RECIPE - Tangerine and Mango Mojito (Mojito de Tangerina e Manga)

In Brazil, we're now well into February, normally the hottest month of the year in this very hot country. These are the dog days of summer in Brazil, when the mercury boils over and so do many Brazilians. Checking Climatempo, the Brazilian equivalent of the Weather Channel, today Rio de Janeiro is expecting a high temperature of 34C (93F) with lots of sun and the occasional shower. In São Paulo, it'll go up to 32C (90F) and be sunny, humid, with afternoon thundershowers. Fortaleza, where Flavors of Brazil comes from, should be a relatively pleasant 29C (88F) with lots of sun and a strong breeze. But in the interior of the state, where there are no trade winds to cool one off, the temperature is expected to reach 35C (92F). It seems that Brazil's hottest city tomorrow will be Cuiabá, the capital of the state of Mato Grosso and always one of the hottest spots in Brazil. There it's predicted to go up to 36F (96F).

With temperatures like these during the summer months, Brazilians are perennially desperate for a chilled drink . Icy beer is always an option, fruit juices are popular, and the traditional cooling cocktail, the caipirinha, remains a popular option. However, some Brazilians are now finding that the caipirinha, even though it has lots of ice cubes, doesn't have a lot of water and has a high level of alcohol which doesn't aid cooling. Because of this, when it's really hot many Brazilians are turning to variations of the Cuban drink, the mojito. It's becoming increasingly popular in bars, restaurants, nightclubs and at the beach because a mojito's CQ (cooling quotient) is inhanced by the addition of refreshing fresh mint and plenty of chilled soda water, and if only natural fruit juices are used, cooling isn't inhibited by an excess of sugar.

The following recipe is typical of one of the new generation Cubo-Brazilian mojitos. Or should that be Brazo-Cuban? However it's described, it's wonderfully refreshing, light and not overly-alcoholic, and absolutely delicious. Even if you have to wait until July or August for a really hot day to hit your northern hemisphere neighborhood, remember this drink and try it out then. It'll cool you right off.
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RECIPE - Tangerine and Mango Mojito (Mojito de Tangerina e Manga)
Makes one drink

1/2 small ripe mango, peeled and cubed
1/2 tangerine, peeled, seeded but left in segments
6 or 7 fresh mint leaves, thoroughly washed
1 oz (2 Tbsp) white rum
ice cubes
soda water or bubbly mineral water
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Process the mango cubes in a blender or food processor until you have a smooth pulp. Reserve.

Combine the tangerine segments and the mint leaves in a tall tumbler. Using the handle of a wooden spoon or a glass stirring rod, lightly mash them together. Do not over-mash. You want them to be bruised so that the flavors are released, but not completely mashed.

Add the rum, and then enough mango pulp to fill the glass no more than halfway. Add 3/4 cubes of ice, then fill with soda water. Stir gently to mix, being careful not to over-stir the soda water.

Let stand for a minute or two to chill, then serve.

Recipe translated and adapted from Gula magazine.

RECIPE - Minted Mango Flambé (Manga Flambada com Caldo de Hortelã)

To wrap up our collection of mango recipes in celebration of the arrival of mango season in Brazil, here's an uber-simple and really delicious way to showcase perfectly ripe mangoes.

Brazilians often combine mint (hortelã in Portuguese) with fruits to perk up the flavor as well as to make the dish more refreshing in Brazil's hot climate. The most common combination is pineapple and mint (click here to read about pineapple-mint juice), but other fruits combine equally well with fresh mint. Including mangoes, clearly.

This recipe is very straightforward, and the only skill required is in the flaming of the cachaça. Flaming spirits is one of those culinary techniques that requires caution but needn't cause fear. Properly done, it's relatively foolproof and should be a skill included in any self-respecting home cook's repertory. Click on this link for an easy lesson in how to flame liqueurs safely.

