New season mangoes and eggplant inspiration.

What’s News at the Market this Week?

 I am excited to let you know that our local mangoes – Kensington Prides – have arrived at the market and in the very wonderful words from Mangoes Australia:

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 and there are a range of varieties to be enjoyed all season long. But best of all, mangoes are versatile; delicious as a healthy snack on their own, perfectly paired with chicken or prawns, light summer salad, thrown on the barbecue or into  cocktails, smoothie and sweets desserts.

So grab some locally grown mangoes this week.

Although we usually eat them when ripe, did you know that unripe mangoes are a menu mainstay in other parts of the world?  Native to Southeast Asia and India, it is much more common to dip the slices of ‘green’ mango in salt, pepper, red chilies and roasted cumin. Soon we will have the Nam Dok mango – a cultivar which originated in Thailand. It is the most popular mango variety in Thailand, and is also now grown commercially in Australia. It is the one I think that is most popular with those of us who love green mangoes. 

In India, green mango is even used as a medicine for various gastro-intestinal, bilious and blood disorders.  There, it is recognised as being able to increase the secretion of bile acids and clean the intestines of bacterial infections. WOW!

So isn’t it great to know that while we’re eating something so delicious as a mango we’re also benefiting from the numerous health benefits of this amazing fruit?

Check out the delicious mango, blackberry, banana, papaya and passionfruit fruit salad in the photo below. It is made entirely with delicious locally grown fruit. 

The recipe for mangoes today is a truly simple, rapid-to-prepare fermented chutney/salsa – an explosion of flavours that can be kept bottled in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 weeks, and served on anything from slices of steamed chicken breast, a fillet of local snapper, fried tofu or as a snack with Dona Cholita handmade corn chips. Please see the recipes section by clicking through to the full newsletter in the link below.

TIP: 

  • Mangoes should not be refrigerated until they are ripe
  • Fully ripe mangoes can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days
  • Never store mangoes in plastic bags – mangoes need to be able to breath.
It can be challenging on the neck picking vast quantities of mangoes from your tropical food forest. Thanks Shelle Everest for this and many more mango picking photos from Everest Farm. It helps to remind us that it is not just one or two mangoes being picked but hundreds - several full days work.

What’s GREAT at the Market this Week? 

In abundance now and available at all our farm stalls is eggplant. Being an incredibly versatile fruit (yes as it has seeds it is a fruit from the Solanaceae family, which also includes potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers) it can be easily incorporated into our everyday menus. It can be baked, roasted, grilled or sautéed and enjoyed with a drizzle of olive oil and a quick dash of seasoning or more elaborately prepared for extra deliciousness as in the quick and easy recipe below.

Compared with other vegetables, eggplant takes a long time to grow, between 100 and 150 days depending on the variety.  While East Asians prefer slender elongated varieties, Middle Easterners like the more rotund types, which can be roasted to yield baba ganoush, or the copious flesh diced to make salads.

Eggplants are a nutrient-dense food, which means that they contain a good amount of vitamins, minerals and fibre in few calories.  They are rich in antioxidants, which have been shown to help protect the body from damage caused by harmful substances known as free radicals.   Adding eggplants to your diet may also help keep your blood sugar in check, primarily because eggplants are high in fibre that passes through the digestive system intact and at a slow rate.  This same fibre promotes a feeling of fullness and satiety, which can help in reducing calorie intake.

Other research suggests that polyphenols or natural plant compounds found in foods like eggplant may reduce sugar absorption and increase insulin secretion, both of which can help lower blood sugar.

Eggplants are at all the farm stalls. The recipe for marinated eggplant with tahini and oregano is in the full newsletter. Please see the link info below to access this.