The squeeze test. If it gives it's ripe. If it gives a lot it is very ripe. I prefer them with a hint of tartness. A bruised or soft mango isn't a joyous thing to me. So, do the squeeze test! Best, Grub :)

Mmmmmmm mangoes... Well, you press very gently as if it were a prize tomato you were testing!

I find the best way to get stuck into a mango is to slice off both flat sides as close to the seed as possible. You can cut a checkered pattern thru the flesh of each half with a sharp knife, down to the skin, and then turn it inside out to fan out the squares of fruit.

Best to just dive in even if you get your whole face messy!!!

Peel the thin slice that encases the seed, and just bite off the flesh from the fibrous stuff. Enjoy!

PP

PS. A small warning - mangoes can be very addictive!

Thanks Grub, and yes I know PP, and that is why we try to resist them at $1.50 each. We'll leave it till the weekend and hop in then, it is still firm and looks to green to me.

Best place to eat them is in the spa! With a nice SSB on the side.

Linda

I usually judge the ripeness of mangoes by its aroma. I find this the best way to find one thats ripe, but not too ripe.

mudlark

How I wish, how I wish.

The council garbage collectors in Rockhampton are complaining about the weight of the green bins, they are too heavy for the lifters because all the fallen mangoes are being put in them so now there is only to be a 1/4 of a bin of mangoes.

How I wish I could send down the surplus but then we have the problem with bugs and so forth going south of the border.
Sorry folks.

Marion

Ohhh wow! If I had that many I'd make some mango wine!!!

PP *sobbing*

Reminds me of our trip to Port Douglas. Mangoes all over the nature strips and gardens. They were everywhere. I suppose it is like nectarines in Melbourne around this time of year. Everyone's got them and they aren't a novelty when they are so local.

Hawaii was once the same with coconuts, but when we were there, their equivalent of the local council actually cut them from the palms before they fell. I suppose having a coconut land on your head isn't funny. (or cheap for insurance companies)

sounds like you've got a strawberry mango, oz, not my fave, but certainly alot of people like 'em. Do as PP says, and eat them in the bath. Beware of mango mouth, an irritation from the skin which everybody gets at the start of the season. Looks like pash rash. Most unbecoming.

You could always dry the excess Mangos in a dryer:):):)....Come up tops they do and a treat when out on the water Fishing:)..
Oh yes , Ripeness test??,Smell , softness ,Colour n variety of Mango:), But most times if its yellow n rediah Pink n a wee tender, ITS RIPE n ready for munchin on..
No such thing as too many Mango's lol...
keep a few in ye ole ferfrigerator and slice whn nice n chilled OR!!!!!if a tad one the too ripe side, how about with ice Cream:):)....
Or!!!Hang on just going ta get some mango out of the ferfrigerator lol..
Cheers

you are right. Volvo.
The deep freeze has it's quota, the Mango Relish and Jams have been made and the rest eaten, that is from our trees.
Had some wonderful Mango Chicken for dinner last night and the leftovers for lunch today, yum.
But then when envy takes over Southerners, you have the lovely stone fruit and such we have Buckley's chance of growing here.
Marion

I cut him up tonight and threw him in a salad with fresh Avacados, bananas, rockmelen and a tin of pineapple pieces then a good squirt of fresh lemon juice, yum. The dog ate some of the skin so I hope he doesn't get a dose of mango mouth :-)

A dog with pash rash, that'll get the neighbours talking!!!!!

Might get the lady dogs talking too :-)

Smash some up into mayonnaise with a bit of lime or lemon juice and pour over butter lettuce - yum. In Delicious magazine Novemeber I think there's a wonderful recipe for mango cheescake by Nigella - I made it and it is forever named Nigella Cheesecake - fat bottomed and pouty. We are buying them by the case in Tassie at the moment.

Cheers
Linda - just avoiding cleaning windows.........

The only time I clean my windows is the week before my parents arrive!
You'd better post the recipe for Nigella's cheesecake, it will make finbar soooo happy!!!
Sarah, feeling sorry for herself 'cos she couldn't go to Rutherglen :-(

I am sure that Finbar would be happy to try Nigella's cheesecake Sarah, what are you thinking :-)
Linda, I hope you are getting them for less than the 1.50 each we have to put out for them. A case full would cost a weeks salary.

I'm getting a tray of 15 for about $14 atm - am cutting them up and freezing them in little containers for the kids lunch boxes - mango texture is still ok once frozen

also cutting mango and bananas pieces and freezing for yummy smoothies

the best way to tell if a mango is ready is colour - still some green is OK; and smell - if they are really soft they are over ripe

please post the recipe for the cheesecake (mmmmmm)

They are 85c in the veggie shed today. I'll look out the recipe and post it. I made it at Christmas and it is luscious and my son in law has ordered it for next year instead of chrissie pud. Got to finish those bloody windows this afternoon, because we want to paint before the new kitchen goes it ( hurray!) and house sitters arrive while I go on tour to pay for it. By the way I potted up 18 Globe Artichokes to grow on. Isn't it funny when you clean windows how all the neighbours start cleaning theirs!

Cheers
Linda

They just want to be able to see if you are watching them :-)

I turn my back for five minutes to go to Rutherglen and someone posts my name and that bint Lawson's name in the same paragraph. Sheesh!

standards slipping are they, finbar?

Quoting finbar " I turn my back for five minutes to go to Rutherglen and someone posts my name and that bint Lawson's name in the same paragraph. Sheesh!" Sorry about that - I haven't heard anyone called a bint since 1956 - I will now redeem myself with you and post the recipe. Finished the windows and the Google-Beagle breathed all over them...can't win.

Linda

Seems I'm not allowed to post another reply without changing the title. So here goes.

