MANGO CHEEKS IN LIME & GINGER SYRUP

Mangoes arranged like this, the fruit sliced but still in the shape of the ‘cheeks’ that lie on each side of the stone, featured in one of Antonio Carluccio’s early books, also with a syrup. I thought it looked beautiful and have been serving it this way for years. Slices of fresh pineapple and wheels of pink and white grapefruit are also lovely in the same syrup. Fruit and lime are exactly what you need at the end of this meal.

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus chilling

Cooking time: 10 minutes

6 limes

175g granulated sugar

3cm fresh root ginger, peeled and finely sliced

3 medium, perfectly ripe mangoes, peeled

1 Using a zester, remove the zest from two of the limes. Put this in a bowl, cover and reserve. Finely grate the zest of another 2 limes and put this into a saucepan. Juice all 6 of the limes and add the juice to the saucepan, with 375ml of water, the sugar and ginger. Heat gently, stirring from time to time to help the sugar dissolve. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 7–10min, or until it is very slightly syrupy looking (it becomes more syrupy as it cools down). Cool, then chill.

2 Cut off the ‘cheeks’ from the mangoes; you do this by cutting through the flesh, alongside the central stone, so you are left with 2 rounded, fleshy sides and a stone which still has quite a lot of fruit round it. You are only going to use the cheeks for this dish, so keep the rest of the flesh for something else (or just eat it).

3 Lay the cheeks on a chopping board and cut each into slices, holding on to the mango flesh so the slices stay together in their cheek shape. Carefully place each sliced cheek in a broad, shallow bowl. Add the reserved lime zest to the chilled syrup and pour this over the slices.

‘Mexican cuisine isn’t merely avocados and tortilla chips’