The Mija Chronicles

Mexican food and culture, on both sides of the border

Mango pico de gallo

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Mango season in Mexico is one of my favorite times of the year. It comes in the early spring, after tangerine season, when there’s nothing enticing on the market shelves except for hit-and-miss mameys and round, nubby guavas that looked better in the winter.

It’s like everyone’s waiting, and then boom, there they are — mango wedges sold in plastic cups on the street corners, mangos piled up at the tianguis, an army advancing on the rest of the produce. There’s nothing like that first slice from a vendor’s knife. It’s wet and sweet in a way that almost seems unreal.

A few months ago, I had dinner at Azul Condesa, Ricard Muñoz Zurita’s new restaurant. A special menu had ben devoted to mangoes, with all sorts of plates containing the fruit. My favorite was the mango pico de gallo, served in a large glass. It was sweet and spicy and tart, and Crayton and I annihilated it in minutes.

Lucky for me, I ended up finding a mango pico de gallo recipe inside Zurita’s cookbook, Salsas Mexicanas. (If you read Spanish, this is a great book to have.) The recipe, interestingly, calls for fish sauce, which creates a delightful Thai-type of flavor. Zurita says in the book that he got the recipe from a Filipina chef studying in Mexico.

If you don’t have any fish sauce, the pico is still quite good on its own. I imagine it’d be great with a spritz of lime. Just make sure you have fresh mangoes. Or you could probably even try it with other sweet fruits, like pineapple.

Mango Pico de Gallo
from Salsas Mexicanas by Ricardo Muñoz Zurita
Serves 4 as an appetizer

Note: The original recipe calls for manila mangoes, which are prized in Mexico for their sweetness. Other types of mangoes would probably work as well, as long as they’re mature. On the fish sauce, I’d add a little bit at a time and taste as you go along. The two tablespoons adds a recognizable fishy flavor, but it mellowed out a bit as the pico sat at room temperature.

Ingredients

1 very ripe beefsteak tomato, diced, with the skin and seeds
2 tablespoons of minced onion
1/4 cup of finely chopped cilantro, including stems
1 tablespoon of minced chile serrano (this is about one chile)
2 manila mangoes, about 250 grams each, peeled and cut into roughly two-centimeter cubes
2 tablespoons fish sauce* (see note)

Directions

Mix the first five ingredients together in a bowl, and add the fish sauce. Taste for either more fish sauce or perhaps a little salt. (I didn’t use any.) Serve with tostadas.

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Comments

  2. Lesley, would the Vietnamese Nuoc Mam work for the fish sauce or was there a specific brand/type available in DF? By the way, mango’s are also all over the place up here in NC. Seems we DO live in a global village.. Thanks for your recipes – keep up the great writing!
    Cheers!
    Dan in NC

    • Hi Dan: I haven’t done much research on fish sauce in the DF, but my preliminary findings suggest that we don’t have great variety here. (Anyone else care to chime in on that?) So using whatever brand of fish sauce you’re loyal to makes sense to me. I’m glad you enjoyed the post!

  3. I <3 mango season too! It's amazing… we bought two huge boxes this year and dried a bunch of them in our sauna. I also made about 5 liters of mango chutney to preserve.

    I've made mango salsa like this before, but never thought to add the fish sauce – interesting idea. Sometimes I add a chopped avocado 'cause… you can't really go wrong with that. 🙂

    Nice post and photo!

    • Thanks Marie! Agree on the avocados. You can never go wrong. (Unless you’re eating them in the Northern United States, where they just don’t taste the same.)

  5. Love the directions for this recipe; 3 lines, no fuss. Couldn’t agree more about mango season here; I love visiting the local tienditas to see if there are any fresh mangos (their occasional absence i probably part of the enjoyment).

    Funny you should mention the Philippines; the best mango I have ever had was one sold out of a bucket on the side of the road in a town southish of Manila. After that one the next 50 best mangos I’ve had have all been here in Mex.

    Can’t wait to try the recipe…

    • It’s funny, because living in Mexico has really made me want to visit the Philippines. Hopefully someday. Let me know if you try the pico de gallo after all!

  6. Just add black beans, sub red for white onion, add any variety of bell pepers, and you’ve got Salsa de Mango estilo Cuautla; sweet, savory and delicious!

  7. this Indian girl loves mangoes so, so much. still feel like they’re not as good here as they are in the Motherland, but that doesn’t stop me from eating them! I’m thinking this would be nice with some some sweet, white-flesh grilled fish…?