Fresh Mango Lassi

Fresh Mango Lassi

1. In a blender combine the yoghurt, mango, honey and lime juice. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean and add to the mixture. Blend until smooth. Garnish with lime zest and serve.

Note

1. The Plain Lassi is a classic recipe from Northern India. Combine buttermilk (or yoghurt thinned with water) flavored with sugar.
2. The Traditional Lassi is a salty yoghurt drink that has a thicker consistency than the plain one. It can be flavored with various spices and ingredients, but almost always includes ground cumin powder.
3. * Frequently I come across recipes that call for scraping the seeds from the vanilla bean and discarding the rest. What a waste! The entire bean is filled with flavor and, in fact, the pod has more flavor than the seeds. You can cut the bean and use a portion at a time or you can use the whole bean, depending on the depth of flavor you wish. To cut open a bean, lay it flat on a cutting surface. Holding one end of the bean to the surface, carefully slice the bean open lengthwise. When you separate the bean, thousands of tiny seeds are exposed. This step shows why it is technically a seed-pod rather than a bean. Cutting the bean open before placing it in a liquid means more of the surface of the bean is exposed resulting in greater flavoring properties. You can also scrape the seeds from the pod before removing the bean if you choose.
4. Vanilla beans can usually be used several times depending on how strenuously you've used them. For instance, if you've placed a vanilla bean in a pitcher of lemonade or a container of mulled cider or wine, the bean will still contain a lot of flavor when the beverage is gone. However, if you soak a vanilla bean in a hot cream mixture then scrape out the seeds and pith, you will probably still have some flavor left in the pod, but it won't be very strong.
5. Rinse and dry the bean pieces after using them. If there is only the pod left, or, if you've used the bean several times for flavoring beverages let the pieces dry, and retire them to the sugar or coffee jar as they will exude a delicate flavor and fragrance for some time to come. Beans that have been used once or twice can also be ground up and used to add additional flavor to ice creams, cookies, and many other foods.