Mango cobbler

I recently tried out a recipe that I would never have conceived of in America. It is ripe mango season here. To me that is a very good thing because I like ripe mangos. I have discovered all kinds of ways to eat (and serve) a mango. The staff gave me a lesson on cutting mangos at the office one day. It caused many laughs (mostly for them) as I am quite an amateur. They taught me two methods: 1) there is the easy cut method with the peel still on, scoring it in to cubes and eating it right off the skin (my preferred method because it is fast and easy). 2) the tradition peel, cut and slice method which is how mango is usually served in restaurants. I have watched ladies at stalls do this in a blink of an eye. They obviously have more mango slicing experience than I.

A friend of mine who recently moved here from the US showed me a tool I never knew existed - it is a mango corer slicer (similar to the ones you can find for apples, but made specifically for mangos). Who knew? I wish I had one. Maybe on home leave I will hunt one down as there will be a mango season in Mozambique.

Mangos are the talk of the town. At a breakfast with girlfriends last weekend we were talking about the yummy mangos, we went through a list of things to do with a mango. One girl mentioned it was like Bubba on Forrest Gump listing the ways to prepare a shrimp...we had sliced mango, mango sorbet, mango salsa, grilled mango, mango smoothies, mango bread, mango pudding, the list went on and on, then I told them about this recipe I was going to try - a mango cobbler. Hmmm, we all wondered aloud what that would be like.

The conversation inspired me to try that evening. My other motivation is that Kenyon has tried one piece of a not quite ripe yet mango and decided he doesn't like them. I wanted to present ripe mango in a way he might reconsider his opinion. I shared this dilemma with a colleague and she shared a recipe with me that her mom used to make when she was growing up in the Phillipines. She told me the recipe, I did the following with the mangos, then followed an online recipe for the cobbler (I'd share it with you, but it is currently in a box on it's way to Africa).

Fruit filling:
3 cups ripe mango (approximately 4 medium sized)
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar

Bring water to a boil. Add sugar then the fruit. Boil for a few minutes to let the ingredients mix.

Kenyon will still tell you that he isn't a fan of mangos, that he doesn't like the fruit at all, but that night he ate half a pan of cobbler!

NOTE: if you'd like the official recipe, let me know and I will post it once our boxes arrive at our destination, or you can email me and I will send it to you.