Saturday, January 10, 2009

Mango Chutney for Pete

Pete asked for a recipe for mango chutney the other day. I thought others might be interested as well. This condiment goes well with chicken, lamb, pork, fish, and various curries. Here is the recipe for mango chutney, Jamaica style. Recipes vary widely, but this is one of the best.

Ingredients:

2 pounds firm (less than ripe) mangoes
1 tbp salt
1/4 to 1/2 pound tamarinds (aka: tamarindos) - you may also be able to find tamarind paste
1-1/4 cups malt vinegar (you can also use cane vinegar if available)
1/3 cup raisins
1 clove of garlic finely diced (optional)
1/3 cup fresh ginger root peeled and chopped fine. It can also be grated on a fine cheese grater. 
1/2 tsp ground Jamaica allspice (can substitute cloves, if you don't have allspice)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 or 2 Scotch bonnet (Habanero) peppers. The heat factor is up to you - 1/2 a pepper will yield a mildly peppery sauce. It can escalate from there. I usually use one seeded Scotch bonnet pepper per batch.

Preparation:

Seed and peel the mangoes and chop into 3/8" dice. Reserve all possible juice. Add salt and set aside.

Shell the tamarinds, discard shells and put tamarinds seeds into a bowl. Cover with boiling water and let stand for about 1/2 and hour. Using a sieve and wooden spoon force the softened tamarind pulp through the sieve into a dish. Discard seeds and stringy bits.

Drain mangoes and combine with raisins, sugar, garlic, vinegar, retained mango juice, and tamarind pulp in a saucepan and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Add ginger and allspice. Finely shred Scotch bonnet pepper and add shreds to the mixture. You may control heat by tasting and adding most the the pepper at the bottling stage. Wash your hands immediately after handling peppers. 

The sugar may caramelize and darken the chutney a bit. If you want a light colored, fresh looking chutney, use a double boiler to prevent caramelization of the sugar.

Like jam, the chutney will be done when you touch a cold spoon to the mixture and it comes away tacky. The chutney mixture will be the consistency of jam and with a real vinegar and spice nose. Bottle in sterilized pint jars.

Make a large batch as this stuff is addictive.

1 comment:

Jon Roth said...

Gotta love Mango chutney. Goes with some many things. This recipe is a little different that ones I've seen in the past; I'll just have to give it a try!