Mango Salsa: A Yummy Tutorial

A Food Blog, yay!

I love food, and I love cooking it, and sharing tips, so this is just right down my alley. A few years ago, while on a mango craze, I discovered mango salsa.

It’s not a dance, it’s food, and it can be sort of addicting. The first thing I discovered while on this craze, is that cutting the mangoes is not as much fun as eating them.

I mentioned this bit of trivia to a friend who is a garden reporter in Florida, Robert Bornstein, who happens to grow mangoes and knows all about cutting them. He made a YouTube about it, for heaven’s sake–boy, did I mention it to the right person!

Anyway, lest I bore you with all the details of that conversation, let me just get to the gist of what he told me: you need to cut the seed away before you begin to cut–or even peel–the mango.

Holding the mango, feel for the flat seed, which is huge and takes up much of the fruit, and insert a sharp knife into the top of the mango (not into your fingers, I might add). Do this on a cutting board and separate the seed by slicing it off. You now can scoop or cut the mango out of the peel. Do the same thing with the other half, and try really hard to save, not eat, the mango, since you can’t make this recipe if you eat it before you begin…

Here is yet another hot (ok, pun intended) tip: Wear rubber, not latex, gloves to cut the jalapeno. You cannot wash the capsaicin off your skin for days, so please trust me about this… I’d like to say someone just told me about how they burned their eyes later, and that I, in fact, would never do this silly thing, but I did. So wear rubber gloves, and do as I say, not as I did.

Here are the ingredients you will need to gather, wash, peel, cut, etc:

• 1 mango, peeled and diced (see attached YouTube clip)
• 1/2 cup peeled, diced cucumber
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno (ok, I add a little habanero, too)
• 1/3 cup diced red onion (it doesn’t have to be red, but red is so pretty, eh?)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves (I use a lot more, but who’s counting?)
• Sea Salt (regular salt works too) and pepper

Now it’s getting exciting.

1. Go ahead and combine the mango, cucumber, jalapeno (and habanero if you’re brave), red onion, lime juice and cilantro leaves and mix well.
2. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Yum, that’s amazing. Try to save some for the rest of the family. Or just double it, as I always do. Then try to save some for the rest of the family… same rule even when you double it. I’m telling you, this stuff is addicting!

Besides the typical tortilla chips, this works out great spooned onto grilled salmon, or any fish, and I’m going to make chicken tacos with it tomorrow.

I’m swooning just thinking about it.