They say being around young children keeps you young. This may be true- witness Robert De Niro, a new Dad at age 80. I also contend it keeps you sick. Exhibit A- my third grandson Phoenix who is constantly sick and loves to snuggle with me in the morning, while coughing in my face. I love the snuggles. The coughs, not so much! This resulted in me coming down with a cold on the day I arrived in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Luckily, it didn’t last too long, but I caught a cold again on my way home, two and half weeks later.
On the upside, I lost a little weight. On the downside, I found it again. Oh well!
Back from the lovely, cool weather in Colorado to the humid climes of Miami. But, as a consolation it is the best time of the year to be a Miami, in some ways. It’s Mango Season! I have a Mallika mango and had a few that were ripe when I returned home from my trip. As my tree has been a little stingy this year, a friend (Leonor) gifted me with a bag full of her delicious mangoes, so I’ve had an abundance of these tropical fruits! I also got a couple from my delivery from Empower Farm’s CSA.
My favorite way to eat them is cold from the fridge, sliced up and dripping over the sink. But there are so many other ways to use these seasonal beauties! This season, I’ve also made Mango Jam and Mango Cupcakes. Mango Salsa– so easy- is another favorite way to used the fruit and is great served over grilled fish, chicken or in a steak salad. I also made some Overnight Oats, with chia seeds, almond milk and chopped up mangoes, that makes breakfast a breeze. And I want to try a Crock Pot Cobbler, made for peaches, but I think would be wonderful with mangoes. Pretty much any recipe that calls for peaches, can be substituted with mangoes.
Infatuation– a website I love- has a list of Miami restaurants that do wonderful things with mangoes from appetizer, entree to dessert. If you don’t have access to mangoes of your own, Fruit and Spice park lets you gather any fruit that has fallen on their grounds for free, after admission ($15). There are also restaurants and food spots that do mango exchanges this time of year.
Zak the Baker will give you a free loaf of fresh bread for six mangoes. Tam Tam, a great restaurant downtown, will give you an order of Tam Tam Wings for five pounds of mangoes (eat-in or take-out) and favorite local ice cream shop Whip and Dip has a mango swap where you can donate mangoes for a scoop of “Your Neighbor’s Mangoes”, because they are your neighbor’s mangoes (if you live in South Miami). Most of these offers last until the end of June.
I took some photos of my garden this week, a couple days after the first day of Summer (June 20th). Unfortunately, someone came into our yard while we were out of town, and stripped our lychee tree of every single lychee we had. This involved someone coming onto our property with ladders to accomplish this task. Not good and rather scary! So, we have no lychees left and this year we had a bumper crop.
My mango tree is doing well and I have a couple starfruit on that tree, which is always prolific. My little herb garden had diminished by the time I returned from Colorado, but I still have an eggplant and tomato plant hanging in there, as well as chives, rosemary, sage, oregano, lemon grass, Thai basil and butterfly pea.
A sweet potato had sprouted leaves, so I planted it, as an experiment. It grew into a hearty plant, but I didn’t see the point of it and pulled it up. Underneath the soil, were two little sweet potatoes, about the size of my pinky. Apparently they are like turmeric plants and are ready to harvest when the leaves above ground die. I dug them up too soon. Oh well! Now I know.
I usually let my garden die in the summer, because it is so hot, but with all the rain we had in June, it seems to be doing pretty well. The latest thing I made with my mangoes was mango cupcakes for a Villager Happy Hour. You put chopped (or pureed) mangoes in the cupcake batter, as well as in the whipped cream frosting. They turned out well and I will post the easy recipe.
In the meantime, if you are anxious to use your mangoes, check out these previous Foodie in Miami posts. It is easy to search by entering the title in the search bar at the top of the page.
Mango Salsa and Mango Bread in Mango Mania posted 6/19/2020
Mango Overnight Oats posted 10/4/2022
Houston’s Thai Steak Salad (with mangoes) posted 6/6/2020
I hope you enjoy the Mango Surplus this season, as I have. Next month, there is Coral Gables Restaurant Month to look forward to in July and Miami Spice rears its beautiful head in August and September. There is a reason why we locals hang around in the summer!
Up Next: Mango Cupcakes
