Mango & Vanilla Verrines

Been long since the seasonal mangoes made their appearances on most of the vegetable counters in supermarkets and road side cart sales. Mango season hasn't ended yet and you guys still wondering why I don't have a single post with mangoes yet? I am trying hard to catch up with some mango desserts. Now does this make you ponder what on the earth is so hard about whipping a mango dessert? Not at all!

Mangoes have been showing up on almost every meal of ours, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. Whatever the meal be, it's incomplete without the mangoes to end with. I am hardly in a mood for any dessert these days and all I am in love with are these delightfully juicy, ripe, sweet mangoes. The crave is so bad that they are not just our post meal desserts, but also hunger pang killers. Back home from work or from an outing, I seek immense pleasure from freshly cut mangoes. And it's Alphonso and Bainganpalli types that make up to my favorite mango treats!

Just the sight of the gleaming amber mangoes can make me go down my knees for some humble bite into them! So now that I have explained the absence of mangoes from my blog, I did promise myself some mango verrines reserved for this space, which would use mangoes in their true form. Absolutely no decking up, no adulterations! Just a little manipulation! ;)

Mango & Vanilla Verrines

INGREDIENTS

1 cup milk
1/2 cup milk cream (I used 25% fat)
1 tbsp corn starch (an egg yolk can be used too)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup thick undiluted mango pulp

DIRECTIONS

Mix the corn starch or egg yolk in 1/4 portion of milk. Heat the rest 3/4th of milk to a boil with sugar. Add in the corn starch milk in slow streams and stir well continuously. In case of using egg yolks, temper the egg yolk with the boiled milk prior to avoid any curdling. Once tempered, add it to the hot milk and thicken further. This will thicken up soon. Stir well and scrape the sides too. As it bubbles and thickens well, add the cream and turn off the gas. Add in the vanilla. It will lighten the entire mixture, but should still be thick. If it's runny, heat it further to thicken up a little. Remember it thickens further as it cools down too. Let the custard cool to room temperature. You may also use a store bought custard powder and prepare it as per the directions on the pack. Once cool mix in a tsp of mango pulp to this. It's purely optional, so leave it out if you like the alternating vanilla mango flavors.

Meanwhile, keep the verrine glasses ready. To assemble the verrines, drop a tbsp of thick custard alternating it with a tbsp of thick mango pulp, till it fills the glass to brim. Allow it to set well and cool further in the refrigerator.

Before serving, I topped each verrine with a cherry and roughly broken oatmeal cookie. Serve cold.

The mangoes I used here were naturally sweet, so they did not require any extra sugar to sweeten them further. The vanilla custard being sweet balances out the sweet tang flavors very well. I always love mangoes in their true form, unless they are really raw and sour. It's like, if you asked me what I would prefer out of the two, Mango ice cream or fresh mangoes with ice cream, I would undoubtedly choose the latter. That's how I am fascinated with these. I rarely make desserts out of mangoes, especially if they are sweet. Even in desserts I love to keep them neat and unadulterated.

The flavors in this dessert were fruity, mellowed and soft. They make a good serving post breakfast too. For a more exotic version, I suggest you use stabilized whipped cream instead of custard. It works out to be really rich. Worth for an occasion. I use custard only for the sole reason that it cuts down on calories from the use of whole whipped cream. Not entirely sure considering the sugar in it, but it does give me a reason to go for a few more servings!