For every stage of mango readiness
Kindly proceed below
Sweet, fragrant and gloriously messy to eat, few fruits inspire such devotion as the mango. Unlike most fruits, the mango has many moments of readiness, rather than just one.
A mango’s readiness is therefore less about perfection and more about purpose: whether unripe, semi-ripe, ripe or overripe, each stage has its own reward.
This guide shows how to judge a mango’s ripeness, with suggestions of what to make at each stage and choice recipes.
Tart, sour and bright with slight fruit notes, the unripe mango (also known as a ‘green’ or ‘raw’ mango) is highly prized for its mouth-watering freshness and sturdiest structure. Firm to the touch with pale flesh when cut and a grassy aroma, it is best for pickles, chutneys, salads and savoury dishes where sharpness is most-needed.
The unripe mango lifts Sindhu Vee’s Ama Ki Daal to something ticklish on the tongue. Impatient mango-fanciers: rejoice.
Not quite sharp, not quite sweet – the semi-ripe mango is the perfect in-between, balancing freshness with the first pleasing signs of sweetness. Still firm but beginning to yield, it is best for salads, chaats and sweet-savoury dishes where bite and zestiness harmonise agreeably.
The semi-ripe mango is very much at home in Dishoom Chef-walla Rishi’s Paneer & Mango Salad, which marries sweetness and bitterness to excellent effect.
Above Alphonso Mango special
Above Permit Room's Alphonso Mango Kheer
Soft, juicy and plump in equal measure, the ripe mango is best eaten straight from the gutli (pit) – indeed, nothing finer. It gives easily to the touch with golden flesh when cut, dripping generously with honeyed sweetness and tropical delight. Eat straight from the Mango-walla – or better still, in café with an (optional) scoop of vanilla ice cream, while mango season lasts.
Selected judiciously, cut deliciously – our treasured Alphonso Mango special – a bowl filled with soft orange cubes of the season’s splendour rarely lasts ’til nightfall. Available from 12pm until Sunday 7th June.
Above Mango & Fennel Lassi
Above Breakfast Lassi
Collapsing and intensely sweet, the overripe mango’s perfumed pulp becomes a gift for lassis and desserts. Soft to the touch with wrinkled skin, its richly honeyed flesh is cherished no less – destined for the blender or baked into sweetest treats.
The overripe mango slips blissfully into our Breakfast Lassi recipe, invigorating mornings with hearty sustenance. For more modest sips, a classic Mango Lassi is a choice all-day alternative.
The story continues
interview
Mangoes do not grace hands by chance – it is the mango-walla who bestows their splendour. Bombayite, Santosh, shares his journey from software engineer to purveyor of summer’s most precious fruit, along with time-sharpened techniques for selecting the very best.
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