Chutney & Marmalade - Leah's recipes

On Thursday night I went over to Leah's house to get tips in alternatives to white sugar. We had a lot of fun chatting about our personal experiences and cooking up two batches of what Leah loves best... Spice! I was intrigued by all the spices she has and it was truly a night of experimenting with flavors.  The two recipes were her base recipes and we altered some of the measurements of spices to add some different flavors.

Our first recipe was a Cranberry Mango Chutney. We used both fruits from the freezer but the flavors were still very strong.  Here is the recipe.

Cranberry Mango Chutney

1 cup frozen cranberries

1 cup frozen mangos

 ¼ cup cane sugar

 2 Tbsp cider vinegar

 2 Tbsp dried bing cherries

 2 Tbsp crystallized ginger

 1 small Serrano chili

 1/8 tsp salt

 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

  ¼ tsp red pepper flakes

 1-2 Tbsp apple juice, if necessary

Combine all ingredients in a dutch oven and simmer until most of the liquid has been cooked down. Your cranberries should pop and you can add a bit of apple juice if the liquid cooks down too fast before the fruit is tender. Ladle into jars and process 10 minutes in water bath.

Makes 3 quarter pints.

Our second recipe we really got creative. I brought over some blueberries so that I could see what spice Leah had in mind. We had originally talked about cayenne, but we went a totally different route. Here is the final recipe. I had an opportunity on friday to eat some of my little jar I took home. It was really good with a hint of the cardamom, but the great flavor of the ginger worked really well with the blueberries and citrus.

Blueberry Ginger Orange Lime Marmalade

2 cups fresh blueberries

2 Tbsp crystallized ginger

1 small lime sliced thinly, then cut into 4ths

½ large orange, sliced thinly

1 medium orange, pulsed in food processor

1 cup water

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

¼ tsp cardamon

2 ¾ cup cane sugar

Put slices of orange and lime (with rind) into Dutch oven and add 1 cup water. Cook for 15 minutes. Add crystallized ginger, blueberries, pulsed orange, and spices.  Cook for 15-20 minutes.  Add sugar and cook for about 15-18 minutes until 220 degrees. Makes 4 half pints.