Aussie mangoes - Kensington Pride in particular

"The golden goose of Mangoes." Perfection

My husband loves a bargain. Yesterday we went to Queen Victoria Market for a pre-Christmas shop. Today was going to be too hot so we went yesterday. And there were mangoes everywhere - so of course he bought a tray - one like these in fact. It cost a mere $10.00. Which is all very fine and wonderful, but there are only two of us and what are we going to do with them all?

Well we could of course just eat them. They are delicious after all. Some say they are the most delicious fruit of all. But they are a bit messy to prepare - the joke is that you should peel them and cut them up in the bath - and the ones we bought are also somewhat ripe, so it is doubtful that we would manage to eat them all before they go off. The perfect ones, like the ones below were more expensive. Not that even they would keep much longer.

I have seen my husband buy so many mangoes, not eat them and then they go off and I end up throwing them away. So this time I am determined not to do this. I have plans. Because:

"Best of all, mangoes are versatile; delicious as a healthy snack on their own, perfectly paired with chicken or prawn, light summer salads, thrown on the barbeque, cocktails, smoothies and sweet desserts. So go on grab an Aussie Mango!" Australian Mangoes

And there's more. You can freeze them and I have already frozen two. You just cut them up into chunks and put them in bags so that you have them ready to purée and make into all manner of lovely things, from lassi to ice cream, to icy poles (Lollies to you over there in the UK), and all those healthy things like smoothies and breakfast bowls. In fact when we go to the shops this afternoon I might buy some icy pole moulds and make some. According to one site, all you do is purée the fruit, fill the mould and freeze. I suspect there's slightly more to it than that, but not much.

Whilst I was looking for inspiration yesterday I came across a rather enticing looking recipe for chicken with mango, so I think I shall make that tomorrow. I found it one of my newer, but unused cookbooks Provence to Pondicherry by Tessa Kiros. The recipe is for a dish from Réunion called Poulet au Mangue.

Then I also found a recipe from Jamie for a chutney, and I guess I could even make jam. Maybe freeze a few more. Oh and then there is a frozen yoghurt idea or two out there as well. Good to have these things around in the summer. And if they are still in reasonable condition I might make a mango cheesecake for a Christmas dessert.

There are around half a dozen kinds of mangoes that we get here in Australia, all with slightly different seasons from spring and to as late as autumn. They are virtually all grown in the Northern Territory and Queensland, with a few from WA. And Kensington Pride - the type we bought yesterday - make up over 80% of that crop, although I think that is changing as new varieties are developed. They are sometimes called Bowen mangoes because this is where they originally came from. The story is that in the late 1880s they began to be grown in Bowen in Queensland and were known as 'The Pride of Bowen' or the 'Bowen Special'. They think that it came from India via traders who were taking horses back to India. India/Burma seem to be the ancestral home of mangoes, which were then spread around by the Arabs and then other colonial powers.

The story of the Bowen mangoes is that some were given to one GE Sandrock who, over time, selected the seeds of the best fruit and passed them on to another farmer - one McDonald. Another farmer Harry Lot took the best from McDonald and planted them on his own property which was called Kensington. From there it's history really - others loved them and planted them and they have conquered the world. Other varieties have been introduced but they still dominate because:

"It bronzes beautifully to a deep blushing orange – a sensory overload of fresh, citric aromas and deep, full-bodied sweetness. Sink those teeth in and lose track of time." Perfection

Others say much the same but perhaps in not quite as marketing type language.

By the way that company Perfection is also worth a look some time. Another Italian rags to riches story. Where would Australia be without the Italians?

The other interesting thing I discovered in my Google wanderings was that the tray that mangoes and other fruit that requires tray packaging, are packed in, is more or less an Australian invention (via NZ).

David Hoseason-Smith, went to Darwin in 1998 as the local manager for Amcor - Australia's packaging giant. Packaging for mangoes at the time was unsatisfactory. And by the way this was the time when the mango industry itself was emerging. Not so long ago really. Anyway one day a farmer brought in a box from New Zealand which was better and suggested that Amcor should develop their own. Which they did - after trips to New Zealand and the purchase of machines to make them. But the New Zealand boxes were not quite tough enough

"We got all of the packaging engineers together and redesigned the box and how it folded to make it stronger and so it could be stacked in columns on the pallet.

And then we got paper-technologists who developed what they called 'functionally coated papers', which is basically a piece of paper with a very thin plastic membrane laminated between two pieces of paper, and that paper then becomes a moisture barrier, it's a very high-tech box." David Hoseason-Smith - ABC interview

(Packaging engineers - who knew there was such a profession?)

These days the boxes are just assembled in the Northern Territory. The boxes themselves are made overseas, in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide and sent to NT as flat packs. But they have enabled the mango - and other fruit industries - think avocados for example - to expand enormously. When that interview happened (2018) the NT exported either overseas or to the rest of Australia 4.8 million trays of mangoes.

"If we were using technology from years ago, every piece of fruit would be bruised or damaged and rejected in the marketplace.

So basically it's allowed fruit to travel from here to the markets [down south], it can go anywhere around the world which has opened up markets because it allows fruit to get there in good condition." David Hoseason-Smith - ABC interview

This is the man himself - on the right - with his box and an award he received for innovation from the NT Farmers. And here's a demonstration of why they were needed. Old ones falling all over the place on the right - new ones, stacked neatly, on the left.

So there's more to mangoes than you might think. If climate change continues maybe we will be able to grow them down here.

"Mangoes are an icon, they’re full of emotion, wrapped in ritual and tied with memories. They are quick and easy to prepare, bursting with nutritional value and there are a range of varieties to be enjoyed all season long." Mangoes Australia

Certainly the Coles and Woolworths magazines are full of things to do with mangoes at this time of the year. And many of my cookbooks had recipes - but not my Maggie Beer book - the one on the seasons. Which is sort of interesting. Maybe she doesn't like them.

And here I am with a sort of glut of a fruit that to me was unbelievable exotic, foreign and never to be tasted - not even in a tin - when I was a child.