{"id":15310,"date":"2017-06-23T12:15:03","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T16:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patijinich.com\/pati_2020\/?post_type=recipe&p=15310"},"modified":"2021-03-19T17:17:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T21:17:47","slug":"mango-pecan-tart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patijinich.com\/pati_2020\/mango-pecan-tart\/","title":{"rendered":"Mango Pecan Tart"},"content":{"rendered":"

My\u00a0favorite mango, by far, is\u00a0the\u00a0one called\u00a0Ataulfo<\/em>\u00a0in Mexico. It also goes by the name of champagne\u00a0or honey\u00a0mango in other countries.\u00a0When ripe, its meat is intensely golden yellow\u00a0with\u00a0a nice thick bite. It is juicy\u00a0and\u00a0has\u00a0a lightly tart,\u00a0yet intense,\u00a0sweetness that is hard not to love. Different from other mangoes, it is not fibrous\u00a0at all.<\/p>\n

Being obsessed with words and\u00a0names, I did a bit of research on the\u00a0origin of\u00a0the\u00a0name\u00a0Ataulfo<\/em>, as it\u00a0doesn\u2019t mean or translate to anything. Well, it turns out that\u00a0Ataulfo<\/em>\u00a0is a name.\u00a0The Ataulfo<\/em> mango was first discovered and historically recorded\u00a0on a man named Ataulfo Morales\u2019 property\u00a0in the town of Tapachula<\/a> in the southeastern tropical state of Chiapas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The story goes that,\u00a0in the late 1940s, he found a few of these fruits and became smitten with how sweet and succulent\u00a0they are. Now, there were other mangoes in Mexico, brought by the Spanish through their trade with the East when Mexico was a colony of Spain. Yet, it seems that the\u00a0Ataulfo<\/em>\u00a0came to be from a\u00a0natural mutation or hybridization\u00a0process.<\/p>\n

A decade\u00a0after it was found on Ataulfo Morales\u2019 property,\u00a0an agronomist named Hector Cano Flores\u00a0helped popularize\u00a0it by\u00a0growing\u00a0a large quantity of the Atauflo<\/em>\u00a0mango\u00a0trees.\u00a0And then, another\u00a0decade later, the first commercial project took place.<\/p>\n

By the 1970s, when yours truly was born, this mango had extended its reach well beyond the state of Chiapas and\u00a0was being consumed in Mexico City, where I lived.\u00a0Still,\u00a0Chiapas\u00a0remains the main producer and the biggest exporter of the fruit,\u00a0and it also has a denomination of\u00a0origin, just like champagne!<\/p>\n

Oh how we loved\u00a0Ataulfos<\/em>. Me and my sisters\u00a0used to eat\u00a0them\u00a0in so many ways.\u00a0We\u2019d have them\u00a0in fruit salads, or we’d eat\u00a0the\u00a0sides sliced and\u00a0covered in\u00a0thick and creamy\u00a0rompope\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Mexican style eggnog\u00a0\u2013 or\u00a0garnished with\u00a0lime, salt and ground chile.\u00a0But,\u00a0the most frequent way\u00a0was just stuck\u00a0on\u00a0a special mango fork, peeled and gobbled up.<\/p>\n

Did you know\u00a0there is a special kind of fork\u00a0just\u00a0for mangoes? It is long and\u00a0shaped\u00a0like a trident. The two outer prongs are short and help hold the mango\u00a0meat in place,\u00a0while\u00a0the middle prong\u00a0is much longer\u00a0and\u00a0meant to go through the seed\u00a0to\u00a0hold the mango steady.<\/p>\n

When I was a teenager, I became a fan of fruit tarts. I had found a recipe for a light and elegant fruit tart in one of my mom\u2019s Austrian cookbooks \u2013\u00a0that she inherited from her mother\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and made it my showpiece.<\/p>\n

Whenever I needed to bring something to a dinner or\u00a0a party, the fruit tart would come. I had mastered it!\u00a0However, the recipe, of course, didn\u2019t have mango. And I felt like the fruit that needed to be\u00a0in\u00a0there the most\u00a0was\u00a0the glorious Ataulfo<\/em>\u00a0mango. So,\u00a0I started adding\u00a0it\u00a0in addition to the grapes,\u00a0bananas and kiwis.<\/p>\n

Slowly,\u00a0but surely,\u00a0the mango started taking over. Until finally, a few years ago, I decided to make a\u00a0full-fledged\u00a0mango tart. Why pretend that it was a fruit tart when the only fruit I wanted\u00a0in\u00a0there\u00a0was\u00a0mango? I\u00a0could stop coveting the mango pieces from other people\u2019s\u00a0slices.<\/p>\n

While I was at it,\u00a0I also decided to make the crust entirely pecan.\u00a0Of course,\u00a0the traditional pastry cream stays right in the middle of the two.<\/p>\n

Oh how I love this tart.\u00a0It merely does justice to its crown, the\u00a0Ataulfo<\/em>\u00a0mango from Chiapas. <\/p>\n\n

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Chardonnay Mango Pecan Tart<\/h2>\n
Tarta de Nuez con Mango<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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\n <\/g><\/svg><\/span> Print<\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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