After the first fiasco with the gelo di mango, I took my little personal revenge :)

Honestly, corn starch is not my favorite jellying agent. The problem is that it must be added in large amount into recipes to get some thickening effect. This leads, sometimes, to an unpleasent aftertaste. Therefore, I tried something I have already experimented with great success: pectins.

As I wrote about one year ago, pectin is an excellent jellying agent. Pectins are extracted from fruit (usually, from some citrus’ zest) and they allow preparing jams very quickly, without boiling the fruit for hours and hours. By increasing the concentration of pectins, it is also possible to make fruit pastes and jello, all vegan, of course :)

The only drawback with pectins is that they form the gel in an acidic environment. Thus, they are well suitable for fruit, but I do not see the chance to use them to jellify food stuff as coconut milk or soy beverage.

And now that I took my little revenge with the gelo do mango, why do not share my successful recipe with you, guys? :)

Gelo di mango

(Doses for 8 persons)

• 900 g of mango pulp (about 4 mangos)

• 220 g of sugar

• 188 mL of water

• 30 mL of calcium water* (about 2 teaspoons)

• 2 teaspoon of pectine LM type**

• 1 teaspoon of citric acid

• A handful of dried coconut flakes

Mix pectins with sugar, in order to obtain a homogeneous mixture. Transfer the mango pulp into a pot, add the water and the calcium water, and bring everything to boil. Add the pectins-sugar mix and stir vigorously. Bring everything to boil for 1-2 min, still under constant stirring. Turn the flame down and pour the jello into single portions pots. Sprinkle some dried coconut flake on the top of each jello and transfer them in the fridge for 2-3 hours to let them firm.

*you can replace citric acid with lemon or lime juice. Honestly, I do not know the exact conversion. I would say 1/2 glass of juice should make it, but you have to try.

**pectins of LM type should come with a pouch of calcium salt. The manufacturer should report the dose on how to prepare the calcium water (in my case, it was about 1 teaspoon od calcium salt in 125 mL of water).

Let me know if you liked the recipe :)