Dicing a Mango for Salsa
[mpprecipe-recipe:19]
IMPORTANT: The only changes you can safely make in this salsa recipe are to substitute bottled lemon juice for the vinegar and to change the amount of pepper and salt. Do not alter the proportions of vegetables to acid and tomatoes because it might make the salsa unsafe.
How to Make Mango Salsa
Blue Jean Chef Meredith Laurence teaches you a refreshing twist on salsa.
salsa is one of the nation’s favorite condiments let’s mix it up a little and make mango salsa for a change so the secret to good mango salsa is getting a ripe mango so that’s half the battle how do we pick a ripe mango you take your mango at the grocery store and give it a gentle squeeze you don’t want it to be too soft that’s overripe but you want to have a little bit of give then take a look around the end the stem of the mango you’ll start to see a few wrinkles that’s a great sign too many wrinkles too right but just a few perfect now inside a mango is a big flat seed it goes from side to side and you can see that based on the shape of the mango we want to cut around that seed so place that mango so that its tallest point is facing up go to the center of your mango and then move about half an inch to one side and slice down turn that mango around and then slice about an inch on the other side the closer you come to the seed the better because now you’re getting more of that flesh on that side makes slices but don’t go through the skin turn it 90 degrees make more slices across those first slices now cut the whole half in half again this should allow you to flatten that skin out and you’ll be able to run your knife along the bottom we’re gonna take the seed and we’re gonna run the knife around there you see there’s quite a bit of flesh still left around the seed and take it all around of this this is a treat for you you can go ahead and chew on that seed when nobody’s looking we’re gonna take the rest of that mango flesh off of the skin just slice it off and go ahead and chop this into nice little dice let’s put everything together so into a bowl I’m gonna put all of our mango I’m going to add the red pepper add some jalapeno now this is up to you if you like things spicy you’re gonna add more if you’re not so big into the spice just at a tiny bit but whatever you do chop that jalapeno really finely so that nobody gets a big chunk of jalapeno all at once now with the cilantro I’m gonna give that a rough chop it’s okay if some of the stems are in there because cilantro stems are actually very tender and very tasty so in goes the cilantro if you don’t like cilantro try substituting something like basil or mint or a mango salsa those are great vibrant flavors so the last ingredient going to add is some red onion but for me right onion flavor can linger for a long time it’s harsh and bitter sometimes I soak the red onion in water after I’ve diced it to take away some of that harsh flavor drain it and then we’re going to give it a dry with a clean kitchen towel and then add that to your salsa bowl now we have to add our seasonings and our flavors so first thing of course lime juice now because mangoes are sweeter than tomatoes naturally we’re going to need to compensate with more lime juice than we would if we were making a tomato salsa so I’m going to put in here my limes and squeeze them and get all that juice out of them and pour that into my salsa we’re going to season this with some salt stir this up and then let the flavors mingle a little bit so let the salsa sit for about half an hour before you’re serving it just to make sure those flavors really have a chance to bloom and commingle and you can make this a day ahead of time not much longer than that because then the mango will start to deteriorate but you could put it in the fridge overnight if you want to make it for a special party so there’s a delicious mango salsa chips to dip and everybody at the parties happy thanks for watching if you’d like to see more of the basics click right over here if you’d like to see everything I used in this recipe click over here and if you have any questions comments or suggestions for more basics put them right down in the comment section below
