The Dish: For summer sweet, look to mangoes; Palm Beach restaurants share recipes
To understand how one particular fruit sweetens Palm Beach’s slower-paced summer, it helps to be an island resident or chef who knows the magic of mangoes and their singular history here.
As Palm Beach restaurant chefs create delicious mango dishes — and some of their current recipes are below — residents with a mango tree in their yard relish the summer fruit’s sweet yellow-orange flesh.
Just ask Nick Coniglio, who lives in the North End with his wife, Carissa, and their five children.
Although his longtime “traditional Florida mango tree” in the family’s yard isn’t producing fruit this season due to recent pruning, “it will blossom again and, in the meantime, many of our neighbors and friends have mango trees, and everyone shares in a way that’s as much of a summer activity as it is a community builder,” Coniglio told the Daily News.
The Coniglios, who regularly make and serve mango salsa (recipe below), likely will have two mango-producing trees next summer.
Having tasted “amazing” oblong mangoes from a neighbor’s Mahachanok mango tree from Thailand, the Coniglios recently planted such a tree in their own yard. “I’m hoping we’ll have fruit from both of our trees next season. We love all mangoes.”
More than a century ago, someone else in the area felt the same way: the Rev. Elbridge Gale, who came to Palm Beach from Kansas in the 1880s and then settled across the lake in West Palm Beach.
A serious horticulturist, his late-in-life goal was to make mango propagation in the area viable as a star-power fruit crop to send up North.
After his daughter Hattie in 1886 became Palm Beach’s first schoolteacher, Gale successfully grew a grafted Mulgoba mango tree from India as part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture program testing what could be grown in the new subtropical southern Florida frontier.
Before long, a wider-spread mango crop was born as more growers took cuttings from Gale’s and others’ trees.
Mangoes are prevalent here now, with dozens of varieties ranging from Haden to Kent, Edward and more.
The joy of mango season: Locals share the wealth via post office, block parties, traditions
What to do with all these mangoes?
Eat ’em, as is, of course, or perhaps try a recipe from Palm Beach residents and chefs:
THE CONIGLIO FAMILY’S MANGO SALSA
Nick and Carissa Coniglio serve their “simple, fresh and delicious go-to salsa” atop fish, shrimp tacos, rice bowls, tortilla chips and more. (Serves 4-6)
Combine:
1 cup of diced mango
1 cup of diced pineapple
1/2-1 finely diced jalapeño
1/4 finely diced red onion
Handful of chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon of Tajín brand seasoning
Salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lime
RENATO’S LOBSTER-MANGO SALAD
Courtesy Javier Sanchez, executive chef at Renato’s, 87 Via Mizner
Renato's Lobster-Mango Salad "is a great refreshing salad, especially for seafood lovers,” Sanchez told the Daily News.
For one serving, combine in a bowl 2 ounces jumbo lump crab meat, 2 ounces Maine lobster meat, 3 ounces fresh mango chunks, ½ ounce fresh sunflower seeds and 1 ounce of mixed baby greens.
With a dressing made from 3 ounces wildflower honey, 1 ounce Dijon mustard and 1 ounce of white vinegar, mix all ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste and arrange on a plate.
MANGO-LASSI SMOOTHIE
Courtesy culinary team at Celis Juice Bar, Royal Poinciana Plaza, 340 Royal Poinciana Way
Celis Juice Bar's Mango-Lassi smoothie is "the perfect summer smoothie,” co-owner Alex Celis told the Daily News. “It’s refreshing and light and complements this heat very well.”
For one smoothie, combine in a blender 6 ounces almond milk, 6 ounces cashew yogurt (or any yogurt you like), 1 pitted date, 8 ounces frozen mango and 1 teaspoon cardamom.
BUCCAN ROCK-SHRIMP CEVICHE
Courtesy Clay Conley, chef-owner at Buccan, 350 S. County Road
(Serves 4)
Ingredients:
Rock shrimp, 12 ounces
Red pepper, cut julienne, 1 each
Red onion, cut julienne, 1 each
Mango, cut julienne, 1 each
Thai basil, chopped, 2 Tbsp
Mint, chopped, 2 Tbsp
Cilantro, chopped, 2 Tbsp
Ginger, minced fine, 1 tsp
Mango leche de tigre, about 1 cup* (see below)
Crispy corn tortilla chips
Method for shrimp:
Poach the shrimp in salted boiling water for 45 seconds. Remove from heat and add ice to chill. Once chilled, strain the shrimp and keep cold.
* Method for the mango leche de tigre:
Combine all of the following ingredients in a blender:
Fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 1 cup
Coconut milk, ½ cup
Orange juice, ¼ cup
Agave, 3 Tbsp
Fish sauce, 2 Tbsp
Mango hot sauce, 3 Tbsp
Combine everything in a mixing bowl and season with salt. Plate the ceviche onto four separate serving bowls and garnish with micro cilantro or fresh cilantro leaves. Serve with crispy corn tortilla chips on the side.
CAFÉ L’EUROPE MANGO-RASPBERRY TART
Courtesy executive chef Alain Krauss, 331 S. County Road
This dessert, which serves eight after it’s made in a 9-inch tart pan, features a tart crust topped with raspberry-almond cream, fresh raspberries, fresh mango and vanilla ice cream.
In a mixing bowl, combine for the crust:
7 ounces flour
2 ounces powdered sugar
1 ounce almond powder
1 large egg
4 ounces cold water
Let rest one hour in fridge, then roll out and position in tart pan. Bake for 20 minutes in a 325-degree oven.
For the raspberry-almond cream, mix:
4 ounces butter
4 ounces sugar
1 large egg
4 ounces almond powder
2 Tbsp dark rum
Spread the almond cream on the prebaked tart shell and sprinkle one pint of fresh raspberries on top and return to oven at 325 degrees for 20 minutes until nicely colored.
Remove from oven and garnish with sliced ripe-but-firm mango slices, sprinkle with powdered sugar and caramelize the top with a blow torch (optional). Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
BUCCAN MANGO MARGARITA
Courtesy Buccan’s mixologists/bartenders, 350 S. County Road
Combine:
2 ounces Reposado tequila
1 ounce fresh mango juice
1/2 of an ounce ginger juice (ginger blended and strained)
3/4 of an ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 of an ounce of light golden agave
Pinch of salt
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker; strain into a glass with a Tajín-seasoned rim.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Mangoes enliven summer menus in Palm Beach; here are some recipes
