FLOWER POT KITCHEN: SWEET CHILLI MANGO JELLY

25 Jun 2015

SWEET CHILLI MANGO JELLY

Lovely sweet slightly chilli mango hot jelly that goes great with everything! Cheese and biscuits, curries, salads, sausages just to start with. Simple to make and keeps for up to a year once canned, fabulously fresh ingredients full of sunshine and no nasties, there simply is no reason for mass produced companies to add preservatives that you just don't need!

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 20 minutes / Canning time 30 minutes

Ingredients

(makes approx 9 8oz jars)

2 ripe mangoes peeled and chopped

200ml water

600g jam sugar

2 red chillies finely sliced

9 8oz quilted ball mason jars washed and dried

Info On Sterilising Your Jars

Stage one to sterilise the jars run them through the dishwasher on a hot wash or wash the jars in hot soapy water, rinse well and leave to dry thoroughly. Stage two sterilising will take place by placing your jars and lids in a pre-heated 180 degree oven for five minutes just before the mango jelly is ready to can, hot jars and hot jelly equal successful canning.

Making The Mango Jelly

In a thick bottomed pan place the water, chopped mango and chilli, bring to a gentle simmer and cook until you have some soft rounded mango chunks, not pulp. Take off the heat and add the sugar, stir until dissolved, pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees, then place the saucepan back on the heat and bring to a rolling boil for 5 minutes, this will ensure that you reach jam/jelly making temperature of 105 degrees. If you boil for longer you will make the jelly a firmer stiffer thickness rather than a wobbly jelly consistency. Take off the heat and place on your worktop ready to decant.

While the mango jelly is boiling, place the dry jars and lids on a baking tray in the oven for five minutes, this will further sterilise the jars. Remove from the oven and place on your work top ready to fill.

Place a wide mouth funnel in one of the jars and ladle in the mango jelly, leave 1" head space gap at the top of each jar, firmly screw the lids on.

Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil and place the jars in to the boiling water, the water should cover the jars, simmer for 30 minutes, then remove the jars, tighten the lids if needed. Leave to cool on the side and wait to hear the most magical sound of canning, Ping, Ping, Ping! I love this sound of the depressing lids confirming a secure and safe seal, it is a canners symphony!

Leave to cool and store until needed, once opened keep refrigerated and use withing two weeks, if your jar of mango jelly will even last that long!

No comments:

LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.