I left the photoshoot with bags of leftover groceries. Cheese, milk, nuts, cottage cheese, flowers and fruit. Oh god, the fruit. When you’re professionally shooting a product for advertising, everything needs to look good. Damn near perfect actually so you buy pounds of apples to find that one pretty, quintessential apple or multiple types of pumpkin seeds (raw, roasted, salted, large, small) because you just don’t know which one will look best until you see it. God forbid an imperfection of some sort, say a bruise or an off-color, draws the eye away from the product you’re trying to highlight. While the resulting photos are beautiful, there’s always a lot of food leftover at the end of a shoot. This is how I ended up with 3 packs of strawberries, 2 of raspberries, 2 of blackberries, 2 whole pineapples, 4 peaches, 2 dozen apples, a bag of lemons and limes and 4 mangos. And that was just the fruit.
That’s also how, a week later, I stared into my refrigerator with a feeling of doom and guilt. I’d been too busy to not only enjoy said fruit but to do anything with it. As I was heading out of town the next day, it had to be dealt with immediately, lest I lose it all. And this kids, is the story of how spicy mango limeade came to be.
I didn’t want to freeze the fruit in chunks for smoothies I’d never make. I’ve been down that road before. Instead, I started thinking about fresh, flavorful sorbets so I buzzed each one in my blender until smooth and froze the puree in a Ziploc until I had time to deal with it. Sound idea; lets see if it works. Then I got to the mangoes, those sad little mangoes that had started to wrinkle and wither in my refrigerator. I thought about that classic Mexican street food, where a vendor will sprinkle a ripe, peeled mango with lime juice and chili powder. So delicious! I had mangoes. I had limes. I had chili powder. But since my mangoes weren’t terribly pretty and bordering on overripe (aka past their prime), I did something different yet in that same spirit. I made limeade. Spicy mango limeade to be precise.
I took my limeade recipe, which uses a lime simple syrup, threw that into the blender with the chopped peeled mango, fresh lime juice and a shot of ground cayenne pepper. It was excellent. And you know what? It was WAY BETTER when I added a shot of tequila. Holy smokes.
STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: ARRIBA! As we head into Cinqo de Mayo next week, I can think of nothing better than mixing up a big pitcher of this and spiking it heavily with some holiday appropriate booze. It will be the hit of your party. Or the hit of a random Tuesday night. And what better way to relieve the pain and the guilt of slightly over the hill fruit than buzzing it in the blender and drinking your troubles away? Yes, yes indeed. Bingo.
Seven years ago: Roasted Tomato & Asparagus Quiche
Six years ago: Homemade Saltines, Road Trip – Bleu Mont Dairy
Five years ago: Homemade Crème Eggs
Four years ago: Popovers & Strawberry Butter
Three years ago: Avocado Lime Tequila Popsicles
Two years ago: Guinness Crème Anglaise
Last year: Flourless Chocolate Cookies
SPICY MANGO LIMEADE
Makes about 1 quart
If you like it spicy, and I do, go with the full ½ teaspoon of cayenne. It will give a nice heat and a pleasant burn. However, if you want to ease up, feel free.
¾ cup sugar
1 cup water
3 Tablespoons fresh lime zest (from about 3 limes )
1 cup chopped, peeled fresh mango
2 cups water
¼ – ½ teaspoon ground cayenne
1 cup fresh lime juice (from about 8-10 limes)
- In a small saucepan bring the sugar, 1 cup of water, and the lime zest to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
- Remove from heat, cover and let infuse at least one hour, or overnight.
- Strain the cooled lime syrup into a blender and add the mango chunks, 2 cups water, cayenne and fresh lime juice.
- Puree until completely smooth. Taste and add more lime juice if you’d like it a bit more tart.
- Serve in tall glasses with a lot of ice. Add a shot of tequila and a lime garnish, if you like (you will.)
STRESSCAKE 
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