The other day SWMBO and I hit the Alabama Farmers Market just northwest of downtown Birmingham, a 49-acre ‘farmer’s market’ on steroids, open 24 hours a day with just about every imaginable variety of fruit and vegetable known to the southern cook right at hand. Even better, it’s owned and run by local and regional farmers.
There are 61 bays of warehouse space and eleven open sheds (30 x 200 feet) housing produce the bulk of which was literally in the field yesterday or the day before.
Wandering mouth agog through one of the fruit barns we came upon a couple of shipping crates full of gorgeous plump mangos, most hitting their ripe peak on cue, and shamefully inexpensive to boot.
My mind flashed backed to our residency days in Salt Lake City and the shy Bahamian wife of a visiting orthopaedic fellow who showed us one hazy, hot summer afternoon what Mango Salsa was meant to.
Maribel was a leggy beauty who grew up chasing bonefish with a guide uncle (she could apparently cast an 8wt well into the backing with a 20 knot wind blowing). She was painfully shy though loved to cook and became downright chatty as I soused for her that afternoon, helping her prepare several variations of this recipe.
This was her favorite and simply became Maribel’s Mango Salsa in our file.
She rattled off a long list of ‘other things’ to add (listed below), though this base recipe was clearly her favorite. We had it on Ahi tuna that day several decades ago; I think it will be a flounder or blackened redfish for us this weekend.
It’s killer on a brined bone-in pork chop, grilled to a juicy just-past-medium-rare too. Cue up the mango vid below and get to it this weekend.
2 cups chopped (pitted of course) peeled mango
1 cup red bell pepper, chopped smallish
2/3 cup red onion, chopped smallish
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 tbsp. fresh lime juice
Drizzle of good honey
1/2 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded, and diced small
1 tsp. oil
Dash of sea salt and fresh ground pepper to tasteMaribel sometimes adds: 1/2 avocado, small dice; 1/2 seeded firm tomato, small dice; other peppers for more heat, usually a seeded and diced habanero; 1/2 cup roasted corn; a cup of diced fresh pineapple; even 1/2 cup of jicama, small dice, and so on and so forth. Use your imagination.
Chop and mix. This one is basically prep work; chop what needs to be chopped and mix well in a small bowl. Maribel likes to make hers three to four hours ahead of when the fish (or whatever) is due to come off the grill.
You’ll be tempted to just eat this one right out of the bowl.
Enjoy.
