Maybe it’s because it’s winter, but we’ve had a real yen for warm, creamy foods, lately. That’s extended to dessert, too. Our latest fixation? Rice pudding. These chilly days and evenings just call out for it, you know? It’s like a Snuggie in a bowl.

Just to keep it interesting, I’ve been playing with the accent flavors, too. And what could be better than a promise of sunshiny summer in that comforting little dish? I speak of course, of mango. You can find dried mango wherever you are, in the dried fruit section. Combine it with a touch of sweet, aromatic cardamom, and you’ve got the best of all seasons!

Mango Rice Pudding
(serves about 4)

Ingredients:

4 cups milk (your choice)
1 cup long grain rice
1/2 cup coarsely chopped dried mango
2 – 3 Tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
pinch of table salt

Preparation:

Put the milk and rice into a large deep saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to keep a skin from forming. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir well, cover tightly, and reduce the heat to low.

Simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes or so. Adjust seasoning, if necessary, and cook uncovered for about another 5 minutes, or until the rice is very soft and the desired texture is achieved. If the texture is too tight for your taste, add a little additional milk and stir continuously until it’s absorbed and the pudding is creamy.

Allow to cool a few minutes and serve while warm.

Notes:

Oh, sure, you can go the prosaic raisins and cinnamon route, if you want to. In fact you can substitute any dried fruit you like. But the combination of the mango and the cardamom give it such a warm, tropical feeling and aroma, why wouldn’t you want that in the middle of a cold, dreary winter?

This has been one hell of a summer. I can’t really talk about most of it until after next week, but I feel a little like the puck in a game of air hockey. And I almost didn’t get this post up at all.

In one way, this month’s Can Jam wasn’t a surprise, and in other ways it kind of snuck up on me altogether. I should have known Tomatoes would come up sometime this summer. After all, most of the rest of you are swimming – nay, drowning – in them right now. Sure enough, that’s what Julia at What Julia Ate, chose for this month’s theme. And for the umpteenth time, our tomato season is actually in the winter/early spring times, so I searched. And searched. And searched. While I did eventually score some local tomatoes, that was a bit of a miracle. Someone in the southern end of the county must have planted a “heatwave” type. And they’re not bad at all.

But I probably should have been canning tomato stuff earlier and saved it for now. So, in a bit of a mad scramble, and using some of my own home-canned Mango Ginger Jam as an accent flavor, I made barbecue sauce. Because I’m gonna love me some barbecue this winter while the rest of you are freezing your patooties off! Hehehe.

I based my recipe on the Summer Sizzle Barbecue Sauce recipe in The Complete Book of Year-Round Small Batch Preserving by Topp and Howard, omitting the tomato sauce, adding the jam and using freshly ground chipotle pepper and chipotle pepper hot sauce. I also used the delicious new vegan, gluten-free Worcestershire sauce produced by my friend Jim at Oxford Falls.

Mango Chipotle BBQ Sauce
(makes about 5 half-pints)

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. canola oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
3 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine (I used a Malbec, because, after all, the Argentinians know their barbecue!)
3 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. cider vinegar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. peppercorns (whole)
1 tsp. chipotle pepper powder (or less, to taste)
1-1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup mango ginger jam
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. chipotle pepper hot sauce

Preparation:

Heat oil in a medium non-reactive saucepan, over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic, sautée until soft, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the tomatoes, wine, honey, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, mustard, peppercorns, ground chili pepper, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and boil gently, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until thickened.

Remove the pot from the heat and carefully run the contents through the blender until thoroughly smooth. Or do what I did, which is use my stick blender right there in the pot and not dirty another appliance.

Return the sauce to the pot (if you had to use the blender). Add the water, jam, brown sugar and hot sauce, combine thoroughly and bring to a boil.

Ladle the hot mixture into hot jars (no need to sterilize them this time, just make sure they’re good and hot), leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Cover with new lids, tighten the screw rings finger-tight, and process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes. Wait 24 hours and test your seals before labeling and storing.

Tasting it right out of the pot, this stuff’s got that hit of spicy, smoky chipotle peppers, and is not terribly sweet, despite the honey, jam and brown sugar. It’s gonna be awesome on chicken and beef, and even on veggie burgers. Can’t wait to get my new grill!

Let me just caution you at the outset that this is not low-fat, low-carb, or low-sugar. Actually, it’s not that bad, sugar-wise. This is, however, dessert at its most indulgent – or at least as indulgent as you can get without chocolate – and unless you have the metabolism of an Olsen twin (Happy Birthday, Mary-Kate & Ashley!), I’m going to venture a guess that you’re going to save this one for a special occasion.

