WE'RE coming to the end of the mango season but there's still time to get this taste of the tropics into your kitchen.

The flavour of the mango is a delicate blend of peach, pineapple and apricot, the perfect mixture of sweet and sour.

Once you've mastered the trick of getting the flesh separated from the large stone in the centre, there's plenty of great eating to be had from this delicious fruit.

This easy mango bread has both flesh and mango puree to really hit the tastebuds. It can be made with other fruits, too.

MANGO BREAD

  • Use fresh mango or tinned.
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
  • 1 1/2 cups plain flour, plus more for dusting
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, plus 1 yolk
  • 1/2 cup mango puree (buy ready made, or puree your own)
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 large very ripe mango, peeled, seeded, and cut into small dice (about 2 cups)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Heat oven to 180C. Grease a 23cm loaf tin with vegetable oil, and dust with flour; set aside.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl. Make a well in centre of the dry ingredients. Whisk the oil, sugar, eggs and yolk, mango puree and vanilla in a bowl.

Add to the dry ingredients. Stir gently to combine. Fold in the mango pieces, walnuts and coconut.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean, about 1 hour 20 minutes.

TROPICAL COUSCOUS

Citrus juices, mango, fresh ginger, and herbs give a tropical flair to this couscous recipe. This dish is incredibly fast and easy to make.

It is served at room temperature so it's a great choice for help-yourself meals.

Bring 2 1/2 cups of orange juice and 1 teaspoon of ground cumin to the boil in a medium saucepan. Add 280g packet couscous and cover. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

Remove to a large bowl; cool.

Mix 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice in a small bowl.

Stir into the couscous. Stir in a quarter cup of chopped fresh coriander, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, 1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger, and the chopped flesh of a mango.

Sprinkle with quarter cup toasted pine nuts. Serves 8.

HOW TO CUT A MANGO

To slice the flesh from the mango, you'll need to orient yourself with the large flat seed. By examining the mango, you should be able to determine its flatter sides. Slice the unpeeled mango from stem end to bottom end parallel to the flat seed on either side. You'll have two large slices with the majority of the flesh. The remaining thin slice of flesh surrounding the seed can then be carefully pared away from the seed. Take each large slice and cut down to, but not through, the skin in a cross-hatch pattern and then push the skin side up and out to pop the mango cubes easily from the skin.

MANGO COOKING TIPS AND HINTS

1. An average large mango will weigh about 500g and yield about 1 to 3/4 cups diced fruit. Your skills in removing the flesh (see above) will determine how neat the fruit is once it is taken from the flesh. It will still taste great, no matter how it looks.

2. Mango juice stains, so be careful as you extract the flesh, and when eating it. There's an often-quoted saying that suggests the best place to eat a ripe mango is in the bath.

3. If the fruit is too ripe to delve into without making a mess, simply massage the fruit until it is extremely soft, slice off the stem end and squeeze the juice into a container.