Papaya Chutney

We so enjoyed the rice and chutney dish that I posted last week, I decided to try a recipe inspired by Lucinda Quinn but changed her recipe to suit my interests and available ingredients. There must be thousands of chutney recipes but the idea of one made with papaya was intriguing.

4 cups of finely chopped papaya
1 and 1/2 cups of chopped cucumbers
1/2 green pepper finely chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
2 inch root of ginger peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp salt
1 cup vinegar
1 and 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups water

Place all ingredients in a pan and slowly cook for 2 hours. In Quinn's recipe she had half the amount of papaya and 3 tbsp salt. I could not abide that much salt. I increased the sugar by 1/4 cup because it tasted too tart. The contrast of colour between the green cucumber and peach orange of the papya was inviting. The smells of vinegar, salt and cucumbers made me think of pickling - a nice thought in the middle of winter.

The mixture took a great deal of time to reduce, so next time I would add less water. My daughter liked the outcome and will be using this chutney in her next rice, bean casserole.