Green mango chutney

I was lucky enough to spend most of my childhood in Far North Queensland. To this day, the smell of Mangos and that first mango of the season, simply transports me back to that time - the sweet heady smell of summer - evoking memories of bare feet, the beach, Nan and Pop's house, swimming in the pool with my cousins, stifling humidity and an endless supply of sweet sticky mangos, the juice running down our arms as we sucked the stringy fruit off the seeds.

In early Summer when the Mango trees are full of large, full, green fruit, it's chutney time. My Pop used to make it, my Mum makes it and now I do too. This recipe is an adaptation of my Pop's famous Mango chutney, I have his original recipe written down, the page stained with splotches of yellow - a visual timeline of the many chutneys that have been made with this recipe over the years. 

This is a rich, unctuous, sweet and spicy, sticky chutney, that is delicious with cold meats, dolloped on the side of a bbq plate, it's delicious with cheese, excellent on sandwiches and I have a dear friend who loves it so much she claims it can be eaten with a spoon! It can be blended and mixed with a little olive oil to be used as a glaze for meats or roasted vegetables and is brilliant with curries.

"Pop's" Green Mango Chutney

This is a photo of the enormous and ancient mango tree out the front of our little house - we have an endless supply of mangos (as well as the possums, bats and the odd python that come with them!)

TM Instructions

Ingredients

300gms Green Mango (peeled and seeds removed)
150gms Green apple cored, cut into 4 (approx 1 large green apple)
1/2 red onion
10 gms peeled ginger
4 large cloves garlic
1 birds eye chilli
100gms dates
100gms sultanas
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
300gms malt vinegar
100gms water
300gms brown sugar

Method

1. Pick your mangos! My son and I had fun knocking these low hanging greenies off with a broom!

2. Peel Your green mangos with a potato peeler and keep them in a sink of water with half a cut lemon floating in the water as you peel the rest. 

3. Cut the flesh away from the seed - get as much flesh off as you can without including any of the seed. 

4.) Add Mango flesh, Green apple, red onion and garlic to TM bowl and chop 2 secs | speed 5, set aside. 

5.) Add ginger, red chilli to bowl and chop 5 secs | Speed 6| scrape down side

6.) Add mango and apple/onion/garlic mix to TM bowl, add water, vinegar, spices, salt, dates and sultans and cook 5 mins | varoma |sp 1 | reverse with MC cap on, then remove MC cap and cook for a further 5 mins | varoma |sp 1 | reverse.

7.) Add 300gms brown sugar and cook 50 mins | 100 deg | Sp soft | reverse with the varoma bottom on top - this lets the steam out but catches the spitting.

8.) Cook for a further 10-20 mins | varoma | Sp 2 | reverse with varoma bottom on top You should be able to tell if the chutney is ready, as it will be thick and sticky, and it will 'gel' when tested on a cold plate. 

Bottle in hot sterile jars.

This recipe makes approximately 1 litre of chutney.

Stovetop Method 

I usually always make this on the stove in a nice big pot. This year a friend and I did a preserves swap, so I had the thermomix as well as 2 large pots going on the stove. The stovetop method is very forgiving, you can have a bit more or less of something and it will usually all still work out in the end. 

Ingredients:

8-10 large green mangos

5 green apples (My Pop uses paw paw 1/2 ripe, but it's not as easy to come by here as it is in Nth Qld so I use apples and I prefer the flavour)

1 cup water

1.5 litres brown vinegar

1.5 kgs brown sugar

2 handful dates

2 handful sultanas or raisins

1 large knob of green ginger (peeled)

1 large knob of garlic

6 birds eye chillies (if you don't like spice you can leave these out or reduce down the amount)

1 teaspoon allspice

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon salt

2 large red onions

1. Prepare Mangos as per TM method (peel, cut away flesh)

2. Either use a food processor top chop mangos/apple/onion/garlic/ginger OR dice up mangos, apples, onion and garlic with a knife and grate ginger. Chop chillies finely. (I used the TM to chop everything in the picture below, it took literally seconds!)

3. Add mango and apple to a large pot with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil stirring regularly

4. Add all ingredients EXCEPT sugar to a large pot, bring to the boil and then gently simmer for 1/2 an hour, stirring regularly

5. Add sugar and simmer on a low heat for 2.5 to 3.5 hours stirring regularly. 

This recipe makes about 3.5 kgs of chutney. I didn't have a pot large enough to put everything in, so I split it between 2 pots. Just halve the recipe if you don't want to make as much, the cooking time is similar though. 

Bottle in hot sterile jars.

This is a picture of it all happening at once in my tiny kitchen, with 2 pots and the TM going at the same time! It made about 15 large jars of chutney. 

Truth be told, I don't think you can beat a long, slow cooked 3+ hour chutney, but the TM is a brilliant time saver and particularly good if you only want a few jars and not a very large batch. 

Enjoy!