The Unnameable Nigella Fat Bottomed Bint Rosy Cheeked Mango cheesecake:

Start the day before you want to eat it.

Base:
250g packet of digestive biscuits (next time I'll use gingernuts)
120 g unsalted butter ( soften)
1/4 cup soft dark brown sugar.
(Linda's variation - I added ginger juice to taste).

Blitz the biscuits in food processor until you get crumbs. (Or use rolling pin to crush) Add the butter and sugar and continue to process until it clumps. Press into a 24cm springform cake tin. Refrigerate.

Filling:

4 mangoes made into puree.
680 g or thereabouts full fat cream cheese
1 cup caster sugar
6 nice yellow yolked eggs
Lime juice to taste.

Puree mango and add cream cheese in processor and blend together. Slowly add sugar and break eggs in one at a time until the whole thing is smooth, adding lime juice last.

Put the springform pan on a double layer of foil and bring the edges up around the tin making a little waterproof nest. Put the mixture into the tin on top of the crumb base then put the tin and its foil nest into a baking dish or roasting pan and add boiling water( to the baking dish not the cheescake) up to about half way up the tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 160- 170 C for about 1 hour and 45 minutes until there's only a bit of wobble left in the middle. Remove from the oven and take out of the water bath, remove foil and let it cool down. Cover and refrigerate overnight to chill. Garnish the top with extra slices of mango or whatever you like - I used lots more Mango and some pine nuts because I never follow recipes exactly.

It is really easy to do. Has an excellent flavour and worth the effort of pouting and wiggling and giggling and swinging your hips to the music as you do a pale imintation of Nigella for the amusement of any body who is there. I like the variation of ginger in the crust because I invented it. I put a bit of foil over the top about half way through cooking because I have a fan forced oven and it started to make a bit of a crust. This recipe took about 8 mangoes and serves about 12 decent slices, with whipped King Island Cream on the side and a nice bottle of Reisling.

Cheers
Linda

Wow that sounds great! I think I put on about 5 kilos just reading it!
So how was Rutherglen?
Sarah *trying not to sound too disappointed*

Sounds good eh, Finbar.

It's a great recipe. I've got nothing against the fat-bottomed bint except that I reckon she's a marketing exercise getting in the way of the food. In the same way that I reckon Jamie Oliver is a skinny-bottomed git doing exactly the same thing.

They probably both love food, and the preparing of it, but have been lured by the networks, and money, because they have the personality to do the networks job.

Not to mention the egos.

I just reckon they should give us some of the money. I could easily be as vacuuous as either. That cheesecake is, however, the most fattening I've seen in quite a while. Can't wait to try it. Rutherglen was exciting, although it really is hard to be excited in a town where the main hobby for most people is to see how much sleeping they can physically get away with. It was very relaxing.
I got a lovely bottle of muscat, and some Wheat beer, which wasn't very popular with the others, coz there are almost no hops in it, and it doesn't get a head. Delish, however, and well worth the visit.
It certainly has changed since my childhood. quite the gourmet neck of the woods these days.

Erm....what's a bint? Sounds delightfully rude...would like to use it but might need more info to avoid being clobbered.

cheers, mudlark

As Linda observed, it's a very old term. I don't know that it has any particular definition apart from being a generally derogatory description of a female. The Monty Python team repopularised it as a form of abuse - "cloth-eared bint" - and, in particular, in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", the Lady in the Lake giving Excalibur to Arthur was described as "some moistened bint ... lobbing a scimitar".

Pep,
Bint sure has a literal meaning. In Arabic, bint is daughter. So throwing around "some moistened bint" could bring about an interesting reaction in the wrong company and especially in the present climate. Either you'd be thrust into wedlock (again), castrated with a sabre, or sent packing with a TNT singlet. And we can't have that. :)grub.

Just to clarify..is it bint rhymes with stint OR bint rhymes with pint.

just curious, mudlark

Stint.

So who are you planning to call a bint mudlark?
It certainly is an excellent turn of phrase, I've been trying to think of a male equivalent, possibly pillock? A good English word that one!
This is just the sort of thing I miss about England, along with the pubs & the old boyfriend of course!

You miss pillocks, Sarah? *winks*

I love all these English expressions. Even the terms of abuse are amusing. Well, some of them. Gosh, they are quaint, these English.

I'm afraid Australia has it's fair share Spatz, as I'm sure you've noticed!

A Brazilian friend once taught me the mango ripeness test: slide the remaining part of the stalk off with your thumb and smell - if the fruit smells pine-like, it's ripe. Well, this one always works for me...
And yes, nothing like a good, old fashioned slagging match between two English friends in a pub. Remember that immortal line, "You spawny-eyed, parrot-faced wazzock!"

Bint, Pillock, Weseck pale into insignificance against Codswallop as talking rubbish - I researched the origins of it ( because sometime I don;t have a life) and apparently the cod is the protective device worn by men when riding into battle to protect their goolies. I imaging the wallop might be caused by making a wrong move on the way to the battle at which they may utter some inexplicable words of distress. Hence - you are talking a load of codswallop'. Prat is another nice pommie word. I use it all the time.

Hee hee, thanks all!

mudlark, *taking notes*

ps: sarah, in reference to your question about who I am planning to call a bint, this week I think my boss qualifies, I also have someone in my work'place' that is doing his best impersonation of a pillock (and its not even a full moon!). Linda, I use prat a lot too, mostly in reference to myself.

One hopes one is not being referred to as a pillock. Of course I know you don't mean me, The Australian term for me is dropkick. Very descriptive. Sharp as a bowling ball.

Bollox

From a dictionay of British slang:

bint
Noun. A woman. From the Arabic 'bint' meaning girl or daughter. Derog.

pillock
Noun. Idiot, fool. Originally a slang term for the penis but fairly inoffensive. Derog.