Featured Q & A

Question:

Is there an easy way to eat a mango?  How do you get the fruit off easily from the skin?  Also I like to bake.  Can you recommend recipes that use mango as an ingredient?  I live where mangos are not available year round.  Can I freeze mangos?  Thank you for any information you may have.
Answer:

I’m so glad you asked about mangoes. They’re a fascinating, somewhat mysterious fruit that some cooks shy away from.

The tough green skin of the sweet-tart mango turns yellow with touches of red as it ripens.  You can ripen them in a paper bag on your kitchen counter, or you can hold a ripe mango in the fridge for several days.

Some people are allergic to an oil contained in the skin of mangoes. For those people, contact with mango rind can cause a rash. For that reason, I never suggest eating mango directly from the skin.

Mangoes contain a large flat seed that can be pesky if you’ve never cut one before.  It’s easy to cut around it you stand the mango on end, stem side down. Knowing there is a long, oblong pit that runs the length of the mango, use a sharp knife to cut along the pit to remove one fleshy side of the mango. Repeat on the second side. Discard the pit. Use a small sharp knife to make crosswise cuts in the vivid (and delicious) orange flesh in each half. Be careful not to cut through the peel. Press on the center of the mango rind to “open up” the cuts and then carefully cutaway the cubes of mango. Repeat with the other side.

At this point you can easily eat the mango as is, or include it in salads, baked goods, smoothies and ice creams.

You can freeze mango by cutting it as I described above. Place the cubes on a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Once the pieces are frozen, store them in freezer bags for up to several months.

Here are 2 recipes I think you’ll love! Both taste great with mango.

Berry-Banana Trifile

Mango Berry Tart

Sincerely,

Amy

Question:

Do you have any tips about making blueberry muffins? The ones I make usually turn out a little too dense and just not as good as the light and fluffy ones I buy at the local bakery.

Answer:

They say cooking is an art, but baking is a science. When it comes to baking, the ingredients and how you measure, combine and bake them, really matters.

Here are 3 tips that are helpful no matter what you’re baking:

1. Unless the recipe specifically says otherwise, make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature

2. Make sure your oven is preheated to the specified baking temperature

3. Measure the ingredients carefully and accurately.

Here’s how to make bakery style muffins at home:

• Oil adds moistness to muffins and quick breads, but butter adds flavor. Get the best of both by melting the butter before adding to the recipe. Cool it to room temperature before adding.
• Buttermilk makes baked goods more tender. Use instead of milk for great results.
• Mix wet and dry ingredients separately and then combine them just to mix.  Over-mixing the batter makes muffins tough.
• To make the muffins a uniform size, use an ice cream scoop or measuring cup to evenly portion the batter. A mini muffin cup holds about 2 tablespoons of batter. A standard muffin tin holds about ½ cup.
• To avoid sticking, spray just the top of a muffin pan with cooking spray, then line each cup with paper liners.
• Bake the muffins at a higher temperature (375°F-425°F) for a quicker, higher rise, without drying them out.
• Fold the blueberries in gently, by hand, to prevent crushing them.
• Want a sweeter muffin? Swirl a teaspoon of blueberry preserves into each muffin before baking.
• Add a bakery-style topping  to your muffin by sprinkling with coarse sugar before baking.

You can make extra muffins for another day:

• Muffins freeze beautifully. Wrap a batch in foil and then place them inside a re-sealable plastic bag.
• You can freeze them unbaked too. Portion the batter into foil baking cups and freeze them in the tins. Once they’re frozen, remove them from the tins and store the unbaked muffins in a large re-sealable bag marked with the baking directions. Pop the frozen muffins back in the tins before baking. Add 10 minutes to the bake time of frozen, unbaked muffins.