I don’t think I have a sweet tooth, and yet I keep at least two cans of sweetened condensed milk in my pantry at all times. I love the stuff so much; I crave its smooth, creamy, sparkly sweetness, those faint nutty-dairy notes. It forms the base of mochi cake — my favorite dessert to bring to a potluck — as well as Hawaii-style sherbet, limonada and Magnolia Bakery’s famous banana pudding. When I visited Japan, I fell in love with those squeezable tubes of sweetened condensed milk, which I put to good use on morning toasts and in afternoon coffees.
So: Since I always have sweetened condensed milk on me, that means I’m just a couple of mangoes away from mango soft serve. (Hetty Lui McKinnon’s recipe calls for frozen mango, or any other fruit you like, but I’m going for the fresh ones while they’re in season.) I could continue, but I don’t think I can paint you a better picture of the effortless joy this recipe provides than Brenda K., a reader, does:
“Saw this recipe at 5:30 p.m., ran to store for frozen mangoes, ran home, whipped the whole thing up in 5 minutes and stuck it in the freezer by 6:15 p.m. Took a nap. Then took it to a Fourth of July party at 7:30 p.m. where folks said it was a winner.”
Featured Recipe
Mango Soft Serve
Today’s specials
Turmeric chicken skewers with green olive yogurt: It’s a tenet of summer that food on a stick just tastes better (see: kebabs, county fair corn dogs, Popsicles). Though I’d argue that what really makes the juicy chicken shine in this new recipe from Nargisse Benkabbou isn’t so much the skewers, but rather the garlicky, gingery marinade and accompanying olive-flecked yogurt.
Shrimp aguachile: Reader, I gasped when I first saw the image for this Kristina Felix recipe. That color! You can practically taste the lime, cilantro and serrano chile in that vivid green hue. The recipe yields four to six appetizer servings, but truly I want this all to myself with a pile of broken tostadas and an icy Pacífico.
Spaghetti with fried eggs: A Mark Bittman classic for when you’ve spent your Saturday out doing all the things but didn’t make it to the grocery store, and now you’re home and tired and hungry and you have pasta, some eggs, garlic and oil, but little else.
And before you go
If the above mention of potluck desserts reminded you that you agreed to bring something sweet to that thing on Friday, not to worry: Here are 17 desserts you can make in your (highly portable) 9-by-13 pan. If I’m not making mochi cake, I’m making butter mochi — both are great for gluten avoiders, have a delightful bouncy chew and are fine sitting out until you’re ready to dig in.
Thanks for reading!
The post Two-Ingredient Mango Soft Serve appeared first on New York Times.