Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Mango season

The Mango season is here which delights children and adults alike. It spells the beginning of summer with its wonderful distinctive smell. Children love Mango with its soft velvety texture and sweet juicy pulp. Mango is high in vitamin C and Beta Carotene (coming from the orange colour), also high in fibre particularly soluble fibre. The fruit is low GI so is very sustaining as a snack.
For Babies: There are a few different Mango varieties differing mainly in sweetness and the texture of the pulp. Babies between 6-12 months can enjoy mango pureed or fork mashed depending on the age of the baby or mixed into plain yoghurt or creamed ricotta cheese. Mango has a wonderful texture for babies to learn how to chew and move pieces around their mouth
For Toddler: Mangoes can be cut into cubes for toddlers to eat fresh with a fork (helping with their hand to mouth coordination. Mangoes are particularly tasty mixed with milk and frozen yoghurt as a smoothie. This is helpful for those toddlers who are not great plain milk drinkers. Due to their natural sweetness you don’t need to add any honey for sweetness.
For Preschooler: Cutting and scouring a cheek of mango appeals to preschoolers and travels very well in the lunchbox. Freezing a mix of blended mango and yoghurt makes a great alternative to ice-cream. Mango holds its form when cut into cubes and doesn’t discolour so is an excellent fruit to thread onto sticks. Using alternate fruits such as strawberries, kiwi and sliced banana you can make fruit skewers. This can be eaten fresh or frozen on hot summer days.
For adults: try mango chutney or mango salsa with your curries or simply score and eat!!

Tandoori chicken with mango salsa
Ingredients (serves 4)
1 cup plain Greek-style yoghurt
4 (160g each) chicken breast fillets
1 tablespoon olive oil
warmed naan bread, to serve
Tandoori spice mix
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 pinches chilli powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon dried mint
Mango salsa
425g can sliced mango in syrup, drained, chopped
1 Lebanese cucumber, diced
2 green onions, sliced, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1 long red chilli, deseeded, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Make Tandoori spice mix: Combine paprika, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala and mint in a large bowl. Add yoghurt. Stir to combine. Add chicken. Turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, if time permits.
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Remove chicken from yoghurt mixture. Discard yoghurt mixture. Cook chicken for 2 minutes each side or until browned. Transfer to prepared tray. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until cooked through. Thickly slice.
Make mango salsa: Combine mango, cucumber, onion, mint, chilli and lemon juice in a bowl. Serve chicken with mango salsa and naan bread.

recipe courtesy of Claire Brookman www.taste.com.au

3 comments:

The House That A-M Built said...

Sounds absolutely delish. Another Katie recipe for the recipe drawer. I tried to print one out one of yours the other day and it printed out your whole blog! Never leave the printer unattended when printing from a blog! A-M xx

Amanda said...

This sounds delicious Kate - can't wait to give it a go after Christmas. I have just started my little one on solids and she LOVES mango.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kate,

I saw your "chicken nuggets homemade" recipe in the Practical Parenting magazine.
Love the idea!!!

For religion reasons I don't like to mix chicken with cheese. Can you suggest a subtitute?

There's a challenge...

Thank you kindly and have a beautiful day.