Recipe

The other night I made a curried mango chutney to go over a Thai chicken dish. To the best of my recollection I've never had this before. Reason I say this is, I've stayed away from curry for about the last....oh....18ish years. Why? I got food poisoning after eating curried shrimp. You can imagine how disgusting that whole experience was for me. I never wanted to see or smell curry again. And to make it worse, I was in Indiana! We were visiting Greg's family and staying at his parents house. So on top of the whole bad curry disgustingness, I had to be at my worst with his parents. Traumatizing. Anyway, I guess 18 years was the key number for me to get over it all because I went for it and made the chutney due to such good reviews on it. I have to say....it was awesome! And not a single bad memory of the shrimp so I think it's safe to say I'm over the trauma of it :)

A few things about this recipe. I didn't know how to pick a ripe mango. I smelled them and got nothing. So I just picked 2 and hoped they were ripe. One of them was ripe and juicy and the other wasn't. And it was hard to cut...sort of like a potato, but it was even harder to cut than that. However, I figured since I was cooking it, it would be ok. I always hear cooks say that if you use unripened fruit in recipes that will be cooked, it's ok. Turns out, at least in this case, this is true. The mango got very soft and was sweet. The overall flavor of it is a hot/sweet taste. Both Greg and I liked it.

It says a lot that Greg liked it. He's a picky eater but has become more adventurous and will try new things. It used to be I was limited to only going to places he would eat at because he wouldn't try anything. He'd say it was gross even tho he had never even tried it! That's changed and he's realized he has been missing out and limited himself. Now we enjoy trying new things together :)


Curried Mango Chutney

Try this over chicken & rice or for dipping anything fried (shrimp, chicken tenders, fish). Also would be great with pork chops! If you use it to dip things in, the mango should be diced pretty small.

2 cups diced peeled ripe mango (about 2 mangoes)
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 - 20 minutes or until most of liquid evaporates and mixture is thick, stirring occasionally.