Makes: Approximately one litre or about 4 jars

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 60 minutes

I’m a big fan of Indian food and cooking with spices generally. I love going all out on accompaniments to any meal to make it a real occasion. Having pickles and raita, poppadoms, kachumber and naans and/or parathas and of course mango chutney just makes it special. The perfect spread for sharing with family and friends. As I had some unrefined cane sugar also known as jaggery goor, knocking around in the back of a cupboard ( you don’t?), I figured I had no choice but to have a go at making my own chutney. This recipe makes a lot (over a litre) of chutney but it stores brilliantly.

You will need:

1500g mango (2 very large mangos) about 1150g peeled and stoned and roughly chopped.

380g cider vinegar

160g brown sugar (I used muscavdo)

160g jaggery goor ( more brown sugar would work instead if you don’t have this)

1 tsp coriander seed

6 cardamom pods

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp nigella seeds

1 tsp salt

1″ /2.5cm fresh ginger

5 cloves of garlic

Making it:

In a large saucepan combine the sugars and the vinegar and put over a medium to high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce by half.

Meanwhile de-seed the cardamon pods and then in a frying pan over a medium heat gently toast the cardamon seeds, coriander seeds and cumin seeds.

Add the toasted spices to a pestle and mortar and grind with the cayenne pepper and then tip the ground spices and nigella seeds (when testing this recipe for pictures I forgot to add these until later–it doesn’t make a huge difference to the taste) into the reducing sugar/vinegar.

Once the sugar/vinegar has reduced add the mango and salt.

Finely chop or grate the ginger and garlic and add to the pan along with any spices you may have forgotten earlier on🤦‍♂️

Reduce to a medium heat and cook for about 40 minutes until thickened.

You can test the thickness by pouring a small spoon of the cooking liquid onto a chilled plate. This will help you judge the consistency.

While the mix is hot divide it into sterilised jars and seal. This should keep for months. Once opened keep in the fridge. Use your own sense and judgement for how long you keep it once opened. Mine tends to get eaten up within a few weeks.