Saturday, October 6, 2012

Macerated Mango Sauce For Cheesecake


   Dang I like the way that sounds... macerated mango sauce. It reminds me of those rhymes when I was a kid... ya know, dirty little birdies feet. Okay, maybe it was just me. When I served the mango saffron cheesecake last week I wanted to add a sauce to top things off, and since the cheesecake was saffron mango, the choices were pretty clear.

   Now I have some fairly bad memories of cheesecake topping in my past. Granted I didn't grow up in NYC like my husband where perfect cheese cake is practically found on every street corner. I got my first taste of NY cheesecake the week before we got married when my husbands' Aunt Clara flew out from New York with an S & S Cheesecake on her lap.


Those were the days when you could still do that kind of stuff without a full cavity search ensuing. The idea of flying 5 hours with a cheesecake in one's lap is okay, a little strange maybe, but I took it as welcoming a Californian to a very New York family.

   So was flying cross country with a cheesecake in your lap worth it? Damn straight it was. This was one fine cheesecake. Up until that time, my cheesecake experience had been limited to stuff out of our local markets freezer, usually topped with something that seemed like cherry pie filling right out of the can. Now that I think of it, it probably was cherry pie filling out of a the can. Not exactly gourmet.

   Living in Los Angeles, I'd never really gone in search of the elusive cheesecake, but once I had one of those "Straight Outta The Bronx Beauties" I wanted more! I quickly discovered that I could get my S & S fix locally in LA at the Palm Restaurant. And that's how it went. For years, cheesecake was something special that I ordered out, not something I would ever make myself.

   Then a couple of years ago I started experimenting with cheesecake making. It wasn't as difficult as it seemed. One one occasion I actually made my own cheese for cheesecake. I started trying to make different sorts of cheesecakes. I made a Sicilian Cheesecake, an Indian cheesecake, and finally last week I tried my friend Sanjana's Lemon and Saffron Cheesecake only I made mine with mango.


The cheesecake turned out great, but what to put on top? I decided I needed to make a mango sauce, and I needed to make it simply and fast. I had my mango, and I had a bottle of Mango White Balsamic Viinegar from Sonoma Harvest.

Mango Dessert Sauce



Here's What You Need:

1 mango peeled and finely chopped, or 1 bag of frozen chopped mango
2 tsp of Mango White Balsamic Vinegar
A blender

Here's What to do:

Put the mango pieces in the blender and  puree them. Leave the mixture a bit chunky.
Pour the mango puree into a bowl and add 2 tsp of Mango White Balsamic Vinegar. I use Sonoma Harvest.
Mix everything together and drizzle it over the cheesecake slices.

   This quick sauce worked. It worked with frozen mango too, I can tell you that, since I had run out of ripe mangos and had to use a bag of frozen I'd picked up at Whole Foods.This sauce worked so well, that the next day we grilled some chicken and served the leftover sauce as a relish. It worked again.

   So there it is, a  sauce that can be used for dessert, with grilled meat or fish (I'm looking at you salmon) and at no time does one have to open a can of pie filling.
 Coming up next , flame roasted eggplant meets buttermilk. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

8 comments :

  1. Looks lovely. Now you have me craving mango cheesecake!

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  2. Simply smart and do-able, and I love the photographs. Can't wait for buttermilk adventures. Never thought of buttermilk in Indian cuisine, but if there's ghee and paneer and such, can buttermilk be far behind. I always learn things and get inspired (and hungry) when I visit your blog. Rock on!

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  3. My favorite cheesecake is one with a bit of lemon in a basic rich cheesecake that is topped with a lemon glaze...nothing too drastic to disguise that cheesecake flavor; just compliment it. This appeals to me for the same reason but my big takeaway? Frozen mango? I have to go get me some of that!!

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  4. Oh darn! I think I could find many many uses for this!!

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  5. Wow- Love your choice of cheesecake (Sanjana's basic recipe)and your choice of topping.

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  6. Hi Kathy Gori,
    Its John From NY.
    i have found this blog very informative and full with delicious recipes. I have tried many of them just like Cheesecake, Fish with Green Mango Curry , and now i am going to try Macerated Mango Sauce sounds like yummy as well other i have tried from your recipes, i have also bookmarked your site..
    :)

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  7. hmm sounds like yummy.This appeals to me for the same reason but my big takeaway? Frozen mango? I have to go get me some of that!!
    italian food|indian food

    ReplyDelete

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