Rich’s family comes from Martin County in Southern Indiana, and this week’s Doris Project feature is based on a recipe from the tenth anniversary edition of “Cookin’ in Martin County” by the Martin County Homemakers Club; given to Rich by his Grandma June in 1986.
I was kinda surprised to find several recipes for a sammich spread based on green tomatoes and mango, and then surprised again when they called for stirring in a quart of salad dressing before canning.
I am not that brave.
The good homemakers of Martin County didn’t provide processing times for canning the spread with salad dressing added, tho’ one recipe included details for making a ‘spread dressing’ with flour, sugar, mustard, celery seed, and boiling vinegar. Still, I wanted to try this spread, so I thought about it all a bit, and came up with a kinda cool (I think) compromise: I would make a version of the mango spread, without the dressing, then process it, and stir in mayonnaise when getting ready to serve.
But first, a note about the mangoes: this kinda cunning little gadget is a mango pitter. You stand the mango upright on a board, position the pitter over the fruit, and push down. Easy-peasey, you’ve seaprated the tough pit and can now peel and chop the good bits o’ the mango.
INGREDIENTS
•2 cups small red and yellow tomato,
diced and seeded
•3 green mangoes*
•3 red mangoes*
•4 cups sweet onion, diced
•1 tsp coarse sea salt
•1/4 cup yellow mustard
•1/4 cup honey
•1/4 tsp celery salt
•1 tsp Aleppo pepper
*You’ll end up with about two quarts of diced mango.
Stir all of the ingredients together in a large stock pot and cook, covered, over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring often – don’t fret over the lack of liquid in the pot to start; as the veggies cook down, you’ll have more than enough. Even though the cooking temperature is quite low, everything will come to a little simmer and turn nicely tender.
At this point, you can transfer the mango mixture in batches to a blender and purée until smooth, or (much more better, if you ask me), simply take an immersion blender to the pot and give it all a good whizzz until you have this beautiful, thick, rich, golden mango mush.
Transfer the puréed mixture to prepared canning jars – you’ll end up with about eleven half pints – and process for 15 minutes.
Set the jars aside to cool.
Truly, this spread is kinda nice on it’s own, but both recipes I found called for adding a mayonnaise-like blend, so I took a tablespoon of the cooled mango spread and stirred it together with a tablespoon of good mayonnaise.
Wow!
The creaminess of the mayonnaise blends so well with the naturally peppery bite of the mango and I can very well see what all the fuss was about. I had mine on some buttery crackers and was kinda glad I’d only made a small batch.
You could also combine the mango with some softened cream cheese (or mebbe even creamed cottage cheese) and use it like that; but, I do believe I’ll be mixing mine with mayonnaise for the foreseeable future.
I’m thinking this will work a treat with roast beast or turkey sammiches, and while I wouldn’t so “no” to it piled with thinly sliced cucumber, red onion, sprouts, pickled green beans, and romaine in a veggie roll up, it was really nice with mixed Spanish-style cold cuts, smoked Swiss cheese, and romaine rolled into a tortilla.