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Featured, Kitchen

Celebrate Fat Tuesday with Mangoes

February 20, 2023

Étouffée with mango tabasco & mango anise (sugar cube) sazeracs

“Mardi Gras” means fat Tuesday, I only learned that a few years back which makes me giggle a little bit! It always falls before Ash Wednesday which signals the beginning of Lent a predominantly Catholic “event” which happens during the lead up to Easter and typically consists of payer, repentance and some fasting. Fat Tuesday is the day during lent when people indulge in all that they obstain from during lent. The day is a feasting occasion, often filled with all kinds of debauchery, which you can read about in more detail on Refinery 29.

Here are a few mango-centric recipes I whipped up this past weekend to help you celebrate Fat Tuesday which will be even better if you add some #MangoJoy.

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Culture, Featured, Kitchen

Celebrate, Know and Feel Mexico with Pechuga

December 20, 2022

A celebratory mango-milk punch for Christmas

I had my first Pechuga, about 30 years ago when I was studying politics in Cuernavaca, Mexico while in college. On one of our outings we visited the then governor of the state of Morelos (where Cuernavaca is located) at his home, to discuss local politics. The governor also happened to  produce mezcal.  It wasn’t long into the outing when we veered off political course and began indulging in the governors mezcalero side, drinking and discussing mezcal instead. Eventually he pulled out a bottle of his pechuga, or as he humorously described it “mezcal’s breast milk.” After the poorly translated jokes, he went on to describe pechuga to us for real, explaining that it’s a very special and celebratory spirit made by mezcal makers and made with raw chicken or turkey breast as well as a medley of other botanicals, herbs and spices.

Wait, what? The room of 19-20 year old Americans were a bit in shock, even my then weird loving idea self, was aghast with the idea of raw chicken breast used in mezcal.

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Featured, Kitchen

Mallika Mango French Toast

August 8, 2022

The silk texture of Mallika’s is perfect for this decadent & easy French toast

This is the second season for our Mexican grown Indian Mallika mangoes and The Crespo Organic Kitchen has been buzzing with excitement. It’s so rare for us to have completely fiberless mangoes and these silky creamy delights are proving fun to create recipes with!

I have long had in my head the idea to make mango French toast, using mango puree in the batter but haven’t gotten around to doing it. Years ago I came up with a great recipe for a food magazine using up leftover eggnog and combining it with blackberries. I loved the taste of the fruit in the toast, much better than too much fruit on top of the French toast.

This year when the Mallika’s made their way into the Crespo Organic Kitchen they just felt perfect for this recipe, and they were and are! While it’s true you can make this recipe with any mango, the fiberless ones are way better.

Instead of the usual  sugary whipped cream found on fruit French toast, I opted for fresh strawberry butter, which you can make just by smashing strawberries and mixing them with softened butter!

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Featured, Kitchen

Crespo Organic Summer Mango Mania Events Calendar – 2022

June 20, 2022

 

Are you ready for  #MuchosMangoes & #MangoJoy ?

Crespo Organic Summer Mango Mania #MuchosMangoes is here and the Crespo Organic Kitchen is going to make it extra special this summer.

What is Crespo Summer Mango Mania, you might ask? It’s the collision point between our peak production time in Nayarit & Sinaloa and the height of consumer demand, better known as; SUMMER TIME! For two months, in the heat of the summer, between June and August, while orchards are most copious, Mango Mania frenzy ensues! Crespo Organic Summer Mango Mania desires to Educate, Excite Engage and Entice mango consumers with sweet price points and juicy sales, delicious culinary and educational events and a general spreading of useful, relevant mango education.

We offer a full spectrum of creative and reliable resources and experiences, designed to stimulate, and entice purchases at the store level, as well as educate and arouse consumers digitally and in person.  It’s essentially the spreading of #MangoJoy and the building of loyal mango eaters.

  • Social Media Contests & Giveaways
  • Mango Tips & Tricks
  • Demos and Tastings
  • Culinary Education
  • #ChooseYourCut
  • Cooking Classes
  • KICK Events
  • Farmer Talks
  • Commodity Education
  • Recipes and Recipe Videos
  • Swag

All brought to you by the Crespo Organic Kitchen, which is essentially the test kitchen for all things Crespo Organic, managed by me (Nissa)  and my company Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center ; a small food  education,   sales & marketing  and media company;  specializing in local, organic, fairly traded,   sustainable food and agricultural. Ger-Nis  supports small global growers and organic brands around the world in with a bevy of services, skills and connections.

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Featured, Kitchen

Bolinas Summer Mango Mania @Smiley’s

June 20, 2022

#MuchosMangoes are coming to Bolinas….RIDE THE WAVE…..

The Crespo Organic Kitchen, the culinary education arm of Crespo Organic Mangoes and part of my produce, marketing and education company- Ger-Nis Culinary  & Herb Center  was located in the beautiful northern, surf and art village of  Bolinas, California for over 6 years. We basically built the Crespo Organic brand from this dreamy place.  This summer,  even though we are not there anymore, we are  still celebrating mangoes & Bolinas BIG TIME. Giving back to the many mango lovers we have discovered there and even some we may have had part of building. The town of Bolinas throws a gigantic weeklong party to celebrate the 4th of July and we thought there was no better time to provide them with and celebrate Crespo Organic Summer Mango Mania!

 

Between July 1st and July 4th Bolinas- specifically Smiley’s will be dripping in sweet organic mangoes…. we encourage you all to come, join in and ride the wave.

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Featured, Kitchen

Summer Mango Salads on Zoom!

