The Dehydrating Thread

[baldrick]

[Mendip]

Nice one Baldrick... tomorrow has purpose!

[Shutree]

An owed Green, or my first batch of dried mango

Could I go for the second batch of dried mango?

[Mendip]

^ It's a moot point... the chickens got the first!

[Mendip]

As long as I live, I'll never understand Thais... well, my wife at least.

We're currently over-run with mangoes but yesterday morning she took delivery of a box of... mangoes, from 'up country'. Apparently these little orange mangoes taste different to ours so my wife thought it would be nice to have a few. (I picked up the two yellow dragon fruit at Makro yesterday just because I don't think I've ever seen them before... only the pink ones).



So, what to do? I must admit that dehydrating fruit hasn't been as exiting as I'd hoped so I thought it time to make up some mango chutney.

Indian Mango Chutney Recipe - The Daring Gourmet

And not any mango chutney... PAG's 'Daring Gourmet' Indian Mango Chutney!



The recipe claimed 15 minutes prep time but don't believe a word of it... it took me nearly an hour and a half round trip to Makro just to find the ingredients. I found everything apart from the 'nigella seeds' whatever they may be.

I now have enough spices to make mango chutney every year until around 2035. The recipe called for 4 to 5 large mangoes but considering we have such a glut, and such a lot of spices, I doubled up on everything.



First up was to saute 'finely minced' ginger and garlic with chopped chillis. I have no idea how to 'mince' ginger and garlic so finely grated it instead.



I then discovered that the cumin seeds needed to be ground. The wife was strangely keen to help with this stage, mind you she does seem to spend half her life bashing up things in her pestle and mortar. (I later discovered that the cardamom seeds and cloves also had to be ground up, so the wife earnt her bacon today).



Here's my pink bowl of measured out spices along with the wife's offering in the bottom of her pestle. I just picked out the husks from the cardamom seeds as they didn't seem to grind up very well.



These were sauteed up with the ginger, garlic and chillies.



Then the mango stage. We skinned what I think from the picture was 11 mangoes (I forgot to count them).



These were the diced up, and along with 2 cups of white vinegar and 4 cups of sugar were added to the pan.



Seemed like a lot of sugar to me, and this is only half of it.



But anyway, this was all stirred together...



And quickly brought to the boil.



Once boiling I could relax. A lid went on the pan and it was left to simmer (for about an hour). This freed me up to go and bait the rat trap and have some lunch.



But first I had to scrabble around in the back of the wife's draws to find as many jars as possible. These I washed and then filled with boiling water to sterilise.

[Reg Dingle]

I had to scrabble around in the back of the wife's draws to find as many jars as possible

Wow...Did you find Buzz, Woody and Mr Potato Head hanging around in there too?

[Mendip]

^ The whereabouts of 'Woody' is still a mystery!


After re-setting the rat trap and a spot of lunch it was time to check on the mango chutney.

It had been simmering away nicely for an hour, so I gently mashed around half of it. I left most of the mango as chunks as I like the difference in textures for a chutney (so long as there are no sultanas).



What's not to like... thanks for the link PAG!



Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for the marriage offers to come rolling in.



I could make someone very happy with this little lot!

[Reg Dingle]

^ Have you labelled it all so not to get it mixed up with the missus' pla raa?

[cyrille]

Mr Potato Head

Uhur Uhur...Dat's Willy dat is. Uhur.

[Mendip]

^^ I bet that is seriously stinky.

(And I'm talking about that right big toe, by the way!)

Do you not think you should at least put on a pair of shorts before posting a picture of your crotch on the internet?

[Neverna]

Dehydrating bananas can be done easily in a standard oven.

Cut the bananas into quarters lengthways and stick them on an oven tray for an hour at 150 C and the job's a good 'un.

[Reg Dingle]

Dehydrating bananas

Phew...Had to double check my photo then

[mikenot]

So, what to do? I must admit that dehydrating fruit hasn't been as exiting as I'd hoped so I thought it time to make up some mango chutney.

Do you have a juicer ? One way of using up all those mangos ! And if you are in the market for one, my wife has a Lazada special, used once only (in 2 years), sitting in a cupboard somewhere, LOL. she wanted it to use up a glut of mangos but apparently it was too much work !

And fennel or sesame seeds are an acceptable substitute for Nigella seeds by the way.

[malmomike77]

Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for the marriage offers to come rolling in.

So you've made spicy pickled jam ?

Now you've all probably seen the token Indians that seem to cycle around peddling their homemade puri, you could cycle around and try to offload your jam on them, and don't take no for an answer, be aggressive with head wobbles also.

[sabang]

Mango chutney is a good idea. Might be worth experimenting with a green (ie sour) mango pickle too? Just a thought. Anyway, great stuff- keep it up! Having fun in Isaan.

[Troy]

Looks really good. Which vinegar did you use? The cheapest or a flavoured one?

^ I love mango pickle as well, must get a recipe for that some time...

BTW we have two different dehydration machines, use them to dry mushrooms before sending to family in Thailand.

[baldrick]

Do you not think you should at least put on a pair of shorts before posting a picture of your crotch on the internet?

you can see he has his nappy on