Mango chutney
Chutney is fruit preserved with vinegar and sugar at the same time and seasoned with hot spices — which is why it is sweet, sour and hot all at once. You need mango that is firm, almost unripe: a ripe one collapses into purée, and chutney should show visible pieces of fruit.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Cutting the mango 20 min
- Spices and onion 12 min
- Cooking the chutney 60 min
- Filling the jars 20 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneChoose and cut the mango
Use mango that is as firm as an apple — if it gives under pressure, it is too ripe. Peel and cut the flesh into 1.5 cm cubes. Expect about 900 g of flesh from 1200 g of fruit.
Ingredients: 1200 g mangoes · 2 pcs onions · 50 g ginger · 4 cloves garlic · 100 g raisins
Firm 1.5 cm cubes will still be visible after an hour of cooking.Toast the whole spices
Heat the oil in a wide stainless pot and add the mustard and cumin seeds. Fry about 60 seconds until the seeds jump and pop — only then do they release their oils. The window is short: scorched mustard turns irreversibly bitter.
Ingredients: 300 ml cider vinegar · 350 g brown sugar · 2 tsp mustard seeds · 2 tsp cumin · 1 tsp chilli flakes · 1 pcs cinnamon · 2 pcs star anise · 2 tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
TipHalf cover the pot with a lid. Mustard seeds can fire across the whole kitchen.
Jumping seeds are the signal to add everything else.Cook the onion, ginger and garlic
Add the chopped onion and cook 8 minutes until soft and beginning to gild. Add the grated ginger, chopped garlic and chilli and cook a minute more.
Ingredients: 1200 g mangoes · 2 pcs onions · 50 g ginger · 4 cloves garlic · 100 g raisins
Cook for an hour until thick
Add the mango, raisins, vinegar, sugar, salt, cinnamon and star anise and cook uncovered for 55–60 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. The chutney is ready when a spoon drawn across the base leaves a trail that does not flood back immediately.
Ingredients: 300 ml cider vinegar · 350 g brown sugar · 2 tsp mustard seeds · 2 tsp cumin · 1 tsp chilli flakes · 1 pcs cinnamon · 2 pcs star anise · 2 tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
TipCook in a wide stainless pot. Aluminium reacts with vinegar and gives the chutney a metallic edge.
A spoon trail that stays open — the chutney is done.Jar it while hot
Remove the cinnamon stick and star anise. Ladle the boiling chutney into scalded jars, leaving 1 cm of headspace, seal and pasteurise 10 minutes in a pot of hot water reaching three-quarters of the way up the jars. Sealed this way it keeps a year in a cool, dark larder.
Ingredients: 300 ml cider vinegar · 350 g brown sugar · 2 tsp mustard seeds · 2 tsp cumin · 1 tsp chilli flakes · 1 pcs cinnamon · 2 pcs star anise · 2 tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
Wait a month
Fresh chutney is distinctly vinegary. After 4 weeks in the larder the vinegar settles and the spices permeate the fruit. Same preserve, entirely different flavour.
Ingredients: 300 ml cider vinegar · 350 g brown sugar · 2 tsp mustard seeds · 2 tsp cumin · 1 tsp chilli flakes · 1 pcs cinnamon · 2 pcs star anise · 2 tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
Before you start
What to serve it with
With curry, a cheeseboard, roast meat and cheddar sandwiches. It also works as a glaze for chicken in the last 10 minutes of roasting.
Other fruit
The same vinegar and sugar ratio works for peaches, apples, plums and rhubarb. For about 900 g of peeled fruit keep 300 ml of vinegar and 350 g of sugar — do not cut the vinegar, as it is what preserves the chutney.
Adjusting thickness
Chutney thickens noticeably once cool. Take it off the heat while it still seems slightly too loose.