Mangoing Around

It's hot season. Let me repeat. It's HOT season here in Cambodia. There is little to do other than mope around feeling hot, sweaty and itchy as the heat rash works it's way into every sweaty little crevice - elbows and backs of knees usually!

The benefit of hot season in Cambodia is, of course, MANGOES! I've lived in Cambodia a little over 6 years and we've only recently moved to a place where we have a real mango tree - five of them. And every day I pick up somewhere between 10 and 20 mangoes. It's getting a little overwhelming.

The first week we kept up - cutting, peeling, eating those freshly ripe mangoes. Then it got to be a little too much. Not to mention the mango allergy rash from the sap. Very itchy (adds to the heat rash). The other thing you have to watch out for is the nasty red ants that make their home in our mango trees. They pull several leaves together, stitch them up with what looks like spider's web, and make a nest. Bump one of those babies and you'll find thousands of angry acid biting ants crawling down the back of your shirt. Ouch!

So today I decided on a slightly different course. I had been cutting out the pulp, using the blender and freezing it - making really great mango ice-cream, which then goes into mango smoothies very well. Today it was time to take it to a new level - mango jam!

Not just mango jam, but spiced mango jam. I hit a winner on this.

I found a simple an interesting recipe on the web from eCurry (http://www.ecurry.com/blog/condiments-and-sauces/mango-jam/). And a few hours later, voila!, mango jam. I even was able to can them in old jam jars, which amazingly sealed! Awesome. 7 jars of spiced mango jam ... thats a lot of jam. What will I do with tomorrow's mango's?


Re: Recipe
> There are no lemons in Kampot, so I omitted the lemon juice.
> I had WAY more mangoes than three - I didn't count them, but 20 is a conservative estimate. It came to 10 cups of mango pulp.
> I estimated one mango equaled one cup of pulp and added one cup of sugar for every 3 cups of pulp
> I also included star anise to the spices

Re: Canning
> I washed old jam jars then heated them in the oven for a few minutes
> then I followed the instructions from the Wycliffe recipe book for sterilising the jam jars, which also seals them. I wasn't sure this would work (this being my first jam-making attempt) but 6 of 7 jars sealed. Cool.