Here in India, many food items are much more seasonal than in the West. A few months ago now, we had people selling strawberries at the side of the road but that only last a few weeks and the strawberries disappeared. But now it is the season of the king of Indian fruits, the deliciously sweet, delicately perfumed, mango. Apparently, the mango is the national fruit of India and judging by the zealous popularity of this fruit, so it should be. And at this time of year, mangoes are to be bought everywhere. Vendors set up stalls and sell them at the roadside and the local markets and supermarkets are full of them.
Making mango pulp is a very simple but somewhat messy process. You take the ripe mango, use your fingers to pulp the flesh inside the skin, or roll it on the kitchen bench, until the flesh inside feels soft and pulp-like, then squeeze the mango so that the juice and stone are ejected into a jug. Mango stones are very big, so you take the stone out and scrap as much flesh off as you can. We then blitz the extracted flesh and juice in a blender so that we end up with thick, gloopy mango pulp.
People here will eat mango pulp with chapatis, alongside the main curry dish at meal time. You can also use mango pulp in milkshakes, pour over ice cream, or our favourite, eaten with fruit-filled sweet pancakes, smothered with cream and homemade yogurt; something of a diabetic’s nightmare I suspect but nonetheless moreishly good.