BAKING

MANGOLICIOUS MORNINGS with FRUITY BEGINNINGS!!

2008/05/18 / 24 Comments
“Marriages are all happy; its having breakfast together that causes all the trouble.”
Irish Proverb IMG 0311Mango Fruit Salad with Apricots, Melon, Cherries & basil
It’s the month of May, & MANGO, the king of fruits, rules the roost here in India. As far as the eye can see, it’s mangoes all the way. In the midst of this, Arundati @Escapades is hosting this month’s Weekend Breakfast Blogging (WBB) #22; it’s has been aptly christened ‘May Mango Madness’. As she dramatically states, “Melting moments of May have turned up the heat a notch higher…WBB, the event started by the lovely doctor at Saffron trail, stops by at Escapades this month.” wbbmangoWith mangoes going for less than a dollar a kilo here, it is complete madness. To add to it, the Escapades lady has been on my case to send her an entry & soon. SMSing, googling, calling…I am now stressed enough to post this immediately! Oh, the pressures of modern day existence & blogging are enough to give me sleepless nights; throw in the IPL cricket matches day after day & you lose track of time!! That’s my life, but since my conscience has now got the better of me, here we go…IMG 0348
I am not a very elaborate breakfast sorta person. With 3 main meals in a day, breakfast is always light & quick. Once in a while, DH rues the fact that I don’t make pancakes. I had some bookmarked from Nandita’s blog @ Saffron Trail; never quite got there. I had wild thoughts pass through my head…mango nightmares; would a frozen cheesecake sound too bizarre for breakfast? Could I pass off the ‘Mango Fool‘ the daughter made for dessert on Mother’s day? Maybe I could sneak in an ice-cream & no one would say a word…hmmmm! Arundati’s persistence got the better of me & googling led me to yummies like Mango, blueberry, and ginger fruit salad, Fresh fruit platter with ginger-mango sauce, Mango parfait! Thoroughly inspired & thankful for the shove to widen my horizons, I made this fruit salad with a ginger-lime-basil dressing.
IMG 0309What a great beginning to the day this was…a treat for the eyes too!
These days North India is seeing an abundance of the ‘Safeda’ mango, which is juicy & absolutely delicious. Alphonsos, Safedas, Banganpalli, Neelam, Dusheri, Totapuri, Langra can be seen across local markets during the mango season. These are all local varieties & one variety eases the other out of the market as days go by. IMG 0317
That’s the sons’ bowlful…he had it with just mangoes & cherries, basil & dressing!
When we were young, we would visit family friends in Benares, a holy town on the banks of the river Ganges, almost every summer. Summer being prime mango season, every meal would begin or end with mango in some form. Breakfast was usually mango pureed with a small amount of milk or cream, served chilled in porridge bowls…absolutely delicious. Lunch & dinner would be wrapped up with each of us being given individual platters, knives & mangoes (which were chilled in huge tubs of ice water), & we would devour them with great excitement….with no one particularly concerned at the juices dripping or the royal mess we created.IMG 0253
Mangoliciously good memories!!
The onset of summer also means the appearance of fruits from the hills from the state of Jammu & Kashmir, a state often referred to as ‘Paradise on Earth’. Peaches, apricots, cherries are mesmerising our taste buds too these days, & found place next to the mangoes in our bowlfuls for breakfast! Melons too jostled for space in the bowl; I used the melon baller for them.

collage1

Luxuriating in a walnut wood bowl that my mother got from Srinagar when we visited the ‘Paradise‘ decades ago…

Now for the recipe…very simple & full of flavour.
Ingredients for the dressing
Water – 1/3 cup
Sugar – 1/3 cup
Zest & juice of 2-3 limes
Grated fresh ginger – 1-2″ piece

Method:

  • Boil the zest + water + sugar + ginger & simmer it for 3-5 minutes.
  • Take it off the heat. Add the lime juice & let it rest for 20-30 minutes for the flavours to marry!!
  • Strain & chill until ready to use.
  • Chop up 3-4 mangoes, deseed & quarter 10-15 apricots, pip the cherries (I didn’t) & ‘ball’ the melon (I did).collage 1
  • Chop up a handful of fresh basil fine. Gently toss everything together in a big bowl, drizzle the dressing over the fruit & toss again gently. Chill well & serve in individual bowls with a sprig of basil each. Top with chopped crystallized ginger if you like.

collageThere you go Arundati…this is for you @ Escapades!! Thanks for pushing (read stalking) me to stretch my limits. A sweet thought on the side, this bowl makes for delicious dessert too, served with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. We tried that too (obviously!!!).

