When my daughter graduated from 5th to 6th grade, her school held an end of the year assembly. The choir sang a song; the Principal presented awards to outstanding students in many categories; and the Principal spoke some words.

I'm pretty sure my daughter won an award, although I can't quite recall for what. What I do remember is that after the assembly, parents were invited to read the students' biographic posters, which were hung around the room. I found my daughter's poster. It was modestly executed, as compared with the efforts of some students, but I found it riveting. My daughter explained – in a few well constructed sentences – how very much she disliked her father's mango salsa and mango rice.

Now, mango rice can be a problem. Basically, it works less than half the time. There's something about a mango baked with sticky rice and coconut milk that, more often than not, turns out as a pasty goop. (Although, when mango rice works, it's to die for.) We're talking about a recipe I never perfected, and after reading my daughter's poster, I never again tried to.

Mango salsa, on the other hand, is simple and easy. It always works, and it's always delicious. Also, it's colorful: orange mango with red bell pepper on a black bed of beans. There's no reason not to like mango salsa... I made it for the first time in three and a half years last week, and it turned out perfectly.

I asked my daughter if she remembered her poster from fifth grade, and she said she did. She said she thought I knew she didn't like mango salsa and rice. Well, I said, that's OK – It's better to find out than not to know.

She still doesn't like mango salsa, and I still do. To make the black beans, follow the recipe for homemade white beans, but omit the rosemary.

This recipe originally appeared in a slightly different form in The Great Salsa Book (Mark Miller, 1994, Ten Speed Press, page 88), where the author recommends serving the salsa with "grilled lobster or fish such as snapper." We eat it – or don't – with pork chops. It also tastes good in a taco with rice, ground beef and tomato salsa. If you want to bring it to a party, add tequila.

Ingredients
1½-2 cup homemade black beans (dry black beans, $1.79 per pound, on sale)
1 medium-size mango ($1.00, on sale), coarsely diced
1 small- to medium-size red bell pepper ($1.00, on sale), trimmed, deseeded and finely diced
1 tablespoon (or less, to taste) original Tabasco brand pepper sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
½ tsp salt

Procedure
Add Tabasco sauce, lime juice and salt to a mixing bowl. Whisk. Add the beans, mango and bell pepper, and fold together.