Mangoes are at their best right now (especially the foodie’s favourite Alphonso), and their sweet-sour flavour is as good with savouries as with puddings. It’s brilliant chopped up with Coronation chicken, as a salsa with kedgeree and as a chutney with curries or barbecues (see below). Add it to smoked haddock carpaccio or in balls with a prawn cocktail. It’s good with smoked meats, and you can make a soup with yoghurt and curry powder. For desserts, try mango with cold rice pudding or puréed with cream as a fool. Top vanilla ice cream with a spoonful of diced mango and a drizzle of honey.

Fresh mango chutney

(from Rose Prince’s New English Kitchen) ¼ pint
white-wine vinegar
3 cardamom pods
4oz golden granulated sugar
3 mangoes, peeled, stoned, cut into ½in cubes
1 red chilli, seeded and chopped
1tbs black onion seeds (nigella)

Heat the vinegar, cardamoms and sugar slowly in a small saucepan, allowing the sugar to dissolve before the mixture boils. Simmer until it’s reduced by a third and then remove from the heat. Add the chilli and stir. Pour this and the onion seeds over the mangoes. Eat straight away or store in the fridge for a week.