Spicy Mango Relish With Seared Shrimp

Have you ever had shrimp with mango before? Did you try to make a spicy sauce with mango before? Do you like spicy food? If so, this recipe is a must try for you!

It's a modern dish with some Thai influences, the sweetness of the mango, the sourness of the lime, and the spiciness from the chilli all work so well and give this dish an unbelievable refreshing taste.

The process is also quite easy, and this relish can be combined with other meat/seafood as well, but preferably with white meat and seafood, such as chicken breast, fish fillet, shrimp etc.

You will need:

--1/2 Big mango (or a whole small mango)

--1 lime

--1 tbsp cilantro leaves

--1 tbsp chilli paste or fresh chilli

--salt depends on your own taste

-10-12 freshly peeled raw shrimps

When you choose mango, don't choose those are too soft although they're usually sweeter--I'll explain the reason later. And larger mangos are always easier to manage compared to smaller mangos.

For the chilli part, chopped fresh chilli is already good enough for me, though some people might prefer chilli paste. If using chilli paste, the only principle is that the less ingredients in the chilli paste, the better. Here I'm using a Chinese brand garlic and chilli paste which is quite pure and spicy. Don't use those that are too sweet or have too many flavors inside, keep it simple.

Use a peeler to peel off the skin of half a mango (so you can grab the other half easier). And we do not stop here--still use the peeler, and start to peel the flesh. Now that explains why I prefer mangos that are slightly hard, because if it's too soft, it will be very difficult to peel the flesh during this step.

Peel off the flesh of half a mango, and line them one by one.

Cut the mango slices vertically and then horizontally. Chop the whole thing together to make it into fine pieces and put it into a bowl. The reason why we're cutting like this instead of blend it is because it will keep the juice and the texture of mango much better, so the flavor will be better too.

If you just try to chop coarse mango flesh into fine pieces like this, you will take longer time and will not get a good result as this one since there will be more waste of the mango juice.

Chop the cilantro leaves into fine pieces as well, and put into the bowl with mango flesh. Squeeze in the lime juice, add the chilli paste (or fresh chilli), and then salt based on your own preference as well as the saltiness of the chilli paste you're using.

Mix everything until they're well combined. Cool it in the fridge and it's ready to use! It can go with a wide range of varieties--chicken breast, fish fillet, even veggies and tofu. But my favorite is always the shrimp, and I highly recommend you to try it with shrimp as well.

After peel the shrimp and remove the sand vein (which is the black line on the back). If you don't know how to remove a sand vein, you just need to cut the back of the shrimp with a pair of scissors and remove the black line in it. If you're still not sure, there are plenty tutorials teach you how to do that online.

Make sure you dry the shrimp with a paper towel before sear. Add a little bit oil (so that they won't stick), you can add your seasoning based on your preference, or just leave it like that if you like the original flavor or shrimp. Here I've added a little bit old bay seasoning, paprika and some cayenne pepper for the extra spiciness.

Add a little bit oil into the pan, and put shrimps on the pan to sear it. Or you can grill the shrimp if you want to, just make sure the shrimp is fully cooked.

Take out the shrimp and let it cool to room temperature before use.

Add the spicy mango relish onto the spicy shrimp, it's a perfect snack or appetizer. The cooking process is not complicated at all, but the flavor is just amazing as it looks. Very modern and exotic with some Thai influences, it also can be a very cool dish on a dinner party to surprise your guests.

If you want it to be more spicy, just add more chilli or chilli paste to the relish.

Hope you'll enjoy this recipe! And if you do, please vote for me in the "Snacks" contest, thanks a lot!