it's the favorite food around the Pickett household. My adult kids can literally be caught warring over the last mango. (I guess they could be fighting over worse.) There are many delightful things you can do with mango, and mangoes salsa is one of them. Perfect for Cinco de Mayo or really anytime:) Here's what you'll need:
2 cups of small mango chunks
2 Tablespoons of minced cilantro
1/4 cup of chopped red onion
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of lime juice
Opt.: 1 to 2 teaspoons of minced jalapeno for zing and/or 2 Tablespoons of chopped red pepper for color
* Hot peppers such as jalapenos vary in spiciness, so take it from me you'll want to add a little at a time to your mixture and taste it. Also the seeds and veins are the spiciest part, so you want to remove these.
After you slice the mango into small chunks (mango cutting demonstration below), pat them dry with a paper towels until no more liquid is coming off into the paper towels and put them into a mixing bowl. You then add the rest of the ingredients. We use a hand chopper to chop and mince. (Hand choppers are super easy to find and they are only around $15.) After you have mixed all the ingredients, add salt and pepper to taste then let the salsa sit for a few minutes to allow all the flavors to mix. Serve with tortilla chips. (We also have been known to put this super tasty salsa in a salad with lettuce, chicken and avocado and of course chips on the side.)
How To Get The Most Out Of Your Mango
I have bought very few mangoes over the years because all I got when I tried to cut them was a slimy mess with very little mango to show for it. One day I was at Margy Coleman's in Chicago and she enlightened me! A couple of tips: If the mango has some green on it, that doesn't mean it's not ripe. You want to pick a mango that is slightly soft, but still firm.
Step 1. Notice how flat the mango seed is.
Step 2. Set the mango upright and cut down each side of it along the side of the flat seed.
Step 3. Cut each half in a crisscross pattern.
Step 4. Turn each half inside out.
Step 5. Slice each chunk into a bowl.
Step 6. Enjoy!
Jalapeno Margarita
Need a new fun drink for Cinco de Mayo? Here’s a delicious margarita with a zing!
1 oz. of fresh lime juice
1 & 1/2 oz. of silver tequilla
1 & 1/2 oz. of Triple Sec
4 thin slices of Jalapenos
Put all 4 ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. You then let shaker sit for 15 min. so that the ice will melt a bit and the jalapeno flavor will permeate the drink. Finally shake vigorously again and pour all of it including ice into a glass with a salt or Tajin (chili-lime seasoning) rim.
To speed things up you can blend this drink with about 7 to 8 ice cubes, but blend well with only one of the Jalapeno slices then add more when serving the drink.