What is Mango Sauce?
Mango sauce is drizzled on dishes, tossed into salads and used as a marinade and dip. It is a golden-orange colored sauce with a creamy and easy to pour consistency. The sauce is usually made from fresh mango, coconut milk and a variety of seasonings, including fish sauce for a rounded umami flavor, chili for a hint of spice and garlic to add depth of flavor. The sauce is sweet and savory and has a hint of tartness.
What does Mango Sauce Taste Like?
Sweet is one of the five main tastes. It has smooth and round notes in its flavor profile. Sweet is a naturally occurring flavor in many foods, including fruits, berries, winter squashes, sugarcane, and honey. The sweet taste in these foods is due to a higher sugar content. Sweetness is characteristic of desserts and is used as an accent in savory foods.
Sour is one of the five main tastes. It is tart and bright, sometimes with a mouth-puckering quality. Sour is a naturally occurring flavor found in many foods, including citrus, vinegar, various dairy products, and certain fruits. Sour is used to enhance a dish or drink and is used as both a main and complimentary flavor.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Spicy is a flavor that brings heat and fire to food by creating a burning sensation in the mouth or sinuses. Spicy flavors come from hot peppers, horseradish, and wasabi. Spicy adds a kick and sometimes complexity to a dish and releases endorphins, creating a mildly addictive quality.
Ingredients
Mangoes are a large tropical fruit, with a thick glossy skin, juicy flesh and a large flat seed in its center, that encompasses much of the fruit. There are many varieties of mango, some have yellow skin, while others have a reddish skin that is green when unripe. Most mangoes are round and oblong, while others are kidney shaped. They are 2-9 inches in length and heavy. The flesh is smooth, though fibrous and golden in color. It is an extremely juicy fruit with a rich sweet flavor, that is unique to the mango.
Fish sauce is a clear and thin liquid with a color that is light or medium brown and made from anchovies. It is used in many East Asian dishes to add a marine-like umami quality. The flavor is salty, fishy and fermented. A little bit goes a long way and can make or break a dish, depending on the amount used. Just enough fish sauce brightens every flavor in the dish, while too much is overpowering.
Canned coconut milk is coconut water and coconut fat that have been canned. Light coconut milk is slightly thick, though still very fluid and is white with a creamy smooth texture. Full fat coconut milk is often separated with clear coconut water on the bottom of the can and a dense layer of creamy white coconut fat on top. These products are used in curries and desserts most commonly.
Sweet chili sauce is a chili sauce with a golden orange or red color. Its texture can be thin, or semi-thick, sometimes a bit oily and often has hot chili seeds mixed in it. The flavor is spicy and sweet, with varying levels of heat, though usually on the milder side. Sweet chili sauce can be used in many dishes, including as a dipping sauce. It is used in Southeast Asian cuisines.
Brown sugar comes from the sugar cane or sugar beet. It is less refined than white sugar, but a refined sugar nonetheless. Brown sugar varies in color from light brown to dark brown. Light brown sugar has a milder flavor and lower moisture content, than stronger tasting brown sugar. The taste is mildly like molasses and very sweet. The sugar comes in fine granules that clump together. Brown sugar is used in baked goods for its sweet flavor and ability to make cookies soft. It is also used in many savory dishes to balance flavors.
Garlic is used in cuisines around the world and is extremely popular for its depth of flavor. The garlic bulb forms underneath the soil and is harvested once it reaches maturity. The bulb typically has thin, dry, white and flaky skin, surrounding the individual cloves. Often there are 10-12 cloves to a bulb/head of garlic. The cloves are cream colored with a strong smell and flavor that is spicy and sharp. Garlic takes on a nutty flavor in addition, when cooked. It is used in countless dishes, sauces, breads and more.
Lime juice comes from the citrus fruit of the lime tree. Limes are round and roughly the size of a small plum, but can vary. Limes have a firm texture with green rind. The pale green flesh of the lime is firm, pulpy and juicy, much like a lemon, but harder. The juice is squeezed from the flesh and is a pale green color with a sour and refreshing taste and is used in drinks and food items, including sauces.
Turmeric is the root of a flowering plant and is used as a spice. The root is woody, but easy to cut and looks similar to ginger. Rather than growing in clusters, each root is a several or so inches long, cylindrical and 1 or more inches in diameter. The thin skin is a brownish-orange and protects the inner root which is bright orange, like a carrot. Turmeric dyes everything it touches and leaves a golden color. The flavor is earthy, pungent and slightly bitter. It has numerous uses, including flavoring and coloring food.
There are many varieties of chili peppers. They are a small, hot pepper. The pepper is dried and ground into a fine powder, that varies in shades of red. Chili powder is a spice blend popular in American and Latin-American cooking. It is usually made from ancho chilies, paprika, oregano and cumin, other spices may be added. It is used in many protein dishes and has a spicy and herbal flavor.