And you should! It’s creamy and dreamy and I won the Best Dessert prize with it at the 2003 Fairchild Tropical Garden Mango Cook-Off. And it’s so damn easy to make, it’s ridiculous. No double-boilers, no stove-top cooking, no wondering “Is this right?”. At the contest, I made this whole recipe on a folding table with nothing but my hand immersion blender and (for demo purposes only) a toaster oven! Also, since you puree and strain the fruit, you can use any grocery store mango (or even frozen), as long as it’s ripe.

I’m sorry that I don’t have any photos – because of MJ’s diet, I am restraining myself, this year. Sucks. I could take a picture of the award on my kitchen wall, but that would be just too narcisistic for words. Even for me. )

RJ’s Easy Mango Crème Brulee

(makes Six 2/3 cup servings)

2 cups mango pieces
1/2 teaspoon allspice
8 egg yolks (size large eggs)
1/3 cup white sugar
2 cups regular whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt

Additional sugar – white, turbinado, or raw – for topping

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F.

Puree mango with the allspice until thoroughly blended, then strain through a sieve, pressing with a spoon, to remove all fibers and lumps into a small bowl. You should wind up with a cup or a little more of strained puree. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks with 1/3 cup sugar till sugar is dissolved and the mixture is creamy and light yellow. Add cream, vanilla, and salt, and blend thoroughly. Fill oven-proof ramekins or custard dishes about 1/2 – 2/3 full with the custard mixture, then spoon 2 tablespoons of the mango puree into the center of each. Spoon remaining custard over the top.

Make a water bath (fancy term: bain Marie) by placing a terry kitchen towel (or a silicone mat or even a couple of silicone potholders) in the bottom of a deep casserole dish or roaster pan (large enough to hold your custard cups without touching each other). Place filled custard cups into the prepared casserole or roaster, carry to the oven, and add enough warm water to come about 1/2 way up the sides of the cups.

Bake for 40 minutes. The custards will be barely set and will jiggle.

Remove the custards from the water bath and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours (or 1 hour in the freezer).

Sprinkle about 1 tsp. of the white, turbinado, or raw sugar over each custard. Make sure the sugar covers the custard completely. Caramelize the sugar either with a small hand-held torch or under the broiler for about 2 minutes or until browned to your liking. When it cools, there should be a hard shell over the top. Chill until ready to serve.

*Note: You can prepare the custards up to 24 hours ahead. When you remove them from the oven, let them cool to room temperature, still in the water bath, then remove from bath, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Do not prepare the caramelized sugar topping until ready to serve.

If you have any questions, I’ll answer them in the comments. Enjoy!

Speaking of mangoes…

I was inspired last week by Elle’s Brown Butter Maple Blueberry Muffins, to try and make a version with less sugar and more good stuff that MJ (the hubs) can snack on that won’t completely sabotage his diabetes type II diet (he’s down 35 pounds and 2 pants sizes!). Please don’t make me use the word healthy. Makes it sounds like it’s made out of bark, or something. Anyway, thus was born the MultiGrain Blueberry Maple Muffin. And if you remember, I threatened you with a mango version.

I’ve been waiting all week for the mangoes to come in, and finally! I got several that were perfect! So, without further ado, I give you

MultiGrain Mango Ginger Muffins

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup ground oatmeal
4 Tbs flax seed meal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup Splenda for Baking (or 1/4 cup sugar &
1/4 cup Splenda)
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 cup ripe mango, cut in small dice
1/2 cup Canola oil
1 cup soy milk (I use plain, unflavored, but you can use what you like)
3 eggs (or 3/4 cup liquid egg substitute OR 2 eggs and 1/4
cup egg substitute)
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbs candied ginger, finely chopped (optional)

Heat oven to 375, and lightly grease a muffin pan.

In a large bowl, sift together the flours, flax seed meal, baking powder, ginger, and Splenda.

In a smaller bowl, toss the diced mango with 1/4 cup of the flour mixture.

In another bowl, whisk the oil, soy milk, eggs, and salt.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, mix until just barely combined, and fold in mango and candied ginger (if using).

Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes.

A toothpick poked in the center should come out clean.

Makes 12

Damn you, Elle, for getting me on this muffin kick! Okay, not really…

For those of you who asked after my Nature Notes post of May 22nd, here is a photo of the Nam Doc Mai mango when it’s ripe – finally got one!

And yes, it’s just as tasty as it looks!