If you don't have a bottle of cachaça  at home, you can substitute white rum or tequila. The rum will make a sweeter dessert, and tequila will add its own distinctive flavor, so do try to use cachaça if possible.
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RECIPE - Minted Mango Flambé (Manga Flambada com Caldo de Hortelã)
Serves 2

1 large ripe mango
1 1/2 oz (60 ml) cachaça 
1 Tbsp granulated white sugar
1 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
2 sprigs fresh mint (to garnish)
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Over a large bowl, peel the mango and cut the flesh into thick slices. Reserve the slices in the bowl along with their juice.

In a non-stock frying pan heat the sugar, but don't let it burn. Add the mango slices, toss them in the sugar, then add the cachaça . Flame the cachaça, and when the flames die down add the chopped mint and toss everything once again.

Divide the mango slices between two dessert dishes, and add one sprig of mint to each to garnish. Serve hot.

RECIPE - Mango Upside-down Cake (Bolo Invertido de Manga)

Pineapple upside-down cake is such a classic family dessert that many of us think it's been around forever. However, it really only goes back to the first decade of the twentieth century, because that's when a certain Mr. Jim Dole of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (now Dole) perfected a way to can pineapple rings. And it was those rings that enabled American housewives, even in the middle of a Midwestern winter, to serve up a tropical dessert like pineapple upside down cake.

The idea of putting fruit at the bottom of a cake and then inverting it to serve is much older than pineapple upside down cake. The technique goes back as far as the Middle Ages in Europe, and the fruits most commonly used there were apples, cherries and quinces.

Perhaps it was Portuguese colonists who carried the idea of an upside down cake to Brazil, or maybe it was the unrepentant Confederates who fled to Brazil at the end of the American Civil Way - who knows? In any case, this style of cake is popular in Brazil and in this country it's most often made not with pineapples (even though pineapples grow in abundance in Brazil) but rather with mangoes.

Now that mangoes are generally available in North American grocery stores, try a switch-up when you next make an upside down cake. Make it Brazilian and make it mangoes.
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RECIPE - Mango Upside-down Cake (Bolo Invertido de Manga)


Fruit base:
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 medium to large mangoes - Haden preferred


Batter:
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
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Melt the 2 Tbsp butter in a small saucepan, then pour into a 8 inch (20 cm) round non-stick cake pan. Tilt the pan to cover the bottom of the pan with melted butter, then sprinkle over the brown sugar, tilting and tapping the pan to cover the bottom with sugar.

Peel the mangoes and separate the flesh from the pit. Slice the flesh, and arrange the slices on the bottom of the prepared cake pan, covering as much of the surface as possible. Reserve.

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).

In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the three eggs and beat with cake mixer or a wooden spoon. Add the flour by 1/4 cup increments, continuing to beat or mix. Finally add the baking powder.

Pour the batter gently over the prepared cake pan, taking care not to disturb the mango slices. Put in the pre-heated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the pan on a wire rack until the cake is merely warm, then invert over a decorative serving plate.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe translated and adapted from Mdemulher website.

RECIPE - Spicy Mango Salad (Salada Apimentada de Manga)

One's first thoughts when contemplating how to cook or prepare fruits are normally in the dessert or sweet category. After all, fruits are full of natural and healthy sugars, and many of them are sweet enough to be served fresh and unadorned as a dessert course. A slice of pineapple, a bowl of perfectly ripe strawberries, a handful of frozen grapes - all are fantastic ways to end a meal. Or, alternatively, fruits can be gussied up and played with to create extravagant dessert creations - tarte tatin, key lime pie, pears poched in red wine. All these are based on the sweetness and the flavor of fruits.

But going sweet is not the only way to go with fruits in the kitchen. Fruits can create complex flavor surprises when combined with savory ingredients. Think of Moroccan tagines in which the sweet flavor of dried apricots or quinces is used to cut the fatty richness of slow-cooked lamb. Or think of (heaven forbid!) Hawaiian pizza with its ham and pineapple chunks.

