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Dalai Mama Dishes

by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

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Mango Fro-yo Pops

Posted July 07, 2009
Find more about frozen yogurt , popsicles , dalai mama , mango
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Well, since it's not okay to bite the child, yummy as she is, you're stuck with the mango popsicle.

The mango. Honestly, is there any fruit more lusciously x-rated than a mango? Okay, maybe a fig. But still.

Mango refuse.

The blender situation. There's no law saying you need to freeze it, you know. Go ahead and stick a straw in if you like.

We are missing at least one stick from every popsicle mold we own. Where are they? Do *you* have them?

Ben with popsicle. Thank goodness he finally sees the mango light.

My friend Kathleen laughed at me last night when I asked if I could post a photo of her daughter here. "You're putting up a recipe for popsicles? I don't know that anyone really needs a recipe for that." Oh but they do. I mean, obviously you can just pour grape juice or lemonade into your popsicle molds, and your kids will ooh and aah and be thrilled. You could freeze bong water, and as long as there was a stick poking out of it, my kids would be like, "Ooh, popsicles!" I know. But these? We were trying to recreate the awesome mango shakes we'd gotten from an Indian restaurant-- these perfectly creamy, cold, and mango-y lassis--and then, well, we froze them. And they're incredible: somehow rich and refreshing at once, like a kind of tropical creamsicle, not to mention packed with nutrition from the fruit and yogurt for a double-superfood whammy: vitamins a and c, phytonutrients, probiotics, protein, calcium. Pow pow pow.

Of course, you have to like mangoes, which everyone in my family does. Except for the one totally insane person who thinks insanely that they taste like a cross between soap and garbage, which is just totally insane, even though I kind of know what he's talking about. But whether or not his father ever comes to his fruity senses, at least Ben has been converted and now joins his sister and me in the loving of mangoes. We were just telling him recently about the time he was three and pointed to a pyramid of mangoes in a grocery store "I don't think I like those very much," he said reasonably, and this guy leapt in out of nowhere, this huge guy with a huge mane of dredlocks bobbing around his grinning face, and he admonished Ben. "Ooooh, leetle mon!" he'd said, grabbing a mango in each friendly hand and shaking his head. "You are making a beeeeg mistake!" It was like a Candid Camera commercial for Jamaica. But we still say it whenever Ben thinks he doesn't like something good: "You are making a beeeeg mistake!"

Which is what I'm saying to you now while you're sitting there thinking how much easier it would be to just pour some Orange Crush into your popsicle molds and call it a day. Sure, you have to wrangle the mango flesh out of its peel and off of its pit. But it's kind of fun, assuming you don't have a weird reaction to the peel, which turns out to share some of the same compounds as poison ivy, which might explain why it makes my lips itch. But that mango flesh? It's like a cross between an avocado and a pineapple and a coconut. And also, strangely, a hair net, what with all that thready stuff that gets in your teeth (When someone once told me that mango was high in dietary fiber I was like, tell me about it, pass the dental floss). Okay, but even with the choky filaments and the rashy skin and the fact that it's not likely to be local for any of us and, therefore, we should picture our popsicles actually being made of frozen fossil fuels--well, you should still make these. Because one bite of that luscious, tropically fragrant pop is like a mouthful of summer. And your kids will love them. Unless they're making a beeeeg mistake.

Mango Fro-yo Popsicles
Makes 6-8 popsicles
Active time: 5 minutes; freezing time 4 hours

You can follow this exact recipe substituting other fruit: strawberries, say, or nectarines. Just think to yourself first about whether lime is the right flavor complement, or whether you might do better with lemon. Also, other fruits may need a bit more sugar.

The flesh of 1 ripe mango
1 cup vanilla yogurt
The juice of half a lime and a few scrapings of its zest
2 tablespoons (more or less) sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Whir all the ingredients in a blender, then taste for sweetness: it should taste sweeter than you want the finished popsicle to taste, since freezing will dull the sweetness a bit. Add more sugar if it needs it, or a bit more limejuice or zest if the flavors aren't smacking you in the head with their vibrant excellence. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze. Run the molds briefly under hot water to dislodge the frozen pops before you try yoinking them out.

Get a printable version of this recipe.

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About Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman is the author of the memoir, Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family, available online and in bookstores nationwide.

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