A Jacques Pepin Dessert That Looks Like Sunshine on a Plate

This dessert from Jacques Pepin is simple, healthy, yet elegant, and is perfect served with a little cup of coffee after dinner. Speaking of coffee, our coffee maker just died a week or so ago. No warning, no nothing. It just quit. I must have been living right as they say, because that same morning that the coffee pot gave up the ghost, an email came from CSN asking me if I would like to review one of their products. I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

Our last coffee maker ground its own beans. While that sounds wonderful, our first experience with the bean grinding feature wasn’t all that great. In fact it was eye opening. We set the coffeepot to grind the beans, hit the switch, and went to bed. The next morning we woke to a very loud, screeching noise coming from the kitchen. It was the coffee maker grinding the beans. I don’t want to tell you exactly what my husband said when he was rudely awakened by the coffeepot happily whizzing the beans around in the grinder, but it was similar to “what the H is that noise?” Since then we’ve laughed about it, told the story to friends, but from that moment on, we’ve not allowed the grinding of coffee beans to be our morning wake-up call.  

Photo from CSN

Our new Cuisinart coffee pot from CSN is a high tech looking brushed stainless, Brew Central model that will be perfect with our other stainless appliances in our new kitchen at the condo. I love the brew pause feature, allowing me to grab a cup before the brewing is finished. The other feature that impressed me is one I’ve never had before – a carafe temperature dial. I can to set the temperature of the coffee after brewing to high, medium, or low. As much as I dread replacing coffeepots and other small appliances, this has been a very pleasant experience. From choosing the coffeepot from CSN’s vast array, to being pleasantly surprised that their shipping on the model I chose was free, to the UPS man delivering my package within days of placing the order, I could not be more pleased.

Back to Jacques’ dessert. This is a simple, healthy recipe that allows you the freedom to “make it your own.” You could substitute peaches or nectarines for the mangos. To save calories, you could use Splenda in place of the sugar. When it comes to the choice of liquor, I always favor rum because for years we lived in the Caribbean, which I sometimes refer to as "de land of de rum and coconuts”, but Jacques suggested Cognac or whiskey. It’s fabulous over vanilla ice cream, or serve it alone as I did here. Have fun with this one. It looks like sunshine on a plate.

Mangos with Dark Rum
Adapted from Cooking with Claudine by Jacques Pepin – Serves 4

2 ripe mangos
Julienned zest of two limes
3 tablespoons sugar or Splenda
2 tablespoons Meyers dark rum, Cognac or whiskey
3 tablespoons fresh lime lime juice

Peel the mango, cutting deeply enough into the fruit so than any green-colored flesh is also removed. Then, cutting inward, toward the pit, slice each of the mangos into slivers about ½” thick. Discard the pit. Using a zester, remove the lime peel from the limes and set aside until you are ready to serve.

In a bowl, combine the mango slivers with the sugar, rum, and lime juice. Either serve immediately or, for added flavor, chill for at least two hours, stirring occasionally before serving, then bring to room temperature. Sprinkle the mangos with the julienned lime peel just before serving.

Printable recipe