Mango Chutney Recipe

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

3 cups peeled and chopped mango

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Salt to taste (optional)

1 cup white vinegar

5/8 cup firmly packed brown sugar, or more to taste

Mango Chutney Recipe

This is an adaptation of a recipe I found in the NYTimes years ago. This is a sweet and tart chutney, great with cheese or even as a condiment.

In a medium saucepan combine:

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs mustard seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp tumeric
2 Tbs fresh ginger root, peeled and julienned (use less if you don’t like it much)
6 whole cloves.

Bring to a boil, stirring occassionally. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add: 1 lb mangos, peeled and chopped.

Simmer for 15 minutes or until thickened.

Remove from heat and add: 3/4 cup golden raisins.

Cool completely before serving.

Mango chutney is one of the classic Indian condiments, and is just as good with curries (it’s a great accompaniment to chicken curry or lamb biryani) as it is with cheese.

Here’s my recipe. This makes a lot, so you can use it for at least a month, and probably more (store in the fridge).

Ingredients

10 large fresh mangoes (about 2.5kg) – these are the best quality mangoes you can get. Any variety will do. I find that dark coloured skins tend to be sweeter and richer tasting than pale-skinned varieties. I often use Kensington Pride mangoes because they’re sold by weight and are cheap to buy here in Australia, but I’ve also used champagne mangoes and even R2E2s when they’re in season.

1 kg of onions – white ones are fine, but red onions or brown onions taste better if you want something a bit sweeter

300 gm of sultanas (raisins)

1 1/2 cups of brown sugar

4 tsp salt

4 garlic cloves – just the regular kind you get at the supermarket; don’t use any exotic varieties!

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Mango Chutney

1.5 kg ripe mangoes

500 g sugar

200 ml white vinegar

2 medium-sized onions, chopped fine

3 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons curry powder

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper or chilli powder (optional)

Wash the mangoes and peel off the skins. Discard the stones and chop the flesh into small pieces. Place these in a large pot with all of the other ingredients except the salt. Bring to the boil, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 50 minutes or until mixture is thickened and golden brown. Stir occasionally as mixture thickens toward the end of cooking time to prevent burning. When finished cooking stir in salt, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before pouring into sterilised jars. Seal when cold. Makes about 3 cups of chutney.

I’m going to start this post with a confession. I have never made chutney before. I know, I can’t believe it either.

I love mango chutney, but for years I’ve been buying it and never thought about making my own. That is until recently when I was browsing the internet and came across some recipes.

It was one of those ah ha moments that you have when you realise something so obvious, but it just hadn’t occurred to you before.

Once I had the idea in my head, I couldn’t get rid of it. So I went out to buy all the ingredients and set about making it.

All the recipes were slightly different, so this is what I did based on what I had seen and tasted at various restaurants over the years.

A very common type of food blog post is a recipe. Recipes tend to be fairly standard in structure, consisting of an ingredients section followed by step-by-step instructions. They can be quite long, as they need to incorporate all the necessary detail to ensure that the finished product turns out well.

For example, this mango chutney recipe from one of my favorite food bloggers, Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks, includes a detailed introduction to the dish, instructions for making the chutney (divided into several components), and many variations on how to serve it.

Swanson’s writing style is similar to many other food bloggers’ styles, in that it’s both friendly and professional—she tells you about her trip to India and her first experience with mango chutney, but she uses proper headlines to organize the recipe and provides lots of helpful tips along the way (she even suggests what other dishes might work well with this chutney).

This recipe for mango chutney makes a good accompaniment to curried dishes.

This recipe is from my friend, who has helpfully detailed the exact measurements and steps needed.

I’ve never made it myself, but her chutneys are always delicious!