Monday, December 5, 2011

Mango Salsa

My daughter is in First Grade and she is enjoying learning how to read and write. It's fun to see her being so happy to read a full sentence... and even more proud to be able to write new words. One of the games we have been playing these last few days is the "MENU GAME". She comes with her ardoise magique and asks me for the menu for the next meal. Then she gets down to the task of writing it down so that she can read it before we start our meal. This game is hard for a 6-year-old just discovering sounds. Why do "haricots" take a silent "h"? Why do French people spell onions : "oignons"? "Yaourts"? "Fruits"? This is tough! At least, since we eat a lot of veggies and most days, my children have yaourt and fruits for dessert, she gets to write it over and over again. It gets more difficult with the main dish as I try to diversify the menu and include international ingredients in our diet (curcuma anyone?)
Although she goes to a bilingual school, we have been playing this game in French only. English spelling is tough for French native speakers ("sprouts, eggplant, grapes, grapefruit, pineapple"?)... so we'll wait for a few months once the whole French potager is spelled correctly;)
Until then, here is a nice little exercise: easy for the adults who prep the food, relatively easy for the kids who want to spell (in English)... and very easy for everybody to eat with chips for an apéritif or as a side dish to fish. For those of you who want to be able to spell the French Potager by the end of the year, I wrote the ingredients in French as well. Bon Appétit!

Ingrédients:
- 1 mangue (1 mango)
- 1/2 oignon rouge (1/2 red onion)
- 1/2 concombre (1/2 cucumber)
- 1 bouquet de coriandre (a bunch of cilantro)
- Piment Rouge (Red pepper flakes)
- 1 citron vert (one lime)
- Sel (salt)


  • Cut the mango and cucumber in small dices
  • Slice the red onion very very thin
  • Cissor some cilantro (as much as you like)
  • Season with lime juice, salt and red pepper flakes.