Making Maui Mango Chutney with Friends

I already knew about the "sunlight on the sand", and "moonlight on the sea", and now I know first hand about the mangoes you can pick right off a tree.Our friends Joyce and Gord have a huge mango tree in their yard, and the fruit was just begging to be made into something delectable. Believe me when Joyce invited me over to have a girls' day making chutney with her and Karen, I couldn't get out of the door fast enough.

The process was very straight forward but involved a lot of chopping. I wept with the onions, Joyce burned with the jalapenos, and Karen gingerly carved up the ginger (she fancies herself as a princess so we gave her the least painful job). All this mindless chopping invited lots of lively conversation, and just the odd bit of gossip. Well maybe a little more than the odd bit, but hey we had to pass the time.

Joyce had chopped up the mangos the day before, so now we had to make the syrup. It was easy to turn a blind eye as we dumped in the required 12 cups of sugar because we knew that it would be worth it in the end. I won't show the photo of the mixture boiling over and us cleaning up the mess for at least 1/2 hour after the fact. Luckily it didn't spill on our bare feet. I think we were listening to one of Karen's fascinating stories at the time, and so didn't notice the foam rising out of the pot.
Eventually we were back on track and as the chutney merrily simmered away we enjoyed a wonderful mango smoothie prepared by Joyce in her brand new Vita-mix blender. Yum! Of course we had to relax now after all that chopping and mopping, because the mixture takes 2 hours to cook. We didn't have any choice but to share even more heart warming and tear jerking tales.

Finally the time came for ladling the chutney into the jars. Naturally we had to taste it first and I have to say that it was delicious. In fact so yummy that we decided to share the recipe with our readers. So here it is. Mango chutney straight from the Hawaiian Roadside Fruit Cook Book. Hint: if you make this with friends it tastes so much better! Enjoy!!

Mango Chutney

16 c. sliced green or half-ripe mangoes
1/2 c. Hawaiian salt
12 c. sugar
3 c. vinegar
2 c. light corn syrup
2 c. water
1c. ginger root, chopped fine
1 lb. raisins
6 medium onions chopped into small pieces
2 T garlic, chopped fine
1 T ground cloves
1 T cinnamon
1 T ground nutmeg
1 c. blanched almonds, cut in strips
12 small chili peppers, seeds removed
4 t. salt or to taste
zest of 3 limes
1/2 cup rum

Salt mangoes overnight in Hawaiian salt. When ready to make chutney, rinse. Boil syrup of sugar, vinegar, light corn syrup, water and ginger root for 15 minutes. Add mangoes by the handful to get them covered with syrup. Add remaining ingredients except rum. Cook 1.5 to 2 hours or until chutney is thick and mangoes are tender (not mushy). Stir every 10 to 15 minutes to prevent burning. Add the rum toward the end of the cooking time and mix well. Pour into hot serilized jars. Seal with paraffin.