Madhu Knits and Cooks Returns with Mark Bittman’s Mango-Coconut-Lime Bars!

Hello again!  I recently moved and the relocation process unfortunately included putting most of my apartment stuff (including all of my cooking equipment) into storage.  The unpacking/settling in process has also taken more time than I envisioned, so blogging — though certainly not knitting or cooking — has fallen a bit by the wayside.  I am happy to finally return though with another library cookbook experiment — Mark Bittman's mango-coconut lime bars from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  

I picked up the book while browsing the shelfs at my new public library branch, and was very excited to see it.  I have been debating for years whether I should buy this book which is supposed to be a comprehensive vegetarian cookbook (and written by Mark Bittman, who I adore, of course).  I have held back though given my previous track record with neglecting the cookbooks and cooking magazines I own.  I haven't made a final decision on the Bittman book yet, but will probably pick up the book again from the library in the coming months to try a few more of the recipes before making the final decision.

I decided to try the mango-cococut-lime bars after flipping through the index to find recipes that incorporate mangos because I had a rapidly ripening mango sitting on my new kitchen counter for days.  The mango-coconut-lime bars seemed perfect because I also had half of a lime in my fridge from some salsa I made, and could easily buy shredded coconut on my next trip to the Indian grocery store.  

The bars were pretty easy to make — basically a variant of lemon bars, with a shortbread base, a citrus-custardy topping, and toasted coconut flakes on top instead of powdered sugar.  While I enjoyed these bars, I have to admit that I found them to be a little bit too eggy in flavor.  After the bars sat in the fridge for the day, the mango and lime flavors came out a bit more, but I still felt like I was eating some sort of egg custard instead of a citrus bar.  If I make this recipe again, I will probably add more than 1/4 cup of the mango puree and maybe increase the amount of lime zest and/or juice used.