Close your eyes and think about mango for a moment. What popped in front of your eyes? I remembered my sticky hands greedily gulping down pulpy mango with my bare hands. My mind then wandered off to mango ice cream, mango milkshake topped with vanilla ice cream and aam panna, my favourite cooler for the summer. What I didn’t think of was aam being used in regular savoury food. Did you by any chance?
Mango and Basil Bruschetta
The bruschetta was cheesy and mangoey (a word that I invited to describe gooey mango pieces) It surprisingly wasn’t too sweet and the toasted bread base rubbed with mango butter was delicious.
Mango, Smoked Chicken and Quinoa Salad
Honey dressing for the light sweetness, crunchy pieces of multi-grain bread, generous chunks juicy and fresh mangoes, chicken and quinoa made this a beautiful summer salad. It was filling yet light on the stomach.
Traditional Raw Mango Pickle with Nachni Bhakri
Homestyle mango pickle, a side of raw mango and onion salad and fluffy ghee laden nachni bhakris made the perfect light snack between the meals.
Paneer Appam
How does one combine Paneer and Mangoes? Clearly the chef is a mango wizard. He came up with a delicious gravy with chunks of soft, buttery paneer and khatta meetha kairi (raw mango) served with appam.
Mango Cheesecake
Cheesecake is my favourite. Add some milk chocolate, mangoes and fresh basil to it and it takes the dessert to an all new level.
Mango Tiramisu
Now this one was a bit of a surprise. Rasberry puree with mango mousse and coffee cake was what this tiramisu was all about. The Rasberry puree was a little too sour for my liking and I didn’t like it much. The combination of coffee cake and a light mango mousse was interesting.
Hats off to the chef for taking my favourite summer fruit and presenting it to me in a whole new light. I came in starving but left with a bellyful of delicious mango food and a huge smile.
If you are a mango lover like me, you should definitely visit their Aamlicious Festival. 🙂