I love summer! The days are warm, beautiful sweet smelling white flowers have bloomed on my gardenias and summer fruits are ripe and ready to eat.
I have always loved this time of year but I particularly like the beginning of summer. When I was at school I always looked forward to coming home and walking in the door to discover that Mum had turned on the air-conditioning for the first time that summer. As the coolness washed over me, I knew that school holidays weren’t far away and that best of all, after many long months of waiting, Christmas was almost here!
I love how some memories carry so many feelings with them and that’s what the first air-con day of summer memory has for me. I felt happy and safe and very loved.
Christmas and New Year have come and gone but summer fruit is still ripe and delicious and mango is one of my all-time favourites! We have a beautiful big mango tree in our front yard. When we planted it years ago we imaged a bountiful supply of mangoes every summer and just wandering into our front yard to pluck them off the tree. That happened for about 3 years and then the flying foxes started eating them and then the tree just gave up and we haven’t seen any mangoes on it since then. Our mango tree is so big and beautiful that I have added a photo of it at the end of this post.
This mango mousse is incredibly quick and easy to make and you can use it in a variety of ways. In my photos, I did a kind of parfait with layers of mango mousse and pureed mousse – this recipe makes 2 of the mousse parfaits in the photo but they are quite generous in size. My husband and I also like a scoop of mango mousse over the top of fresh summer fruit. I haven’t done it yet but I plan to make a vegan Pavlova with mango mousse on top and slices of fresh mango and passionfruit drizzled over the top – yum!!! I really have to do that one soon! If you want a recipe for vegan Pavlova, you can find one here: http://www.myveganplate.com/vegan-pavlova/
I have put ¼ cup of castor sugar in the recipe but you should taste it before you put it in the fridge to set to see if you would like it any sweeter.
For anyone reading this in colder climates, frozen mangoes would probably do the same job or you could use mango puree in a tin. I have never used frozen or tinned so I can’t vouch for them tough. If you are in a very cold climate and wishing it was Summer maybe this mousse can give you a hint of warmer days to come. I also promise to stop talking about how amazing our Summer is and how beautiful our beach days are right now……
- 2 ripe mangoes (3 in total if you want to layer with mango puree like in my photos)
- ¼ cup castor sugar
- 1 can coconut cream (400ml / 14oz) (refrigerated until set – at least 24 hours)
- Chill a can of coconut cream in the coldest part of your fridge for at least 24 hours but unless it is the middle of winter, you might need to leave it in there for a few days to achieve the maximum amount of firm cream. (I find the Aldi brand of coconut cream in Australia gives the best results and most firm cream.)
- Peel 2 mangoes and slice off all the flesh in a food processor. Add the sugar and blitz.
- Open can of coconut cream and scoop all of the firm cream into the food processor with the mango and sugar. When scooping out the coconut cream, stop once you hit liquid. You can either use the liquid in other recipes (smoothies maybe) or discard.
- Move mango mousse into a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
- If you want to layer like in my photos, simply puree the flesh from the third mango and alternate layering in a glass with the mango mousse. Add some sliced mango on top and some shaved coconut.
Leave a Reply