Delicious Summer Mango-Strawberry Trifle

The Mango Mania in Maharashtra is something that words simply cannot describe . Alphonso or Haapus: The King of Mangoes is the one that grabs all the limelight and quite rightly so.

There is a palpable excitement in the air at the arrival of the Alphonso which makes an appearance in the markets in small numbers at the start of the season (which is from end March to May) . On it's arrival it is quite expensive. But by the time the harvest peaks it is all over the place and can be bought in large quantities though I would say the price is never really as low as that of other other ordinary fruit like apples and bananas.

It?s sweetness and flavour go way beyond the word ?delicious? and is truly a ?Slice of Heaven on Earth?.

The Alphonso takes it?s name from Afonso De Albuquerque : a Portuguese sailor who brought this exquisite and expensive variety of mango to Goa. The locals took to calling it Aphoos in Konkani and in Maharashtra the pronunciation further changed to Hapoos.

At my mom's this trifle is a must-make every summer. Not just once every summer but as many times as possible. It really is the ultimate trifle and all because of one magic ingredient. Yes, you guessed it.... the Alphonso Mango. If you have good Alphonso mangoes , you don't need any other fancy ingredients. The mangoes do all the work. They are the heart and soul of this pudding.

I was very lucky to get my hands on a box of excellent Alphonso mangoes a couple of days back. Now here in UK although Alphonso is available you can't eat it on the scale that you do in India. So when you have just 12 mangoes at a time to do with you have to think really hard how you can enjoy them to the fullest. The best way of course is the simplest way i.e. to slice them and enjoy the heavenly taste, but I thought I would spare just one of the mangoes for this pudding. After all once the mango season in India comes to an end you have to wait for next year to make this as it's not the same with tinned mangoes. So I urge all my readers particularly those in India and who have access to good Alphonso to make this pud at least once before the mangoes disappear .

I happened to have most of the other ingredients in my fridge. So I used:

1 large Alphonso cubed,

5 /6 strawberries cut into small pieces,

2 cups vanilla custard (I used ready to eat Ambrosia Custard)

1 cup strawberry jelly (I had set some the previous day for my son and had some leftover, but go ahead and use the ready to eat variety available in all stores),

4 plain cup cakes cut into thin round slices ( these too I had , but use any plain cake of your choice)

1/2 cup orange juice to soak the cake (use fresh or boxed)

Method:

You can decide from the number of people you are making it for whether you want to make the trifle in individual glasses or a large bowl .

1.Placed the cake slices at the bottom of each glass,

2.Drizzle the orange juice over the cake to soak it a a little,

3.Next top with mango and strawberry pieces,

4. Spoon jelly over the fruit

5. Pour custard till the fruit bits and jelly are completely covered,

6. Place next layer of cake and continue till you fill the glass completely leaving space for the top most layer of custard and top with more mango bits for decoration,

7. You can also use whipped cream as an option to top up the glasses.

Chill the trifle thoroughly (5 to 6 hrs) and then serve. Sit back and wait to be showered with compliments and a lot of OOHS and AAHS. Don't forget to save some for yourself though.

Cool and Classy Meeta of "What's For Lunch Honey ?" has announced "Mango Mania" as the theme for her Monthly Mingle and of course my trifle is making a grand entry there.