Chunky mango chilli chutney

When life hands you half-ripe mangoes, make  mango-chilli chutney! This recipe hack inspired by ‘chunda’, uses a food processor and requires only a couple of ingredients to make a full jar of delicious sweet and tangy chutney within 10 minutes, start to finish!

Last weekend, I had the good fortune to come by several raw to mid-ripe mangoes from an orchard-garden in Alibaug. I do not know their variety but they resemble a sunny yellow dasheri in their ripe stage. I’ve embarked on a mission to use 1-2 of my stock daily in trial-and-error recipes. Chhunda was a popular suggestion.

The internet and Youtube suggested this method:
1. Grate 2 raw mangoes
2. Heat them in a kadhai with 1 cup sugar/jaggery/mix of both
3. Stir till the mixture thickens
4. Take off the heat
5. Add 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder and 1/2 roasted cumin or jeera powder.

Grating mangoes can be cumbersome. Rather, I peeled the mangoes, cut them into rough sized chunks and pulsed them in a food processor till they were all tiny chunks. They’ll be uneven, but it I like the texture and jamminess. If you’re making a jam, process it till pureed.

 

See the texture for the chutney:

Next, I heated them in my kadhai with 2 tablespoons of white sugar, and 1/3 cup (or around 30g) of jaggery (I used patali gur). My mangoes weren’t very green and raw, they were more pale yellow so they didn’t require as much sugar – which was great, since I was uncomfortable with using a full cup of sugar! My mixture required only about 2 minutes on a medium flame before it started thickening.

I mixed in about 1/3 tsp chilli powder and 1/3 tsp cumin powder, and then took it off the heat. I strongly advise adjusting seasonings to taste!

I preferred reducing my chunda till it was a marmalade-like texture, though traditionally it is much more loose (and much darker in colour due to use of more chilli and jaggery). My chutney looked like this, fresh off the stove:

You can see the flecks of white from the bigger chunks of mango, but don’t worry, it turns translucent within a few hours. It’s sweet and tangy at the same time, and you don’t taste the chilli or the cumin: truly greater than the sum of its parts. It keeps for 1 year.

I’m storing my jar of this chutney in the fridge, and enjoying it with theplas, toast, and with yogurt for a light snack!

Recipe ingredients:

Raw or half-ripe mangoes – 2
Sugar or jaggery – 1/2 cup
Salt – as per taste
Cumin – 1/3 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp

Directions:
1. Peel mangoes and cut pulp into rough chunks.
2. Pulse in a food processor or mixer into fine pieces.
3. Heat in a pan/wok/kadhai with the sugar.
4. Stir for a few minutes on medium flame, till the sugar thickens and the mixture gets a spreadable consistency.
5. Take off the heat.
6. Add the sugar, cumin and chilli powder. Taste and adjust for seasoning as per preference.