Mangoes are a very versatile fruits and they can arrive at the table as a sweet course, or as a savory one. Although the sugar level of mangoes is very high - a perfect mango is one of the sweetest fruits in existance - they can be mixed with savory ingredients to create stellar and surprising dishes. Brazilians have long known this, and many traditional Brazilian recipes use mangoes in non-dessert dishes. This salad, whose flavor profile closely resembles the mango salsas that are one of the signatures of nuevo Latino cooking, is a perfect example. It mixes mangoes with a lime-based vinagrette, chopped onions and cilantro, and spices the whole thing up with hot chili-pepper flakes. Easy to make when mangoes are in season, it's a wonderful first course for a light, refreshing meal.
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RECIPE - Spicy Mango Salad (Salada Apimentada de Manga)
Serves 6

4 medium-sized mangoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh-squeezed lime juice
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp (or to taste) flaked, dried chili peppers***
2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp finely minced red onion
salt and black pepper to taste

*** note: If you use a full Tbsp of flaked chilis, this salad will be quite spicy - the way Brazilians like it. If you're wary of chilis, start with a tsp only, sample, then add more if desired.
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Place the mango cubes in a large bowl. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the lime juice and olive oil together. Stir in the chili flakes, the cilantro and the onion. Whisk again briefly, then pour the dressing over the mango cubes. Mix well, making sure that all the mango cubes are coated with dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to chill the salad and to allow the flavors to blend. Serve chilled.

Mango Season Has Arrived - Yippee, Hooray!

Although we're aware that winter is on the doorstep in much of the Northern Hemisphere, if not already knocking at the door, down here in Brazil the dog days of summer are upon us. Even in Fortaleza, where there is little annual variation in temperature, there's been a noticeable increase in temperature recently. And in more southernly parts of Brazil, they've gone on to daylight savings time. Hotter days and nights, and longer days are signs of summer everywhere in the world, but in Brazil there's another way to tell it's summer - it's mango season.

And how can you tell it's mango season here in Fortaleza? Easy... just walk the residential streets of the city for a few blocks, and look up from time to time into the foliage of the large shade trees that line the streets. It's hard to miss the bright yellow/orange kidney-shaped fruits dangling in the foliage canopy. They're all mangos - and all ready for plucking - ready, that is, if you can figure out a way to get 30 or 40 feet up into the tree to snag a couple.

But's there's an easier way to enjoy mango season than monkeying your way up a gigantic mango tree - just head for the local produce store or supermarket and you'll see huge bins of mangoes - usually at least four or five different varieties. All ready to eat and all getting cheaper by the day.

Mangoes grow almost everywhere in Brazil and when they're in season they're ubiquitous. In the trees, in shops and stores and on street vendors carts. Or even at stop lights - most intersections have fruit vendors who will sell a basket of fruit to you through the car window while you wait for the light to change, and these days, the basket is likely to be mangoes.

Brazil's mango crop is colossal. According to government statistics, Brazil produces about 825,000 tons of mangoes each year. Even considering that  over 90% of the crop is consumed domestically in Brazil, the remaining 67,000 tons that are exported is enough to make Brazil the world's second-largest mango exporter, trailing only Mexico.

Just as strawberry addicts gorge themselves during strawberry season, or lovers of corn-on-the-cob make August meals that are just corn, corn and more corn, Brazilians love to indulge their taste for mangoes during the summer. Most of the mango crop is either eaten fresh or processed into juice, but there are many traditional Brazilian recipes that call for mangoes in one form or another. In the next couple of days, mangoes will be our focus here at Flavors of Brazil.

RECIPE - Shrimp with Mango (Camarão com Manga)

This very simple and delicious recipe for shrimp in a mango sauce comes from the northeastern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. The fruit sauce gives the dish natural sweetness which highlights the sweet flavor of good shrimp. Brazil has many, many varieties of mangoes and not all work well in creating this type of sauce. The recipe calls for Haden (or Hayden) mangoes which are one variety that travels well, and thus is likely to be available in greengrocers and supermarkets in North America and Europe. The variety originated in Florida and is still widely grown there. The Haden mango is a rounded oval shape, and has a yellow color with blushes of red or pink. It is only slightly fibrous (which is why it is good in this recipe) and has a full, sweet flavor. For this recipe, approximately two good-sized mangoes are required.

