The mangoes are in. We have Thai sein ta’ lones, sweet and luscious golden orange when ripe; green mangoes eaten crunchy; sour mangoes, yellow mangoes; and more. We live in mango land and we love it. Back in the United States, mangoes are expensive, often transported great distances and lackluster for the price. Here, they fall off trees if you don’t pick them (don’t park under the mango trees) and are wonderful. We often find gifts of mangoes in our kitchen when we come home or our car when we attend an event as everyone seems to have a mango connection – a tree, a friend with a farm, a recent visit up north where the best mango orchards are. We freeze them chunked in small lots for smoothies, eat them plain, have experimented with mango butter and myriad recipes and, of course, eaten them plain for breakfast, snack and dessert.

(These amazing bright orange and red flowering trees are in bloom now before rainy season starts. I am enamored with their vibrancy, even when they fall to the ground.)

If you don’t eat mangoes often, you might wonder how to cut a mango well (without getting odd-shaped pieces or the hard pith mixed in). Here is my way, based on watching our housekeeper and our cook: slice the very bottom off the mango horizontally so you have a flat bottom. Notice the slightly whitish, hard pith running through the center of the mango. Cut lengthwise down the mango on both sides of this pith from the bottom to the top. Now, you have two halves. You can score them and cut in chunks, slicing close to the skin or in strips. Many people like to then suck off the mango flesh from around the pith before tossing it in the trash, er, compost.

We went to a friend’s brother’s mango farm a few weeks ago – it was actually just a bit early in the season, so while we tried to find ripe mangoes to pick, it was a challenge. Using a long pole with a lacrosse type basket and sharp edge on its end, we tried to cut and catch the few ripe ones. Fortunately, the workers knew where to go and they cut a bunch for us to bring back. The farm also boasted an earthworm compost for fertilizer, a pond that is stocked as a fishery in rainy season and durian trees (not really my fruit).

In exploring many different mango recipes, I hit upon a combination loved by both children and adults – a modified quick bread recipe, originally featuring pumpkin, but now mango. In addition, it has chocolate chips – a sure-fire way to get kids to eat a mostly wholesome bread. This bread is moist, but you will be glad while you lick the crumbs off your fingers (oh, you used a fork?).

Mango Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

The original recipe comes from Mollie Katzen’s lovely Sunlight Cafe book. I credit Katzen with teaching me early on about substations and variations in baked goods, maintaining quality and texture, but improving both nutrition and flavors.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup soy protein flour (if you don’t have it, use another cup of all-purpose or 1 cup whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4-1/2 cup sugar (depends on your mangoes)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup ripe, smashed mango
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons melted butter (Katzen says this is optional, but I’ve never had the will power to leave it out)

1. Preheat oven to 350F/175C (325F/160C for glass pan. Lightly spray a standard sized-loaf pan with nonstick spray.
2. Place flour, protein powder, salt, baking powder and sugar in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined. Add in chocolate chips and mix in.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the mango, eggs, vanilla extract and butter until combined.
4. Add the mango mixture to the dry ingredients and stir from bottom of bowl until everything is combined. Don’t over stir. The batter will be a bit stiff.
5. Transfer the batter to the loaf pan, patting down into a nice loaf.
6. Bake in center of oven 45 minutes to 1 hour (depends on how pudding-like or dry you want your loaf to be) – I usually end up at about 50-55 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and cool on rack for another 10 minutes before trying to slice.

This loaf doesn’t need butter – it is yummy and moist. I’ve added in a bit of cinnamon on occasion, which goes well with the mango. We’ve been using mostly sein ta’ lones in this recipe.