Ming says: Many meals in Chinese restaurants end with a dessert of lychees—the perfumed exotic fruit really tastes like nothing else. While sweet, they are fantastic in savory dishes when paired with mangoes and spicy jalapeño peppers as done in this purée, adding an incomparable fresh and tropical sweet heat to a variety of dishes.
Makes 4 cups
- 1 large yellow onion, sliced
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 2 jalapeños, stemmed, minced with the seeds
- 4 ripe mangoes, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 cup whole peeled lychees, roughly chopped (preferably fresh, but canned is fine as long as they are whole and well drained)
- Juice of 2 limes
- 1/3 cup grapeseed oil plus some to cook with
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- In a sauté pan coated lightly with oil over high heat, sauté the onions, ginger and jalapeños until soft, about 4 minutes. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Add the mangoes and lychees and cook for only 3 minutes until hot. Transfer to a blender and purée at a high speed in batches. Add the lime juice and drizzle in the oil to emulsify. Check again for flavor. Store in a glass jar, covered, in the fridge for two weeks.
MING'S RECOMMENDED BEVERAGES
Pascal Bourgogne Blanc
Where: Puligny Montrachet,
Burgundy, France
Grape: Chardonnay
Style: This chardonnay is neither heavy nor oaky and instead features more mineral qualities. Produced in the revered village of Puligny Montrachet in the Burgundy region, this is a taste of an exclusive Burgundy wine at a very reasonable price.
Harpoon "UFO" Hefweizen
Where: Boston, Massachusetts
Style: "Hefweizen" means wheat beer and this one features the aroma of tropical fruits and bananas and is slightly sweet but still crisp. Fermentation occurs at a slightly higher temperature and it is bottled without being filtered which produces a fuller flavor. This beer is best when served with a lemon, the citrus cutting through the rich flavor of the beer.
>>This recipe appears in
Episode #208.
>> For additional recipes and more, visit
www.ming.com
