When I lived in Thailand, I had a huge mango tree.

We used to sit under the mango tree on the decking and watch the fruit grow. When ripe, there were too many flies. Also, there was too much fruit - imagine having so many mangoes you asked everyone you knew to take a bag away with them!

My favourite stage of the mangoes was when they were green and very sour. My Thai friends leapt on them and picked them then and I soon understood why. Slices of very sour green mango is utterly delicious with a fermented fish sauce, chilli, spicy, sweet and sour sauce. Dip in and eat.

So, so good. Much, much better than expected too. (I soon got over seeing the fish heads and bits of crab etc in the bag of sauce. Plus I'm not remotely squeamish!).

This is a very much toned-down version of the same principle and works with sweet fruit as well as tart.

The flavours of sweet and slightly salty and a little bit spicy work so well with a tart green apple like a Granny Smith, but also with sweet fruits like pineapple, strawberries or kiwi fruits.

I just like to make things feel special, so putting a little of this dip in a bowl and taking a few minutes to slice my fruit and put it all on a plate just makes me enjoy it even more.

I'm having this as a snack as part of my Tiniest Thai diet ... more on that to come in future posts.

So - here's how you make it:

1/2 cup white sugar (I used caster sugar as it was all I had but I think granulated better if you have it)

2 teaspoons salt

1 heaped teaspoon dried chilli flakes

Stir it all together!

Then pour a little out into a dipping bowl to have with fruit.

Don't dip the fruit straight into the dip in the jar! Throw any used dip away and store the rest in the fridge for a month or so.

Hope you like this as much as I do!