Tropical fruits
There are so many mangoes everywhere - the road to work is bumpy with fallen mangoes. Most locals do not like the mangoes that grow wild and so they just fall to the ground and rot. The trees are also huge, so it is very hard to pick them, but everytime I see some within reach I grab a bag and fill it up. These mangoes are a bit stringy - (the bowen mangoes are not) but I have found if I put them into the freezer, for an hour or so, they peel easily and then I can easily slice the "cheeks" off. Somehow the freezing takes away the stringiness. I just lay these in plastic containers and then they are easy to add to recipes, or simply eat on a hot humid day.
I made a magnificent chicken curry over the weekend for a dinner group we had, with mango salsa to go alongside it. Even professed curry haters came back for seconds :) Another thing I want to try is mango lassi - think I can just take some of my prepared mango and throw it in the blender with a bit of yoghurt. Of course I also want to make some chutney - I better go and find another tree and pick some more this weekend!
Another thing that is going crazy this wet season is my snake beans - they grow so prolifically, these are the big fat ones, and I have found if I peel them and remove the seeds, then slice and steam they taste very similar to green beans. Mmmm it is amazing, that most people here just let their ground lie fallow during the wet season and yet I am finding my garden is more prolific than it was in the winter. The sweet potato vine is taking off and I have to keep pruning it - a huge catterpillar tried to help with the job, but he was rather quickly squished under my gardening shoe. The trick is finding which of the tropical fruits and vegetables taste best to you and growing those.
Yes of course. along with all this lovely tropical fruit comes the tropical summer. I am just going to concentrate on the lovely flowers and fruit and not on the heat and humidy. I know it is not going to go away, but there are benefits to putting up with it! This is also the season when the lovely gingers and orchids start to flower, and I suffered flower envy when we wandered through the botanical gardens over the weekend. I came back to discover that my own orchid is flowering and I hadnt even noticed - shame on me!
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Comment by Gillian on November 10, 2009 at 4:19pm - I have never made pickled mango, I was going to make some mango chutney this weekend. Do you have a recipe for that pickled mango Anna? It seems such a shame to see all this food lying rotting on the roads. Kathryn yes isnt it amazing that the things we seem to miss the most about places we have lived in is the food.
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Comment by Kathryn on November 10, 2009 at 6:40am - I really miss mangoes. We had a huge tree of the stringy ones and there were several around in yards and the park next door. I picked these off the ground and made chutney.
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Comment by amna mufti on November 10, 2009 at 6:28am - Wow Gallian! I wished I can see a place where people don't like mangoes because I don't like myself.But here people are crazy about mangoes.We have great mango orchards.If you found some more mangoes and they are still green you can pickle them,they taste great.
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Comment by Everett McDonald on November 9, 2009 at 7:24pm -
Your "Tropical Fruits" is wonderful Gillian. I read it to my wife and both our mouths were watering
reading about the curried chicken and mango salsa. Have a good day.
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