Haden Mango

Shrimp with mango is easy to make, and additionally requires little cooking time. I think it is best served with plain long-grain white rice and a green salad. It's perfect for lunch, or a light supper, especially in times of hot weather.

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RECIPE - Shrimp with Mango (Camarão com Manga)
Serves 6

2 lbs (1 kg) medium shrimp, with heads and shells, OR
1 1/4 lb (600 gr) cleaned and peeled medium shrimp
1/2 tsp salt
white pepper to taste
4 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed lime juice
1/3 cup (3 oz) butter
1/2 tsp. freshly grated ginger
1/3 cup (80 ml) water
1 cup Haden mango flesh, cut into 1 inch (2 cm) cubes
1 cup Haden mango flesh, pureed in blender or food processor
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If using whole shrimp, remove heads shells and tails. Devein the shrimp, then wash in fresh cold water.
If using ready-peeled shrimp, rinse in fresh cold water, changing water once or twice. Drain.

Put the shrimp in a medium bowl, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with half of the lime juice. Mix thorough, then place in refrigerator for up to one hour before cooking.

In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter is bubbling but not browned, add the remaining lime juice, the grated ginger and the cubed and pureed mangoes. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the refrigerated shrimps, reduce heat to low, cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice to avoid sticking. Remove from heat.

Put the shrimp and sauce into a serving bowl and serve immediately.


Recipe translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brazileira by Abril Editora

A Rainbow of Mangoes

January is the height of mango season in Northeastern Brazil. With the many varieties of mangoes in this country, there is always fresh mango available, but it is now, when summer is at its peak, that most mango trees bear fruit. During a drive last week to the small coastal resort of Canoa Quebrada, I passed thousands of road-side mango trees, almost all of them heavy with fruit. With such an abundance, it is no wonder that mangoes are currently selling for pennies a pound in local markets.

Living in North America, I was used to a very limited choice in varieties of mangoes. There were the large roundish red/green mangoes that usually came from Mexico or Hawaii. And there were the yellow, kidney-shaped ones called Manila, though I'm not sure if they actually came from the Philippines or not.

But here in Brazil, the variety of mangoes is astounding. On the website Toda Fruta there are photos of the most common Brazilian mango varieties. Here is a photo sampling from that site to show the spectrum of Brazilian mangoes. Each variety is labeled in the photo.

(Click any picture to enlarge)

One VERY large mango

The mother of a good friend of mine returned yesterday to Fortaleza, where I live, from her hometown, Ibicuã, in the interior of Brazil's Ceará state. She had been there to celebrate Christmas holidays with family and friends. She brought back a basket of mangos, which are in season at this time of year in Northeastern Brazil.

I know that there are a tremendous number of varieties of mango in this part of the world, and I have seen them from the size of a plum to the size of a grapefruit. But nothing had prepared me for the size of the monster-mango that she presented to me this morning. I do not have a kitchen scale in my house, but I'm sure that it weighs at least three pounds (2.2 kgs), and I have measured its length; it's 9 inches (22 cms.) long. Checking online at the excellent Brazilian agricultural site Toda Fruta (in Portuguese only), I've been able to determine that it is of the variety called Coitê. According to Toda Fruta, the Coitê mango is a traditional Brazilian variety, and is widely cultivated in Ceará. It is large, averaging around 650 gr. (1.4 lbs) per fruit. It has a highly resinous flavor, and is sweet. This type of mango tree is capable of bearing fruit all year round.

It appears to be perfectly ripe, and the aroma is enticingly sweet. Tomorrow, I'll have part of it for breakfast, and will report afterwards on its taste. If it tastes as good as it looks, I'm in for a great breakfast!