Homemade Chunky Mango Chutney Recipe. For the Reverend Richard Coles.

October 25, 2016

Earlier this year I made another batch of Homemade Mango Chutney, in my attempt to reproduce a particular chutney I used to eat in an Indian Restaurant many years ago. Here is the recipe.

Since this is a blog about being almost off grid, you may be wondering how we've mastered the art of growing mangoes in East Sussex shire. Sadly, we haven't. However Andy picked up a load for 15p each at our local Waitrose, so we did it anyway.

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Mangoes reduced to 15p each! Homemade mango chutney is coming! #mango #homemade #chutney #mangochutney #makeyourown

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The weekend I made this particular batch, I also made mint jelly with mint from the garden. So at least, I decided, some of it was made with homegrown produce.

Anyway roll forward a few months and Andy was chatting to the Reverend Richard Coles on Twitter (as you do), famous of course for being the Vicar of Finedon, former Communard and wotnot. A man of many talents.

Father Richard was making himself a curry last night and Andy suggested that he needed a jar of my homemade mango chutney to eat with it. One thing led to another and well... we ended up sending him a jar today. I really hope he likes it! Don't you just love Twitter?

So on to the Homemade Mango Chutney Recipe. I have tried many over the years. I've found the ones made with malt vinegar taste lovely but they take on the dark brown of the vinegar too much for my liking. The mango chutney I enjoyed regularly in an Indian Restaurant many moons ago was very chunky, and had that lovely mango colour.

That is what I've been trying to reproduce for all these years. This is the closest, and is my favourite.

You don't need any special equipment, just a large pan and jars. Though I find my preserving funnel makes things much less messy when I get to the jar filling stage.

Chunky Mango Chutney Recipe

Ingredients

4 large mangoes
4 cloves of garlic
450g/1lb caster sugar
2 cooking apples (I use Bramleys)
1 tbsp English Mustard Powder
1 tbsp fresh root ginger
600ml/1 pint white wine vinegar
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Method

1. Peel, stone and slice the mangoes into chunks. If the mangoes release a lot of juice, keep it for drinking later rather than adding it to the chutney which can make it a bit runny.

2. Peel and crush the garlic cloves.

3. Peel the skin off the ginger and grate it - when I say 'grate' it, I end up mashing it with the grater really - works fine.

4. Peel, core and chop the apples.

5. Put the garlic, sugar, chopped apples, mustard, grated ginger, white wine vinegar and cayenne pepper into a pan.

6. Add the sugar and bring to the boil, stirring all the time so the sugar doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

7. Add the mango chunks.

8. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until it looks like chutney. The liquid will have reduced and, when you put a small amount on a plate, it won't run all over the place.

9. Whilst the chutney's simmering, sterilise your jars and lids.

10. Pour the hot chutney into the sterilised jars (a preserving funnel is handy at this point) and secure the lids.

This chutney benefits from sitting in a dark place for a couple of months. Then the vinegar mellows and the mangoes shine through.