Mango & Passionfruit Tart Tatin with Chocolate Ice-cream
There is a restaurant in Madeira called Kampo, which I would not just highly recommend, but consider essential dining for anyone visiting the city of Funchal. The restaurant focuses on ‘Pesticos’ (Portuguese small plates) and there is plenty to choose from – from tuna tartare, served in a fried pasta cone to the most ridiculously rich beef rib tortellini with truffles. Even with all the delicious varieties of pesticos, it is a very good idea to save some room for dessert. They are always delicious and super interesting with their flavours. This recipe is partially inspired by the chocolate and salted caramel mousse, with mango ice cream I had when I last ate there. This recipe is very different to the one I had in Kampo but is inspired by the same flavour combinations - mango, salted caramel, and chocolate - which were just gorgeous together.
Whether bought, or made, it is important to serve this dessert with good quality chocolate ice cream – it really does make or break the dessert. You won’t be disappointed.
If you are preparing the dessert in advance you can do everything up to Step 6 several hours ahead. Once you are ready for dessert (perhaps just before you serve your main course) you can start again from Step 7 to finish everything off.
Ingredients
Serves 6
2 x mangoes (they should be just ripe and not too soft)
200g caster sugar
50g butter
50ml rum
1 tsp Maldon salt
175g ready made shortcrust pastry
2 passion fruits, to serve
Good quality chocolate ice-cream, to serve
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C / 180C Fan
2. Peel the mangoes and cut them so that you get two large ‘cheeks’. If there is any flesh left on the stone, cut these as neatly as possible into wedges and set aside.
3. Put the sugar into a 20cm heavy-based ovenproof frying pan (if you don’t have a pan in the right size, use whatever frying pan you have to hand to make the caramel and then transfer into a 20cm cake tin or similar. Anything that can go in the oven will do).
4. Add the rum and swirl the pan so that the sugar dissolves, then cook over a medium heat until the caramel is a dark golden colour.
5. Take off the heat and stir in the butter, and the salt. Arrange the mango neatly on top of the caramel. Start with the larger pieces in the middle and then use the smaller wedges to fill in the gaps. Depending on the pan you use, you may have to cut some of the larger mango cheeks in half in order to get the jigsaw puzzle to fit together! Leave to one side.
6. Roll out the pastry to 5mm thick, and cut out a circle slightly larger than your pan. Put back into the fridge to rest.
7. About 30-40 minutes before you want to eat (so perhaps just as you are about to serve your main course), take the pastry out of the fridge and place it on top of the pan with mangoes and caramel. Tuck in the edges of the pastry around the fruit to make a seal, then pierce a hole in the middle with a knife to allow any steam from the fruit to escape while it cooks.
