Mangate Sinaloense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy-bottomed copper cazo or 4-quart enameled cast iron pot, wider than it is tall
• •Wooden spoon with a flat edge for scraping the bottom
• •Food mill or fine-mesh strainer
• •8-inch square baking pan
• •Parchment paper
• •Offset spatula or wet spoon for smoothing

Instructions

1. 1

   Pick the right mango

   Use Ataulfo mangoes, the small yellow ones, also called manila or mango de Manila. They are the only mango that gives mangate its true color, that deep marigold-orange, and the floral sweetness that does not turn cloying when you cook the sugar in. The big red-and-green mangoes from the supermarket are fibrous and watery. They will give you a sad, stringy paste. No me vengas con atajos. The mango should feel heavy for its size, give slightly under the thumb, and smell like itself even before you cut it. If the mango is not ready, the mangate is not ready.

   Ataulfo season in Sinaloa runs from late March through July. The earliest fruit from Chiapas reaches markets in February. Outside those months, buy them only if they are heavy and fragrant. Out-of-season Ataulfos are pale and cottony. Wait for the season.
2. 2

   Extract the pulp

   Stand each mango on end and slice down either side of the flat pit. Score the flesh of each cheek in a crosshatch without cutting through the skin, then invert and slice the cubes off into a bowl. Trim the remaining flesh from around the pit. You want 4 packed cups of pulp. Pass the pulp through a food mill or push it through a fine-mesh strainer with the back of a wooden spoon. The mill removes the fibers that would otherwise stay tangled in the paste. The paste must be smooth or it will not slice clean when it sets.

3. 3

   Start the cazo

   Transfer the mango puree to a heavy-bottomed copper cazo or a wide enameled cast iron pot. A wide pot, not a tall one. Evaporation is the whole job here, and a tall pot fights you the entire afternoon. Add the sugar, lime juice, lime zest, cinnamon stick if using, and the pinch of salt. Stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar before any heat goes under the pot. The salt and the lime are not decoration. The salt sharpens the mango. The lime keeps the color bright and the paste from turning into pure candy.

4. 4

   Cook it down slow

   Set the cazo over medium-low heat. Bring it to a steady, lazy bubble and start stirring. Mangate is a stirring dish. You cannot walk away. The sugar wants to scorch on the bottom of the pot and once it scorches, the whole batch tastes burned. There is no recovering from it later. Use a wooden spoon and scrape the bottom and the corners every minute or so for the first hour. The puree will deepen from bright yellow to amber to a darker marigold orange as the water cooks out and the sugar concentrates.

   If the paste spits and burns your forearms, lower the heat. This is not a dish that benefits from rushing. Two hours over medium-low is correct. Forty-five minutes over high is a ruined batch.
5. 5

   Read the spoon

   After about ninety minutes, the paste will pull away from the sides of the pot in a thick sheet when you drag the spoon across the bottom. Drag the spoon down the center. If the path you cleared holds its shape for a full second before the paste closes back over it, you are nearly there. Drop a teaspoon of the paste onto a cold plate and let it cool for one minute. Push it with your finger. It should be firm enough to wrinkle and hold a fingerprint, not liquid. If it spreads, keep cooking and test again in ten minutes. The senoras in Todos Santos test it by eye. You will too, after the third batch.

6. 6

   Pour and set

   Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on two sides. Lightly oil the parchment with a neutral oil. Fish out the cinnamon stick and the lime zest and discard them. Pour the hot paste into the pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula or the back of a wet spoon. Tap the pan against the counter twice to settle it. Let it cool on the counter for one hour, then leave it uncovered overnight at room temperature. Mangate sets by drying. A refrigerator traps the moisture and you will get a sticky paste that never firms. The kitchen counter is correct. Asi se hace y punto.

7. 7

   Cut and coat

   Once the mangate is firm enough that a fingertip pressed into the surface leaves only a faint mark, lift the slab out by the parchment. Cut it into squares, rectangles, or diamonds with a long sharp knife dipped in hot water and dried between cuts. Toss the pieces in granulated sugar to coat all sides, or leave them plain if you prefer a softer surface. Store layered between parchment in a tin or glass jar. They keep for three weeks at room temperature. Serve alongside slabs of queso de rancho or queso fresco. The salty cheese against the candied mango is the whole point. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •If you cannot find Ataulfo, do not make this with another mango. Make something else this week and make mangate when the right fruit arrives. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade, and the wrong mango will not become the right mango no matter how long you cook it.
• •Copper cazos are the traditional vessel because copper conducts heat evenly and lets you cook the sugar without scorching. A heavy enameled cast iron pot is the next best thing. Thin-bottomed pots will burn the paste in under twenty minutes. Use what you have, but use the heaviest pot you own.
• •The cheese matters as much as the mangate. Queso de rancho from a small dairy, firm, salty, slightly tangy, is what they serve it with in Sinaloa. Queso fresco is the most common substitute and it works. Do not pair this with cream cheese or aged cheddar. That is a different dessert from a different country.
• •Mangate is a make-ahead sweet by design. It travels well, keeps for weeks, and is what country cooks made when the harvest came in heavy and they needed to put up the mango that would not last the week. This is preserving, not pastry.

Advance Preparation

• •Mangate is made to be made ahead. After the overnight set, it keeps for three weeks at room temperature layered between parchment in a tin or glass jar.
• •For longer storage, wrap individual pieces in waxed paper and store in a sealed tin in a cool, dry cupboard. Mangate will keep for up to two months this way. Do not refrigerate. The cold draws moisture out of the air and into the paste, and the surface goes sticky.
• •If you want to scale up for a festival or a holiday gift batch, double the recipe but cook it in two separate cazos. One large pot of mangate takes four hours and the bottom always burns before the top sets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 35g)