Mangoes with minted sugar

I love flavoured sugar, and vanilla sugar is one of my favourites - the smell of vanilla is just so homely yet heavenly. And today I came across a cooking tip in a baking book which I had borrowed from my mother-in-law. It called for pounding mint with granulated sugar to make minted sugar, which could be sprinkled over fruit such as pineapple. well, I just HAD to try that! (It tastes lovely by itself, too - I couldnt resist trying it out.)

I didnt have any pineapple, but there was this not-quite-ripe mango in my fridge, which I had cut up out of sheer impatience and then regretted the haste, because it was a fair bit more sour than it was sweet, and also not particularly soft in texture.

So I decided to try my newly minted sugar (to coin a phrase, haha) on it. The mango pieces tasted absolutely wonderful sprinkled with the minted sugar, I must say... the sourness almost but not quite negated by the sugar's sweetness, with the freshness of the pounded mint the last thing to register on the tongue.

Then I wondered what it would be like to roast the mango pieces. So I did. They turned out quite nice, and the roasting made the pieces a lot softer. For some reason, it also seemed to take away the sourness. I guess if the mango had been riper and softer, the pieces might have become almost mushy in the oven. But mine were quite hard to start with, so it wasnt a disaster. I waited for the pieces to cool to a mouth-friendly warmth, then sprinkled them with more minted sugar and gobbled 'em ALL up!

I do have to say, though, that though the roasted mangoes tasted nice enough, they're best ripe and unroasted. Especially with mint sugar.

Recipe for: Mangoes with minted sugar

Ingredients:

1 large mango (ripe but not mushy-soft), cut into inch-size pieces (de-skinned if the skin is bitter)
2 tbsp granulated sugar
10-15 large fresh leaves of peppermint, spearmint and/or plain mint (I used a mix of all three)

Method:

Pound the sugar and mint in a mortar-and-pestle until the leaves are well broken up and incorporated with the sugar.

Sprinkle over the cut mango pieces in a bowl, give the pieces a good shake to distribute the mint sugar evenly, and serve.