One of my most favorite kitchen gadgets is my mango pitter. I don't have a ton of kitchen storage, so I have to be somewhat choosy with my kitchen toys, but this one is definitely worth the space.
Before I bought this tool, cutting up a ripe mango usually resulted in a slobbery mess. The mango ended up fit for a smoothie, but nothing else, and I usually ended up with more mango juice down my arm, on the counter and on the floor than in any sort of designated receptacle. The flesh would be mushed to a pulp. It drove me crazy when I would see some kitchen show host talking about cutting a grid, and ending up with perfectly diced fruit. I could not make it happen. Then, I saw this mango pitter at a kitchen store one day, and thought I'd give it a try. It was less than ten dollars, and surely I'd spent more than that creating mango slurry over the years.
The mango pitter operates on the same premise as those apple corer/slicer gadgets. It has an oval-shaped middle to cut around the pit, and you are left with two halves, sans pit. To get the whole operation to work smoothly, it is best to refrigerate the mango for an hour or two before slicing it, to make it more firm. Also, score the top of the mango where the pitter blades will cut it. Otherwise, you may end up with the aforementioned handful of mush. Once you've sliced through the mango, cut each half into thirds, and then using a very sharp paring knife (that's the only kind you have, right?) pare the flesh from the skin. I find that this works best if you cup the mango section in your hand, skin-side down, and carefully run the paring knife between the mango skin and flesh, as if you were cutting cantaloupe from its rind. From there, you can put your skinned mango sections onto a cutting board, and dice away.
This may sound like a whole bunch of steps, but the whole thing can be done in a minute or two, and the result is definitely worth the effort!
I'm still on the fence about my pineapple corer/peeler/slicer. Too often, I miss the core with the center, and have to trim each piece, anyway. The pinapple in the bowl in the picture above, I just cut by hand. Quick and easy steps:
-Use a big cutting board. Cut the top and the bottom of the pineapple off, so you have flat surfaces on each end. Cut an inch deep, so you don't have any exterior debris left.
-Working your way around the pineapple, cut down the side in strips to remove the skin. Don't try to cut it too thin, or you'll have eyes poking thourgh. 1/2 inch works best, I think. Throw the skin into your compost so it isn't cluttering up your work space and getting little picky things everywhere.
-Cut the pineapple into quarters, from top to bottom, into four columns. Then, to cut out the core, stand each column up straight, and trim the triangle from the center of the column. You can usually tell how deep the core goes by the change in color and texture of the fruit. After you have cored each column, lay them down, cut them in half or thirds, lengthwise, and then dice them.
Again, this may seem like a lot of work, but fresh pineapple is to die for, it's so good. My local Aldi has had them on sale for less than two dollars all summer long, so they have become a staple in the house. Yum!
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