Some time ago when in Manchester I was tempted into buying a large box of fresh mangoes. I paid  just £3 for a beautifully packaged box of seven small ripe mangoes, complete with tissue paper wrapping and tinsel decoration. When I got home I froze them planning to make mango chutney.

Mango chutney is not something I've tried to make before, although we consume enough of it as we tend to have a curry night every few weeks.
There's a good selection of recipes on the internet, including a sweet version with raisins on bestrecipes.com.au, and one with lots of chillies at top-indian-recipes.com. One problem I ran into, which also happened when looking for lime pickle recipes, was that the Indian use of the word chutney tends to refer to preparations of fresh ingredients rather than a method of preserving.

In the end I played safe and adapted a recipe from the WI Book of Preserves, which appealed as it contained a nice selection of spices.
After defrosting my mangoes I discovered that they'd probably been in the freezer a bit long, or else they were riper than I remembered  as they were looking a bit soft and juicy, as a result I missed out the part of the recipe which involved chopping the fruit into small chunks.

See here for the mango chutney recipe.

Recipe Costs

£3.00 1.8kg mangos (about 3 large ones)
£0.65 350g soft brown sugar
£0.03 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
£0.25 1 tsp coriander seeds
£0.03 1 tsp mustard seeds
£0.10 1 chilli
£0.02 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
£0.50 50g fresh ginger
£0.30 400ml malt vinegar
£0.15 4 cloves garlic
£0.16 1 onion
£5.19 Total
£2.88 per kg of chutney (73% of the cost of Sharwards mango chutney at tesco)

The first step was to remove the flesh from the mangoes and add sugar.

The whole spices are toasted in a dry pan and then...

... mixed with the turmeric and ground in a pestle and morter.

I did the same with the garlic and some rock salt, grinding it into a paste.

Finely chopped garlic and half a red chilli, I don't want this chutney to be too hot.

I used home made spiced pickling vinegar which will hopefully add some extra depth to the chutney.

All the ingredients are put in the preserving pan along with the finely chopped onion.

Slightly under 3 hours later the chutney was thick enough to pot up, the colour and consistency look good and the first sneaky taste suggests I was right to hold back a bit on the chilli.

Recipe Timings

30 mins preparation
3 hrs cooking
15 mins potting

Taste Test

This will have to wait a few weeks.

Preserved lemons are a common ingredient in North African, and  especially Moroccan, cuisine. You can actually use them in many dishes - anywhere that would benefit from a bit of citrus flavour.  I've put together some ideas in this blog post about what to do with preserved lemons.

They're very easy to make and it costs very little to make a large jar full, especially in January and February when the new crop of imported lemons enters the UK. 

See here for the preserved lemons recipe.

Recipe Costs

£2 8 lemons (unwaxed)
£1.87 10 tbsp sea salt
£3.87 Total

about £3 per kg of preserved lemons (less than a tenth of the cost of buying them from Rick Stein's website)

After giving the lemons a good scrub in hot water the stalk ends are removed with a sharp knife.

Carefully chop the lemon into quarters taking care not to slice right through (it doesn't matter if you do, they just won't look as pretty)

Squeeze as much of the juice out as possible, this can be made a bit easier by popping the lemons in the microwave for 10 seconds beforehand. I find using my thumb to push done each quarter was the most efficient way.

My eight lemons produced about 500ml of lemon juice, which was just enough to cover them later.

Rub about a tablespoon of course sea salt into each lemon, make sure it gets well into each quarter. Pack the fruit into a steralised jar as you go, squashing each one down as you push it in, this helps to release more juice.

My 8 lemons filled about 2 litres of preserving jar. Spices can be added at this stage, try a cinnamon stick, peppercorns, coriander seeds, a chilli or a bay leaf.

When the jars are packed full, top them up with the lemon juice, making sure there ar no air gaps. If you don't have enough juice then use some bottled lemon juice or little bit of water.
The jars need to be kept for at least a month to allow the salt to draw out the lemon juice. Once opened it's best to keep the jar in the fridge.

Recipe Timings

45 mins preparation

Taste Test

This will have to wait a few weeks.

While making vegetarian mincemeat I found myself short of some mixed spice, so set about making some more from spices I had in stock. 

According to wikipedia the following spices are commonly used in mixed spice:

Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Allspice
Mace
Cloves
Ginger
Coriander
Caraway
Cayenne Pepper

Depending on the desired taste any of the ingredients can be used in varying quantities, although its best to always include some of the first three.

The quantities I used were as follows:

1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice 1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp coriander seeds

I grated the nutmeg with my extremely efficient microplane nutmeg grater, and ground the other ingredients together using a nice solid morter and pestle.

The resulting spice should be sealed in an airtight jar and used up within a few months  if possible.