It's a Mango Delight

This is slightly off-season since the mangoes have come and gone, well at least in my part of the world that is.  But hey, they will be back sooner than you can imagine, time flies :)  This was made about a month and a half back, somewhere in May when mangoes flooded the market.   I love eating them fresh the best, but we weren't eating fast enough.    There were lots lying around in the house at that time.   There was some greed buying i admit, we had an entire crate that hubs brought back from India too, plus quite a few (and the dragon fruits too) that my friends brought over when they visited.

I love how these turned out, they are as tasty as they look :)   The inspiration to make this combination came from wanting to make good use of the 2 fruits that my friends brought over and i remember being attracted to something similar at  Jessie's Cooking Moments some time back. 

The taste of this mango pudding dressed with some dragon fruit jelly and mango cubes was very refreshing.  The pudding was smooth , creamy and had a very rich mango flavour.   The dragon fruit jelly broke the monotony of the creamy pudding and the little black seeds provided a nice bite.  It was a nice combination of sweet and tangy deliciousness in a dessert.

I only had two of them in these cute little bottles.  These bottles were containers for some imported yogurt and they were the most expensive yogurt that i have ever bought, hence i bought only 2!  I was more interested in the bottles than the yogurt in them when i bought them!  The yogurt was good though.  If i had more, i believe they will make quite an impression if served during parties :)

On a last note, apologies for not having a photo to show the texture of the pudding.  I rushed to take this photo just before sunset and at that time it wasn't completely set yet, so no digging in yet.  Then it was too dark for good photos (by my skills) when we indulged and like they say the rest is history :)

Recipe-Mango Pudding
Source: Food4Tots

Ingredients

• 2 large ripe mangoes (250g for puree and 300g for cubes)
• 9g (3tsp) gelatin powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 50 sugar 
• 100ml + 40ml water
• 80ml fresh cream (I used whipping cream)

Method

1. In a small glass bowl, sprinkle gelatin powder over 40ml water. Let the gelatin absorb the liquid and bloom.  Set aside.
2. Cut and slice mangoes. Set aside 300g to cut into small cubes.
3. Blend 250g mango flesh into puree.  Add in ½ tsp lemon juice and mix well.
4. Add another ½ tsp lemon juice to mango cubes and set aside.
5. Use a medium saucepan, add in 100ml water and sugar. With low heat, bring it to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Off the heat and add in the soaked gelatin into the pan to combine with the sugar mixture.
6. Add in mango puree and mix well.
7. Add in 3/4 of the mango cubes and mix well.
8. Add in fresh cream and mix well.
9. Transfer the saucepan to a large pot (or any kind of container with large base) that filled with ice water. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to stir the pudding mixture until it becomes slightly thick. Remove the pan from the ice water. 
10. With a large spoon/ladle, pour the pudding mixture into moulds/ramekins.   Place the moulds/ ramekins onto a tray.  Chill it while dragon fruit jelly is being prepared.

Recipe-Dragon Fruit Jelly

Ingredients 

• 25 gm. sugar
• 1 tsp. agar-agar powder
• 150 ml water
• 40 gm red dragon fruit, pressed into a puree with a fork (don't blend to have seeds in whole)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 pieces of pandan leaves 

Method 

1. Boil sugar, agar-agar powder and water with pandan leaves in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves.
2. Lower flame and mix in dragon fruit puree and lemon juice.

Assemble

1. Pour some dragon fruit jelly on top of pudding that has slightly set. 
2. Chill until pudding completely sets.
3. Serve topped with some mango cubes.

Note:

1. It is important to use mangoes that have ripen (but not too soft), sweet and less fibrous for a good result.   I used the Thai Rainbow mangoes for this.
2. There will be some extra dragon fruit jelly if poured in this proportion.  One can either pour more or set them in separate moulds.