I never really understood what people's fascination with mangoes was all about. It's not to say that I had a bad experience with mangoes. I've had ones in the U.S., Taiwan, and the Philippines (supposedly the home of mangoes). And yet, none were anything special. Oh well...
This year we had a Friday vespers/dedication for the upcoming school year. Along with the dedication came an agape feast. For some reason I wasn't too hungry that night. I did notice some enticing chunks of mango lying on Zach's plate. I have a habit of sampling the food from Zach's plate, but I don't see this as being a terrible habit. I return the food items that I don't want to eat anymore. :)
I was completely surprised at the flavor of this mango. It tasted like candy. I kept wandering back up to the table to get more even though I wasn't hungry in the first place. Eating that delicious mango made me excited for the intense flavors of fruit that we'll have in heaven. I can give up cookies for fruit even better than that.
After eating such delicious mango, I was now on the hunt to find some for myself. I bought 3 different kinds of mangoes, and all have proved to be delicious. I have, however, preferred the larger, yellow ones. They seem to be a little less sweet.
Mango season doesn't last too awfully long in Taiwan, and I had a great idea. I'm going to make mango pie! I had tried mango pie in Hawaii at a friend's house, and I loved it. I just had never thought about making it. I looked up lots of recipes and wasn't too satisfied with anything that I was finding. So, I mixed and matched a few recipes. I think mangoes are pretty unforgiving fruit, and it's real easy to experiment with them. With all that said, here's my Irresistible Mango Pie!
Irresistible Mango Pie
- Pastry for 9" two crust pie - I used the recipe from Better Homes and Garden cookbook Pie crust recipe
- 4 cups fresh mango, sliced (about one really large yellow mango)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 3/4 cup of sugar (you can add more if you like your pie to be quite sweet)
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (I didn't feel like using cinnamon, so I used almond extract.)
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare the pastry as directed. Mix the mango and lemon juice. Stir together sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Mix with mango. Turn into pastry lined pan. Cover with the top crust. I made lattice top pie crust since I was running out of pie dough. Cover the edges of the pie with tin foil to keep it from browning too much/too quickly. Remove the foil in the last 15 minutes of baking. Bake the pie for 35 to 45 minutes or until the crust is brown. And don't forget, serve the pie ala mode.
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| The crumbles of my pie crust. |
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| This is my favorite type of mango. |
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| Cut the mango horizontally and then vertically. |
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| Next, gently slice the mango into your bowl. As they say on Masterchef, let the knife do the work. |
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| Mmm... Hao Hao Chi. |
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| Ready for the oven! |
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| Pie looks great, but don't you like my apron? My mom and I made 4 aprons like this over the summer. |
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| Finished product. Just missing the ice-cream. |
