Wendy Ra­hamut

Man­goes are prob­a­bly the most trop­i­cal of all fruits, the rich hues of yel­low and or­ange that colour the flesh re­mind us of our Caribbean sun­sets and the sweet­ness re­flects the sweet life on the is­lands!

The sea­son for man­goes comes around just about once or twice per year but when it does roll around there are man­goes just about every­where and any­where in all forms shapes colours and sizes. Mak­ing man­goes an in­gre­di­ent in sa­vory and sweet dish­es is both cre­ative and sump­tu­ous of course. They are used in cook­ing in a myr­i­ad of ways and at dif­fer­ent stages of ripeness as well. They have al­so be­come a main in­gre­di­ent for many chefs in the in­ter­na­tion­al are­nas lend­ing each dish it is present in, a touch of the ex­ot­ic. Tip: If you've got lots of ex­cess ripe man­goes you can peel them, puree them and freeze for use all year round in sor­bets or smooth­ies.

JERKED CHICK­EN WITH MAN­GO SAL­SA

2 lbs bone­less chick­en pieces cut in­to

11/2 inch pieces

4 tbs jerk mari­nade

2 tbs veg­etable oil

8 wood­en skew­ers soaked in wa­ter for four hours

For the chick­en:

Com­bine jerk mari­nade with oil, add chick­en and com­bine, let mari­nade for about two hours in the re­frig­er­a­tor.

Pre­heat gas grill or bar­beque, or broil­er.

Thread chick­en on­to skew­ers and place on­to pre­heat­ed grill or broil­er.

Grill for about ten min­utes un­til chick­en is cooked through.

Serve with man­go sal­sa, and a rice pi­laf.

MAN­GO SAL­SA

2 man­goes, half ripe, prefer­ably Julie man­go or any large smooth tex­tured man­go

1 clove gar­lic minced

1 /2 hot pep­per fine­ly chopped and seed­ed (more or less to taste)

1 ta­ble­spoons fresh lime juice

salt and fresh­ly ground pep­per to taste

1/4 cup cilantro fine­ly chopped or Chadon Beni

Com­bine man­goes, gar­lic, pep­per, lime juice, salt and pep­per.

Let stand for one hour be­fore serv­ing. Add the cilantro last.

Makes about three cups.

MAN­GO BLUE­BER­RY CAKE

Cake:

1 1/2 cups all pur­pose flour

1/2 cup sug­ar

1 tsp bak­ing pow­der

Pinch salt

1/2 cup but­ter

1 egg

1 tsp vanil­la

Fill­ing:

1/2 cup sug­ar

2 tbs all pur­pose flour

1 tbs tapi­o­ca starch

2 lbs Julie man­goes, pit­ted and cut in­to slices length­ways

1 cup frozen blue­ber­ries (op­tion­al)

1 tbs lime juice

Make cake:

Pre­heat oven to 375?F

Place flour, sug­ar, bak­ing pow­der and salt in­to a food proces­sor.

Add but­ter and pulse un­til the tex­ture of small peas.

Add egg, and pulse un­til dough clumps to­geth­er.

Press dough in­to bot­tom and up sides of a nine-inch spring­form pan.

Chill.

For the fill­ing:

Grind sug­ar with tapi­o­ca starch un­til sug­ar is pow­dery.

Add re­main­ing sug­ar.

Toss with man­goes and blue­ber­ries.

Add lime juice.

Spoon in­to pas­try and bake for about 45 min­utes.

Cool be­fore re­mov­ing.