It’s mango season and I love to use them when available. I wrote about my Mango Blueberry Pudding recipe a couple of days ago and realized I left out details on how to cut up a mango. I’m always amazed to find that some people don’t know how to cut a mango, so here are the steps (in excruciating detail!)
- Rinse off the outside of the mango and lay it on the cutting board.
- The mango has a large flat seed in the center and you need to cut away all that nice juicy mango flesh. How do you do it?
- Find the flattest side of the mango and put that side down on the cutting board.
- Put the palm of your hand on top of the mango and using a long, thin-bladed knife, slice horizontally, so that you cut the top off the mango. If you do this right, you’ll cut just above the flat stone in the mango’s center.
- Turn the mango over (so that the cut end is on the cutting board) and then make another horizontal slice. You now have two halves of your mango.
- Take each mango half and score the flesh of the mango about 4 times lengthwise and 4 times crosswise, so that you have a block of 16 squares. Don’t cut down through the skin of the mango – you’re just cutting the mango’s flesh.
- Now comes the cool part – turn your mango inside out by pressing up against the skin from the bottom. The little squares you made will pop up and you can now take a paring knife and cut them away from the skin.
- Next tackle the remaining mango flesh that surrounds the flat stone. Carefully peel off the strip of skin that surrounds the center piece, and then cut off all the mango flesh that still surrounds the stone.
Whew! You’ve now dismantled one mango and should have about a cup of mango pieces.