Delicious, both to begin, & end the day!!IMG 0278 Howzzat for a ‘bowlful of mangolicious options’?

Posted by Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

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24 Comments

  • Mike of Mike's Table

    2008/05/18 at 1:38 am Reply

    This looks beautiful! Very healthy and delicious looking way to start the day. I love all of the colors and the great variety of fruits you brought to the party.

  • Ben

    2008/05/18 at 2:39 am Reply

    There is not a better way to start your day with a delicious bowl of fruit, and if mango is included in the equation, that is a banquet 🙂

    Did you see the mango pancakes I made? They were just delicious!

    Have a great week 🙂

  • Passionate baker...& beyond

    2008/05/18 at 4:09 am Reply

    Thanks Mike…missed the strawberry seduction, but hoping for some mango mischief now!!
    Ben…now you’re egging the DH on!! Will check it out – the pancakes post. Sound YUM!! Have a wonderful week too.BTW congrats for getting recognised by the National Mango Board. Well done!!

  • Passionate baker...& beyond

    2008/05/18 at 4:09 am Reply

    Thanks Mike…missed the strawberry seduction, but hoping for some mango mischief now!!
    Ben…now you’re egging the DH on!! Will check it out – the pancakes post. Sound YUM!! Have a wonderful week too.BTW congrats for getting recognised by the National Mango Board. Well done!!

  • Purnima

    2008/05/18 at 5:19 am Reply

    Deeba,hw colorful n tasty conglomerate of fruits hv u started with, truly mouth-watering! Thks for sharing!!

  • Manggy

    2008/05/18 at 1:02 pm Reply

    Deeba, that’s a lovely salad! Here at home, I like chopping up apples, bananas (which I know you don’t like), and papayas as well– I’m not a fan of melons, but it goes down well with mango 🙂 I like adding honey too.

  • mimi

    2008/05/18 at 4:04 pm Reply

    i’m so jealous you get to have such fresh mango! your fruit salad looks like a perfect start to the day!

  • Dwiana P

    2008/05/18 at 4:09 pm Reply

    Look at the color of those mangoes. so beautiful and fresh!
    It reminds me with Indonesia, during mango session the taste is so sweet and the color so yellow and fresh. The price is so cheap too.
    too bad yesterday I bought mango, it costs me $1.50 each and it doesn’t sweet at all:(

  • familiabencomo

    2008/05/18 at 4:41 pm Reply

    Oh I LOVE the idea of mixing basil with mango! I never thought of that. Yum, yum, yum! This dressing must taste like heaven. What a great way to start the day – a light, tasty, healthy treat. I’ll remember to plan my trip to India in May so that I can catch the Mango season (he, he!).

    Tanti baci, sweet one,
    Amy

  • arundati

    2008/05/18 at 6:18 pm Reply

    oh the stalking was well worth it deebs!! and what a superb way to start the day…..great entry for WBB…thanks a tonne and see you at the roundup!!

  • Swati Raman Garg

    2008/05/18 at 8:16 pm Reply

    a delicious looknig bowl to start a day with… i wish i could get it readymade 😉

  • Ivy

    2008/05/18 at 9:07 pm Reply

    What a lovely way to start breakfast but all the fruit you used are out of reach except for the water melon, the rest are about 5 – 6 Euros a kilo each.

  • Srivalli

    2008/05/19 at 1:49 am Reply

    man..you know how to make a dish beautiful!..thats awesome to eyes and am sure it would’ve tasted great!

  • ranji

    2008/05/19 at 3:49 pm Reply

    oh yummmmmm!!thats one delcious bowl of fruits..i can just have many of those and fill my tummy:)..good entry.

  • puchu

    2008/05/19 at 5:53 pm Reply

    Dear PAB, bumped into ur blog…n must say really loved it. I love to bake too…lotsa choclatey stuff…the only problem is i dont have eggs…was looking for sm good choclate cake/brownie recipes minus the eggs ofcourse…if u do have sm of those do post…
    Anjali

  • Laurie

    2008/05/19 at 5:57 pm Reply

    Oh Deeba this looks gorgeous!! My kids asked if everything was o.k. when they heard me gasp at those beautiful pictures!! 🙂
    Your so fortunate to have such an abundance of fruit in season..I’m still waiting for the fruit to ripen here! 🙂
    I can imagine for an elegant close to an evening meal this same fruit served marinated with a splash of cognac, sherry or marsala..just a splash! 🙂 🙂

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