June 20, 2022


A Crespo Organic Kitchen Cooking Class

Class Description: Learn to make three mango-centric summer salads that will wow everyone this season and beyond. You’ll get refreshed with our everyday mango education, learning about how the Tommy Atkins varietal’s and its firmer flesh works wonderfully for salads. We will teach several different ways to cut mangoes and prepare three amazing seasonal, inexpensive summer salads that can feed a hungry and even fancy crowd. You’ll walk away better equipped to optimize not just mangoes but vegetables, fruits, vinegars and citrus juices, keeping salads fresh, light and healthy!

Recipes to be Made: Mango Red Cabbage Bean Salad with Spicy Lime Vinaigrette; Thai Noodle Salad with Avocado & Mango; Fresh Mint Mango & Melon “Salad” with Thai Basil Chili-Lime Honey Drizzle

Date: Saturday, June 26th
Time: 4:00 PM CST
Location: VIRTUAL!  Zoom

Details:
Participate Via Zoom
Meeting ID: 861 8164 0858
Passcode: 

Notes: There is some prep work needed for this class so check out the PRE-CLASS NEEDS Photo on this post for all the details plus the full ingredient list you will need!

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Featured, Kitchen

Fright Night Kitchen Reels with Tina DeGraff

June 15, 2022

Tina DeGraff (@the_SaltGypsy) shows us how to make our favorite Crespo recipes

Event Description: Tina DeGraff Martinez is a food stylist, recipe developer and culinary producer by trade and a teacher of cooking by heart! Her popular Instagram page (@the_saltGypsy) excels at demonstrating some of the best cooking and food prep tips  around, all that are easy to follow and totally relatable. She’s wickedly skilled but excels at teaching professional skills to the general public. We are  BIG fans and have been for many, many years! She believes in eating well, but knows that we build better habits one day at a time. We feel super lucky to have her featured during Summer Mango Mania, cooking up our Crespo Organic Kitchen recipes. We are all going to learn a lot from her!

Date(s): Every Friday Night Between June 19th – July 31st
Time: 6:00 PM CST
Location: VIRTUAL! Watch on Instagram Reels!

Details: @CrespoOrganic Instagram

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Featured, Kitchen

Live! From the Crespo Organic Kitchen

June 15, 2022

Learn from, cook with or just watch our in house mango cracker-jack’s (Nissa) mango prowess

 

Event Description: Tuesdays are the perfect day to jump on Instagram and watch LIVE!! what’s happening inside the Crespo Organic Kitchen in Blue Eye, Mo. Nissa, who also directs the organic mango program for El Grupo Crespo is a noted culinary expert and founder of Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center. She’s been lending, expanding and sharing her culinary herbal expertise for over 25 years now and has become a leader in mango recipe development. She’s a noted cooking instructor, food writer and recipe developer. In addition  to handling all the organic sales for Crespo she (and herb Ger-Nis team) manages all of the marketing content, PR and branding for Crespo Organic and RCF. Almost off of the recipes and photography you see throughout our website, POP materials, social media and blogs is hers. She will be the first to admit she has a great culinary and marketing team- the elves that edit and tweak her creative ideas into perfection.

You will always find her traveling the globe in search of food and cultural knowledge and ideas, while working with small farmers in her produce consultancy business specializing in sustainable, organic, fair trade and local agriculture. She writes about fresh herbs on her blog MyHerbalRoots.com and educates consumers about organic mangoes UnderTheMangoTree.CrespoOrganic.com

Every Tuesday during Summer Mango Mania you will find her live on Crespo’s instagram and sometimes also on her own. She’s fun to watch and her recipes are easily recreated with success.

Date(s): Every Tuesday Between June 19th – July 31st
Time: 7:30 PM PM CST
Location: VIRTUAL! Watch on Instagram!

Details: @CrespoOrganic Instagram or @PicoyPero (Nissa’s Instagram)

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Featured, Kitchen, People

Instagram Reels Sundays #CrespoPeople

June 14, 2022

Summer Mango Mania Education (The People)

Event Description: Crespo Organic is a Mexican Organic produce brand specializing in the production, distribution and marketing of organic mangoes.  The brand is part of El Grupo Crespo, a Mexican family business that began around 1960 with local market chili peppers and which rapidly expanded into production and packing of fresh mangoes.  Crespo Organic Mangoes/RCF Produce (El Grupo Crespo’s USA distribution and marketing company) are one of the largest  Mexican- direct trade growers, shippers and marketers, as well as direct consumer product educators of organic mangoes in North America.

We grow, ship and pack mangoes all over Mexico. We market all over North America.

Our people are the roots of our brand. We want you to know us/them! Jump onto Instagram every Sunday during Summer Mango Mania and learn who they are. They are also our customers, retailers and shoppers, including the little Crespo niños out there!

Date(s): Every Sunday Between June 19th – July 31st
Time: 1:00 PM CST
Location: VIRTUAL! Watch on Instagram!

Details: @CrespoOrganic Instagram

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Featured, Kitchen

Bring it to the BBQ

May 31, 2022

A quick mango bean salad that you’ll be bringing to every BBQ

Bean salads make a healthy and filling summer meal. They are packed with protein, can be served cold and withstand sitting out at the BBQ. This one is super quick to toss together and laden with healthy vegetables and tasty mangoes. A spicy -enough for all, but not too spicy- vinaigrette tops it off. This is the dish you will want to bring to the BBQ all summer, trust us.

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About Me

About Me

Under The Mango Tree is a sweet spot, where I, a long time mango industry crackerjack, share everything I know. A place to find mango centric, agricultural, food and culture knowledge and a few juicy industry secrets and lies.

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