Food Afloat: Mango Chutney……………….Heather Francis

Food Afloat

Mango Chutney

By Heather Francis

Nothing says tropical to me like the syrupy perfume of a mango tree, dripping with fruit. Being from Canada, however, it took me many years to embrace tropical flavours during the Festive Season. One year, craving cranberry sauce to accompany our holiday roast chicken, I decided to stir some dried cranberries into the batch of mango chutney I was making. The result was condiment that mixed fond childhood memories with more sophisticated adult flavours, a perfect combination of sweet, tart, and spicy. My Festive Mango Chutney quickly became one of our new holiday traditions and I hope it becomes one of yours. This chutney is a thick spoon-able sauce, that comes together quickly, but there is no need to get it to “gel” or reaching a certain “set point”. This makes it almost foolproof. It pairs well with chicken, pork and curry dishes.

Give a bottle to friends as a holiday gift or dress up your cheese plate for those ubiquitous Happy Hour get togethers.

INGREDIENTS

1 large onion, diced 5 garlic cloves, minced 1” fresh ginger, grated 4 large mangoes, peeled and diced (about 6 cups) 1-1 ½ cups water (varies depending on how juicy your fruit is) ½ cup of sugar 6 whole cloves 2 cinnamon sticks 4 cardamom Pods 2 Tbsp of lime juice Chilli powder to taste 1 cup dried cranberries

METHOD

In a large pan, sauté onion in a little oil until translucent. Add garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant. Add the peeled and diced mangoes, sugar, and water enough to cover. Stir to dissolve sugar then add whole spices. Bring to a boil and turn to low, simmering with the lid on until the fruit is soft (will depend on how ripe the fruit was), about 20-30 minutes. Keep an eye on it and add more water if necessary to prevent burning. This should be a thick, spoonable sauce. If there is too much liquid remove lid and reduce. When fruit is soft but not mushy, add cranberries, chilli and lime juice, simmer for 5 minutes more. Ladle into clean, dry bottles and process in a water bath for 5 minutes. *You can substitute pineapple for 1/3 of the mango. Instead of dicing, grate the pineapple on a box grater, it will give you a much smoother texture and you won’t end up with mushy mango chutney with hard pineapple bits. *I use whole spices so that the chutney retains a nice yellow colour, but dried will give the same flavour. I don’t mind picking out the whole spices later, but if that bothers you simply tie them in cheesecloth and remove before bottling.