It's that in between
lunch and supper time on a Sunday afternoon, around four thirty.
Outside it's 98 degrees with 95% humidity; inside our un-air-conditioned
house, my family and I attempt to cram beneath the whirring
ceiling fan. We went to the public library yesterday, we've
already reached the daily limit of UV exposure at the city pool,
so our cool down options are limited.
I stir myself out from under a section of newspaper. "Who
wants a mango licuado?" Three eager children scramble ahead
of me into the kitchen, and even my husband, gently dozing on
the floor, mumbles "Sure." Licuados are incredibly easy, delicious,
and refreshing, a perfect summer treat. They're even good for
you!
To make mango licuados you need:
According to Barbara Karoff (South American Cooking),
the Portuguese introduced mangos to the Americas from India.
A multitude of mango varieties grows around the tropical world.
The grocery stores where I shop usually carry a fist-sized
mango imported from Mexico. Use your nose and a gentle touch
to select mangos. Ripe mangos smell sweet, and yield to slight
pressure. Their peel may be green, yellow, or red, or any combination
of those colors, dependent on variety.
Peel and slice the mangos into chunks. I do this directly
over the blender container, allowing the juice to collect along
with the fruit . Cutting up mangos is a messy, sticky business.
The flesh often clings rather tenaciously to the pit, and some
varieties have a stringier flesh than others.
I have successfully used a grapefruit knife to scrape every
last bit of fruit from the pit. (I have also been known to stand
over the kitchen sink and selfishly slurp the remaining fruit
off of the pit, not an activity for the fastidious).
You should have approximately 3 cups of combined fruit and
juice in your blender jar. Add enough milk to raise the liquid
level to 4 cups, and puree for one minute. Ideally, your mangos
are so perfectly ripe that they require no sugar.
If the puree does not taste sweet enough to you, add sugar
until it suits you. Add ice to bring the measurement to 5 cups;
blend until the ice is crushed. Serve immediately.
You can substitute just about any fruit you wish if mango
is unavailable. Strawberries are wonderful, peaches or nectarines
sublime... combine as you wish. You can use frozen fruit--I
do, if I'm making guava or passion fruit licuados, because I
find it tedious to strain the tiny seeds both fruits contain--
but fresh really does taste better. You can also omit the milk.
This type of refreshment is also called a batido or a refresco,
depending on where you are in the Spanish-speaking Americas.
If you whir the fruit in the blender with water, then strain
the juice, you have an agua fresca. Agua frescas are particularly
refreshing when made with melon or pineapple. |
