Mango Bread & Jam, (Meat)balls, and Chili Mac

Sally's mango tree this year has been exceptionally fruit-full!  We harvested a couple mangoes the last week of May -- totally unheard of with this tree, which usually starts dropping fruit in mid-July. The fruit have been  bit smaller this year, but just as tasty, and 'way more plentiful.

 I'm attributing the plethora of fruit this year to the "abuse" which hurricane Irma gave the tree back in September.  "They" say that if your mango tree slacks off in production you should literally beat the trunk and branches with a ball bat -- the induced stress makes the tree produce more fruit the following year.  Well, even though the tree was protected between the side of Sally's house and the house next door, the top certainly was radically shaken up during the storm's passage.  

Mango Delights:  Smoothies of various incarnations, upside down cake, pie...  

Mango Bread
I first posted the recipe a couple  years ago, and use it regularly.  This time I've added blueberries instead of raisins.  I also made a batch using a gluten-free flour blend, so we could gift some to our yoga teacher Nicole.

2 cups AP Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Mace or Nutmeg
2 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 to 1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs, beaten
3/4 cup Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Lemon or Lime Juice
1/2+ cup Blueberries
2-1/2 cups chopped mango, with a good amount of juice.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Combine the dry ingredients, then add the wet and stir to combine.  Fold in the fruit.  Pour into loaf pans -- I use the tinfoil mini pans, but any size and kind will do; even cupcake molds.  Leave room for the batter to rise a bit.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick/chopstick comes out clean.  Cool on a rack before slicing.

Mango Jam
I always thought Mango Jam would take a lot more work -- cooking the fruit with liquid or powdered pectin, sterilized jars… the whole bit.   Then I found this Indian recipe for Instant Mango Jam.  

Well, nothing is "instant" except crappy coffee and oatmeal; but this takes less time than you'd think.

1 Mango, chopped
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Pepper
Spoonful of Jaggery -- crystalized cane sugar or brown sugar

Stir together in  glass bowl.  I used the mango pictured at the top of the page.

Microwave in 2 minute increments.  Between 6 and 8 minutes you should get a jelled but still chunky product perfect for morning toast.

OMG!  This is fabulous!  My first thought was "pepper and mango"??  But I figured the Indian peoples have been messing with mangoes for a thousand years or so, they should know what's what!

This one's a keeper, folks!!!!  My next experiment will be to see how I can scale this up to pint mason jar quantities.


(Meat)balls
The word meat is in parentheses because there isn't any meat in this (meat)ball recipe!  Sally found this someplace and sent it to me.  I needed a dish to take to our Americana Community Music Association Summer Social last weekend, so I gave the recipe a try.  There are a number of vegetarians/vegans in the group who I knew would appreciate the effort.

These very tasty no-meatballs are made with eggplant.  Don't tell, and folks will have trouble guessing.  Someone thought I'd put Kalamata olives in this batch...  Even the ACMA carnivores liked them -- there were only 2 left out of the 36 I took to the party.

2 cloves garlic
1-1/2 lb Eggplant cubed, skin on
S&PTT
1-1/2 cups Panko
3/4 cup Parmesan (from a jar is OK)
1/2 cup fresh Parsley, chopped fine
1/2 cup fresh Basil, chopped fine
1 Egg, beaten
1-2 cups Marinara (optional) for serving

Sauté the garlic in a splash of EVOO for  minute, then add the eggplant, salt & pepper (or other spice blend) and 1/4 cup of water.   Cook for 8-10 minutes until just barely tender.  Transfer to a colander, and drain.

Heat the oven to 400F.  Line a baking sheet with non-stick paper.  

Transfer the eggplant to your food processor, add the other ingredients and pulse to combine.  Don't totally puree things, you want some texture left.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and add more panko as necessary to make the mixture firm enough to form balls that will stay in shape.

Form about thirty 1-1/2" balls and lay them out on the baking sheet.  Bake 35-45 minutes until firm and nicely browned.  Cool on a rack.  Can be served with 'doctored' marinara sauce, or all by themselves.


Chili Mac
I hadn't thought of this dish in more than 50 years.  Then the other day I saw three references to it!  Had to make it to see if it was as good as I remembered.  

Dirt simple, really.  Make a batch of Chili the way you like it.  For this you can even put beans in your chili (which we know is a perversion)!!!

Cook up a batch of macaroni.    Stir the two together (or not).  My first bowl was chili-over-mac, not tossed together.  Serve with or without cheese or other toppings.

Yummmmmm.

Since Sally's still in Norway, I made a big batch to eat on all week!