Strawberry and mango lasagne
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This is a lovely fresh dessert that might sound complicated but is actually very straightforward and the advantage is that you make it the day before you want to serve it. We first made it by chance, really. We have some friends who have a farm near Mumbai in India, and we always give them some seeds of things like arugula to experiment with and, in return, when they visit us they bring us some fruit. One year they came over with about five boxes of mangoes what were we going to do with them? At the time, we were searching for different ways of serving fruit for the lunchtime menu, and so we came up with this idea of a "fruit lasagne" layers of fruit, which are pressed. We serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of a square of caramel sponge (though if you like, you could substitute a sweet cookie). For this recipe, you need two plastic containers of the same size, roughly 6x4 1/2 inches and about 2 1/2 inches deep.
ingredients
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serves: 4
4 ripe mangoes
14 ounces (about 2 1/2 cups) strawberries
For the caramel sponge:
1 1/4 cups tin of condensed milk
2/3 cup (3 large eggs) beaten eggs
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon heaping baking powder
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
pinch of mixed spices (such as ground cinnamon, cloves, star anise) (optional)
a little flour and butter for preparing the baking dish
To serve:
Vanilla ice cream
Candied vanilla beans (optional)
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount per Serving
Calories: 670
- Total Fat: 31.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 17.9 g
- Trans Fat: 0.9 g
- Cholesterol: 222.3 mg
- Sodium: 307.7 mg
- Total Carbs: 89.2 g
- Dietary Fiber: 8.1 g
- Sugars: 59.8 g
- Protein: 14.4 g
preparation
1. The day before you want to serve the lasagne, peel the mangoes and slice very thin. Wash, hull and dry the strawberries and slice them lengthwise. just slightly thicker than the mangoes. Keep the trimmings from around the mango stones and blend these with a hand blender to make a smooth puree. Keep in the fridge.
2. Line one of the two containers with plastic wrap, enough to come over the sides.
3. Line the base with about a fifth of the mango slices, making sure there are no gaps between the pieces (when it is turned out, this will be the top layer of your "lasagne"). Next, make a layer of strawberries, using about a quarter of the slices. Repeat the layering three more times and finish with a layer of mango slices.
4. Cover with a large sheet of plastic wrap — again big enough to overhang the sides. Have a flat plate or tray ready that is big enough to put the containers on top of one another, and fit into the fridge. Put the second container on top of the first, hold firmly and flip the two containers ever together onto the tray. Put a weight en top (a milk bottle or some cans will do). The idea is that the excess juices from the fruit will drain out onto the tray, so cut away the excess plastic wrap, so that it doesn't get in the way. Put in the fridge for 12 hours.
5. To make the sponge, first make a caramel.
6. Preheat the oven to 300°F, grease a rectangular baking dish with butter and dust it with flour.
7. Whisk the caramel with the rest of the sponge ingredients until you have a smooth mixture. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake for 25 minutes, until springy to the touch and a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out dry (if it is moist, keep the sponge in the even for a little longer).
8. Turn the sponge out on to a cooling rack and leave to cool, then out inte squares.
9. When ready to serve the lasagne, take off the weights and remove it from the fridge. Turn the two containers hack over together and remove the top one. Put a chopping hoard over the top of the remaining container and? holding it firmly? turn both hoard and container over together? so that you turn out the lasagne on to the board. Trim the edges if necessary, cut it into 4 and place a square on each of 4 plates.
10. If you have a kitchen blowtorch, dust the top of each slab of lasagne with sugar and glaze it quickly with the torch.
11. Scoop some ice cream on top of each square of sponge, spoon the reserved mango puree around and garnish with strips of candied vanilla pod, if using them.
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