Summery Sweet! Mango Pits & Peels Make a Delicious Marinade

There’s nothing like biting into some juicy mango on a hot summer’s day. I have so many memories of cross hatching mango cheeks with a knife and inverting them to become an edible cubist echidna. But what do you do with the pits and the peels that you can’t eat? I recently came across this recipe from Cornersmith (also in the Use It All cookbook) and lowered the amount of sugar since I’d mainly use it as a more savoury marinade. Make your mango scraps go the extra mile! It’s surprising how little mango you need to get a good flavour. This marinade base tastes kind of like a subtle Weis bar with a light gingery kick – you can add other ingredients to tweak it to your taste, see the recipe below for suggestions.

RECIPE
MANGO SCRAP MARINADE BASE

INGREDIENTS:
2-3 mangoes
2 tbsp sugar (or honey)
2 cups water
A few slices of ginger (or 2 tbsp dried ginger pieces/skin)

METHOD
1. Prepare your mangoes – we need the pits and skins for this recipe. Cut off the cheeks and seperate the flesh from the skin with a large spoon. Peel the section around the pit and cut off any mango you want to utilise – reserve the mango flesh for another use.

2. Add the mango peels and pits, sugar, water and ginger to a small pot on medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring to a simmer.

3. Simmer for 10 mins, then turn the heat off. Let the flavours infuse for 15 mins.

4. Strain the mango marinade through a sieve pressing as much mango as you can out. Pop the mixture back on the heat on low to reduce further if you’d like it thicker.

5. To use as a meat marinade, use as is, or add salt or fish sauce, pepper, olive oil, and/or chilli to your taste. It also goes great in salad dressing or as is on sweet things like ice cream and pancakes.

MANGO MARINADE VARIANT SUGGESTIONS
Add these to the marinade base for something different
– Asian: fish/soy sauce, lime juice and zest, coriander stems and/or a bashed lemongrass stalk.
– Mango sweet chilli: chilli or sriracha and maybe a little honey.
– Mango BBQ: garlic, bbq sauce, chilli.

What would you use this mango marinade for?