There ain't no [fruit] flies on this...

Talking of produce that is at its best at the moment, this time of year is also prime season for imported mangoes. The many Asian supermarkets in the part of London I live in usually have crateloads of the fruits stacked up inside and out around this time, neatly packed in shredded paper in boxes of half a dozen or a dozen. You will often find a range of varieties on offer, but many people consider the Alphonso mango from India to be the finest. Named after Afonso de Alberquerque, a nobleman and military expert who helped establish the Portuguese colony in India, it is "one of the most heavenly of all edible things", according to our dear friend Mr Ottolenghi. And he feels much the same way about smoked oysters too, so clearly I'm not going to refute his claim.

An Alphonso mango. Photo NOT taken this year.

I say the shops usually have crateloads of the mangoes on display though, as this year there is, sadly, a distinct shortage of them. The reason? It's all due to the EU imposing a ban on mangoes imported from India after authorities in Brussels found consignments infested with fruit flies, which it is feared could have a devastating effect on European salad crops. Critics have argued however that the ban is disproportionate to the risk, and could have a far more devastating effect on Indian growers, UK businesses and Anglo-Indian trade relations.

So far, a 1400-strong petition has failed to have the ban lifted, which is due to be in place until December 2015. Alphonso mangoes may be known as the "king of fruit" by some, but it seems you might have to pay a king's ransom to get your hands on one any time soon. Or alternatively, you could do what I did, and get yourself a tin of Sweetened Alphonso Mango Pulp instead. Problem solved!

Just like the fresh fruit, the pulp is a gloriously vibrant orange, though having had an added 5% of sugar, it is tooth-achingly sweet when tasted as it is from the tin.

With a net weight of 850g, it's a very large tin, which raises the question of what to do with so much of the stuff. Fortunately, the label offers some suggestions:

"Delicious diluted with water for Mango juice"...


Mango juice



..."or with milk for Mango shake."

"Mango Shake". Looks pretty much the same as the juice, so I stuck two straws in for effect.

"Serve with yoghurt"...

Looks a bit like a fried egg.

..."or ice-cream."

Looks a bit like a poached egg.

"Freeze pulp and serve as Mango sorbet."

 

I then hit upon the idea of combining the last two of these suggestions, taking a small amount of ice-cream, putting a cocktail stick in, dipping it into the pulp to coat it, and then re-freezing. Voila - a homemade mini Solero! I also did the same in reverse, coating some of the sorbet with semi-melted ice-cream, and again refreezing - a photo-negative homemade mini Solero!



Here they are in cross-section:

 

Perfect for an Indian summer, assuming the EU won't be able to impose a ban on that too.