It’s nearly peach season!
Here’s to the chutney that won the most discerning palate…
I have the most amazing uncle. Aside from being a Navy test pilot, one of the pilots known as “Satan’s Kittens” in Korea (this group went on to become the Blue Angels), a survivor of being catapulted from an aircraft carrier into the North Atlantic in his airplane, and then a commercial fisherman in the Pacific northwest, Uncle Pete also is a chutney expert. He’s traveled all over the world — and always comes home with interesting recipes for relishes and chutneys.
There’s only one problem with having Uncle Pete come to visit: he cleans me out of chutney. This I take as the greatest compliment there is — especially from him. (He even found the stash I’d hidden from him — and insisted on taking it home! “You know how to make the stuff” he reasoned with me.) I’ve decided to post the recipe — maybe his neighbors can make it for him too!
It’s an adaptation of an old Charleston chutney recipe from the turn of the century — and with a little tweaking, it’s stood the test of time.
The Great Annual Peach Weigh-in
Ingredients:
- 4 lbs Mangos or peaches (hardish/greenish – just before ripe)
- 2 T Mustard seed (not ground)
- 1 lb Preserved ginger (candied works great). Minced.
- 2 lb Sugar
- 4 cups Vinegar (cider has more flavor/white is not as strong)
- 1 ½ cups Raisins (I like dark brown – but yellow are fine as well)
- 1 clove garlic (use a fat one). Crushed.
Peel and dice fruit.
Add 2 cups vinegar and boil 25 minutes.
Add the sugar and the other 2 cups vinegar and boil until it’s syrupy (not too thick – just like maple syrup). This will take a while…about 3 ½ hours – stir often towards the end to make sure it doesn’t burn.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the ginger and cook another 30 minutes. Then add the chopped ginger and cook another 10-15 minutes. Make sure now the consistency is more like jam.
Pour into prepared jars.
Make sure lids are on tight, then put in boiling bath for 10 minutes.
Some say it’s even better if you leave the jars in the sun for a few days (put them on a sheet in the yard — put them on their sides to the lids don’t rust from dew). Now lock the gate to your backyard, Uncle Pete might see them!
