Mango Lime and Cardamom Jam

I was looking for apricots from South Africa to make up some jam, as I had missed the Northern Hemisphere season last Summer.  For whatever reason these have been very scarce or maybe it is not quite yet the season.  The few I have seen have been in covered plastic tubs, and I am really trying to buy as much fruit and vegetables loose.  On the other side of the isle in the supermarket, beautiful mangoes were on special offer.....I usually make chutney with mangoes, but bought with only imagination to inspire since, since I this was going to be the first taste of  any mango jam in my life.

I still have a few limes in the freezer and wanted to try some cardamom to give a added layer of flavour.  Again I have followed Christine Ferber's technique which gives a jelly like preserve through which the small chunks of mango are suspended.

I prepared by nearly ripe mangoes to get 1Kg prepared flesh.  For this I used four large mangoes, but the odd taster as I went along.  They were delicious to start with, and quite ready to eat raw.


Having first washed the outside of the mango well in plenty of cold water, ith a very sharp paring knife I first peel of the skin.  Then remove each cheek, and finally the sides etc, and start to chop up the flesh carefully, as I don't want squashed flesh.  The pieces do shrink a lot while they are steeping overnight.

When I got to 1Kg prepared fruit I stopped...

All of this goes into the preserving pan, with the juice of two small limes, three crushed green whole cardamom pods and 800g granulated cane sugar.  I use Tate and Lyle as I know this to be cane and not beet sugar.  In just a few minutes standing the juices are drawn out of the mango, so there is no water at all in this recipe.

As soon as it starts to simmer,  it is drawn off the heat source, and then the whole lot is left overnight...this is when a lot more liquid is extracted from the mango.  As it was cool in the kitchen overnight the pan just stayed on the stove, but in summer, the mixture should be put into a glass bowl and put in the fridge.

The smell of mango in this mixture reminds a little of the smell of gorse in full sun with hints of pineapple and coconut.  Does anyone else get this smell from mango?

In the morning, whilst my washed jam jars and lids are slowly being heated up to 80C in the oven, I start to boil up the jam.  As it comes to the boil I add from my large pot of apple stock jelly 200g, and add this to the mixture.  I stayed by pan, and stirred occasionally through the rolling boil just to ensure that nothing caught at the base of the pan.

This time there was no scum to remove, and after 10 minutes rapid boiling, I had the 105 C.  Off with the heat, and a little standing around for 20 minutes or so, so that the fruit is nicely suspended into the jelly, and it was time to pot up the mango jam.  I like to see the cardamom seeds suspended in the jam but remove the husks before potting up.  I always use a soup ladle and a jam jar funnel to make the task as easy as possible.

Now to design my labels!!