One of the most common street-food snacks in India is green mangoes with chili powder and salt. I have also had this combination around the world. Most of Central and South America and Southwest Asia serve this in some form. The most complex version was green mango with chipotle-fried grasshopper powder in Mexico City, which was served as an accompaniment to the excellent mezcal I was sipping that night.
However, this is usually served by street vendors with small carts loaded with fruit and have these delectable snacks ready. Over the years, I realized that the snack tastes very different depending on the variety of mango used and the local chilli varieties. My thought was to bring these diverse flavours to my table, a way to educate guests on diverse ingredients and unique combinations of flavours.
The concept for this dish is straightforward: a semi-ripe mango with different chilies from around the world. As you taste the different chilli powders, you begin to enjoy the nuances of each chilli flavour. Make sure to balance super spicey chillies and milder ones from different parts of the world.
On this plate, I used the following:
Large-grain hand-harvested Tuticorin sea salt
Georgian red chilli powder -- spicy
Spanish smoked paprika from Chiquilin -- mild and smoky
Korean gochugaru flakes -- sweet with a touch of heat
Turkish/Syrian Aleppo flakes -- sharp and hot
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Ingredients:
1-2 green or semi-ripe mangoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder, see note below
You can use any variety of chilli powders that you have. I generally try and choose a very diverse variety from different parts of the world. Below are a few I have in my pantry, but you can use whatever varieties you have ready in your kitchen. Please be adventurous, this is a fun plate to experiment on. Below are just a few of the variety of chillies I have in my pantry.
India:
Red chilli powder
yellow chilli powder
Bydagi chilli powder
Thailand:
Bird's eye chilli powder
Korea:
Gochugaru chilli powder
China:
Sichuan peppercorns
Yunnan wrinkled chillies
Mexico:
Chipotle chilli powder
Tepin chilli powder
Chilli Japonese
Turkey:
Aleppo chilli flakes
Maras Chilli flakes
Urfa smoked chilli flakes
Spain/Hungary:
Sweet papkika
Hot paprika
Smoked paprika
France:
Piment d'Esplette
Italy:
Calabrian chilli powder
Georgia:
Adjika
Others
Peel and cut the mango into thin batons.
Add the salt and chilli powders around the centre of the plate. Arrange the mango batons in the open spaces. Serve.