Sip Sip Horray! part I
Sip Sip Horray! part I
A delishy mango lassi, and an iced hazelnut mocha recipe to help ring in the summer
This month is one big tribal dance for our serotonin. It's not the beautiful balmy weather. Nor the impromptu break-dancing during long Irish evenings. It's mango season y'all!
Our short mango season spins The Savvy into a shamanic frenzy. There are now special WhatsApp groups monitoring weekly deliveries, like a cat watching a robin. My favourite mangoes are the Alphonso variety. They arrive on our shores quivering like jelly, as opposed to the stone-solid, stringy Kent variety we're all too familiar with from supermarkets year-round. You can bag the best bargains at your local Asian or Halal grocers. Alphonsos are sweeter, juicier and delishier than any other mango we've met – you’ll need a rain jacket just to eat one.
So we're starting the month with a stunning mango lassi. Mango is insanely talented. Expect lots of beta-carotene and vitamin C to tumble through your system and service your summer skin by delaying cell damage. The addition of live, gut-loving yoghurt makes this a favourite among health nerds. Go ahead and use Irish organic hand-made kefir, which I have spotted in Supervalu.
Pop in some cardamom if you're nursing an obsession for this spice (as I am. See May's strawberry crumble). In fact, cardamom would go drastically well in this summer mocha too. A chilled mocha on a hot morning is enough to incite poetry in the crabbiest of cranks. I like to tell myself that the addition of cacao is essential to my coffee hobby, and offers us fillies a blood-gurgling boost of magnesium. This is the mineral that can help alleviate circulatory problems such as cramps, PMT and headaches. (Although most of my headaches are from headbutting my way through the long queues at my local coffee house during the first day of my cycle. Obvs). Wellness junkies will love the addition of hazelnuts to their morning brew - all that vitamin E careering through our system, and zapping the free radicals pilfering our complexion. Yes please! And in place of sugar, we're using dates to naturally sweeten the brew. The result is at once refreshing yet simultaneously creamy and satisfying. It's important to use raw hazelnuts because blanched or roasted hazelnuts (delicious as they are) won't give the milk a creamy texture and I will surely weep.
Sending love from my kitchen to yours,
Susan Jane
// Mango Lassi //
Serves 2
250g natural yoghurt or kefir
1 ripe mango, flesh only (or a good handful of frozen mango)
5 ice cubes (or a few tablespoons of water if using frozen mango)
Juice from 1 lime
Pinch of cardamom or chilli powder
Raw honey to sweeten (optional)
Step 1
Belt it all in a high-speed blender until creamy and smooth.
Step 2
Serve with ice, or a drizzle of raw honey.
Tips
Make a big batch, and sip it straight from the fridge for up to 3 days
Switch the flavours up by swapping out the cardamom for turmeric and fresh ginger
Keep it vegan and use chicory root syrup in place of honey, and coconut kefir
// Iced Hazelnut Mocha //
Makes 3 servings for the fridge
6 tablespoons freshly ground coffee beans
125g raw hazelnuts
1-3 dates
Pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon cacao or cocoa powder
Step 1
Steep the coffee with 500ml water overnight. At the same time, roughly cover the hazelnuts with water and soak overnight.
Step 2
In the morning, strain the coffee grounds through a nutmilk bag or a very fine sieve. Catch the treasure underneath. This is your cold brew coffee.
Step 3
Next, drain and rinse the soaked hazelnuts.
Step 4
Tumble the soaked hazelnuts into a high-speed blender with your cold brew coffee, date(s) and sea salt. One date is enough for me, but if you love sweetness, crank up the dates. Whizz for up to 40 seconds.
Step 5
Strain the mix through a nut milk bag or very fine sieve. If using the latter, it's worth sieving twice. Usually I just pour over ice at this stage, as it looks the colour of mocha and fools everyone too – wily hazelnuts can give the illusion of chocolate. But if you’re a purist, you’ll want to rinse the blender, then add the cacao or cocoa to your creamy hazelnut coffee and blend until smooth. This will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge, to service your summer mornings.
