Hot & Spicy Pear Chutney

We really loved Waitrose's Hot & Spicy Mango Chutney while we lived in Scotland, so I showed the list to ChatGPT and asked it to adjust it to use pears instead of mangos, and we ended up with this delicious chutney.

Course Condiment

Cuisine Fusion, Indian

Servings jars

Author Thomas

Ingredients

1.5 kg peeled and diced pears buy 30% more to get this
50 g sugar for macerating

For cooking

500 ml vinegar
700 g sugar
125 g honey
200 g onion pureed
50 g fresh ginger peeled and pureed
20 g garlic pureed
20 g salt
10 g hot paprika
5 g dried chilli flakes
5 g whole cumin seeds
5 g nigella seeds
2 g chilli powder
2 g cumin powder
2 g ground cardamom powder
1 g garlic powder
1 g dried oregano
1 g ground white pepper

For the last ten minutes

10 g garam masala
2 g ground cinnamon
1 g freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon zested
100 g raisins

Instructions

Dice your pears and place them in a bowl. Sprinkle them with the maceration sugar, toss to coat evenly, and let them sit for an hour or two. The sugar will draw out the excess moisture, which will pool at the bottom of the bowl. Drain off this liquid before using the pear in your chutney.
In a large heavy-bottomed pot, combine the pears with all the cooking ingredients.
Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar has completely dissolved.
Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook the chutney, stirring occasionally, for 40 minutes to 2 hours or until it has thickened to your desired consistency. The chutney should be thick but still pourable.
Add the remaining ingredients (apart from the raisins) to the chutney during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
Stir in the raisins just before the chutney is done cooking.
Carefully ladle the hot chutney into sterilised jars, seal immediately and allow to cool.

Notes

You can also make the garam masala yourself. For 10 g of masala, mix 2g ground coriander, 2g ground cumin, 2g ground cinnamon, 1g ground cloves, 1g ground fennel, 1g ground bay leaf and 1g ground cardamom.