Celebrate National Mango Month (June) with this "From the Vault" episode of Big Blend Radio's EAT DRINK & BE MERRY Podcast with Chef Jeremy Manley, San Diego's Sustainable Chef. Hear how to share how to make his Mango Jalapeno Jam recipe. It's the perfect sauce for summer BBQ dishes, white fish, and even turkey. Jeremy is the executive chef and owner of Jeremy’s on the Hill California Style Bistro in Julian, San Diego’s mountain destination. See his recipe here: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing/mango-jalapeno-jam
Featured music on this episode is "California Days" by Josh Pfeiffer.
Big Daily Blend
Chef Jeremy Manley - Mango Jalapeno Jam
(upbeat music) - Hello everyone. It's time to eat, drink, and be merry with your host, Lisa and Nancy. (upbeat music) - Known as San Diego's sustainable chef, Chef Jeremy Manley is back on Big Blend radio today to teach us how to make his mango, jalapeno jam recipe. I wanna make a song out of it. It's perfect for summer barbecue dishes, white fish, and even turkey. Chef Jeremy is the owner of Jeremy's on the Hill California style bistro in Julian's San Diego's mountain destination, a perfect destination for summer. If you go to his website, you'll see more recipes. Go to jeremesonthehill.com and his video tips on there too. And you can also see him featured in Big Blend radio and TV magazine, including this recipe in the summer issue. Just go to blendradioandtv.com. Chef Jeremy, how are ya? - I am splendid. How are you, Lisa? - I'm ready for some mango and jalapenos. I'm thinking this is such a cool recipe because I remember having this amazing martini at an amazing Peruvian restaurant in Portland and Portland, Oregon, and they had, it was like mango and passion fruit, but very light. And then they put habanero. And there was like, and a little bit of citrus. And this recipe kind of takes me back to that. It's not all the same ingredients, but there's that lightly refreshing flavor with a little bit of kick to it. So I'm excited about this. - I love this recipe. It's so versatile and it's one of those recipes that when you have an afternoon and you wanna make something new, it's a great dish to make. I mean, you could really, the mango jalapeno jam goes on breakfast dishes, lunch dishes, dinner dishes. You could scramble up some eggs and cook some bacon and throw a little mango jalapeno jam on your toast or mix it in with your eggs. It's a really nice contrast of flavors. You got a little bit of sweet, you got a little bit of sour, you got a little bit of spice. It's really a great way to utilize ingredients that you may or may not have laying around the house, but all the ingredients in this dish, you could find at your local grocery store, mangoes, being that we're in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. One of the things that we're so fortunate about is we can get mangoes anywhere at any state, any grocery store, even though they're not grown right around the corner. - Well, mangoes rock and it's that season right now. And that's why I get excited. When, you know, when I could live on mangoes and avocados for the rest of my life and be completely content. Oh, wine, wine has to be involved. You know that. But when you take mangoes, let me just run through the ingredients for everyone. In the recipe, everyone is up on blendradio and tv.com. Just type in mango. Mango Jeremy, it's a mango jalapeno. You type in mango and you'll find it, but you start with 32 ounces of diced mango. Then you have nine and a half ounces of Fuji apples, diced real small, four ounces of pickled jalapeno and a cup of sugar, two tablespoons of coriander, and then a half a cup of cilantro chopped. So this is interesting that you have this cilantro, but you don't cook it until the end, right? So you say at the beginning, you put all the ingredients into a pot and now you're gonna cook it with some water and kind of make it like a little stew. Correct. And what that's gonna do is, you know, when you're making a jam, you need something to thicken it with. So apples have a natural source of pectin in them. I believe they're the only fruit that has pectin. But that pectin is a type of sweetener that is a thickening agent that is found in apples. And for this particular recipe, I did say Fuji apples because again, I live in apple country and Fuji apples are my favorite. Where should you want? - Right, Julian. - Yeah. And the reason why the pickled jalapenos are important is because when you pickle something, there's a little bit of vinegar in there and you want that vinegar for this recipe 'cause that's gonna add a little bit of zaz or a little bit of tang to it. And what vinegar does in my mouth is it opens up all the taste buds on my tongue. So all the other flavors could penetrate through and you get a real taste of what's being put on your palate while you're eating it. The other ingredients in here, of course, dice mango. I mean, it's a mango jalapeno jam. If you can't find mango, feel free to substitute a pineapple. A papaya would even work. It'd be a different color, but papayas would work. Peaches would work. Yeah, stone fruits are incredible. I think you're onto something here. I never thought of a peach jalapeno jam, but man, I could imagine some of that with a shot of a spoonful of jam. - You know, it reminds me of, it's kind of like a salsa, right? In a way, that's really what we're making. It's like a salsa. - It is. - I had peach, I think it was peach and habanero salsa. I remember having that thinking, oh, I don't know what it's gonna be like, you know? And it would turn out to be one of my most favorite salsa's ever because of that sweet and salty, vinegary, hot goodness. - So the only difference between this jam and what you're describing as a salsa is that we're gonna heat up some ingredients. It's gonna come to a boil. The pectin from the apples is gonna sweat out and we're gonna puree that and it's gonna thicken and versus just a salsa where you take raw vegetables and toss 'em together and they marinate in their juices and you add some salt and it tastes wonderful. - How did that pass? - Yeah, very similar ingredients, slightly different cooking techniques, but again, this is a great recipe for a novice chef or a novice home cook or somebody who's even more experienced because it adds a dimension that when you're dining patrons or your family eat and they taste it, they're gonna be shocked by how good it is and what else is great is when you make jams, it lasts for a while. So you don't have to use it within a day or two. You can let it sit in the refrigerator for a week and like some of these other, these dishes that I recommended pairing with it, like swordfish, mahi mahi, halibut, barbecue steaks, pork would go well with it. You can do like a pulled pork sandwich. There's so many different ideas that you can take this recipe with and elevate it. - You know, also with this, what I think is interesting too, is you've got this as a salsa, without a salsa, but a jam, but when you're talking about the pectins, when I was wondering is when, because it's a thickening agent, that means like it's cool for vegans, right? - Yes, so I know a lot of times when we hear like thickening agents, our minds might go right to flour or I might go to something that strikes a gluten allergy or something that does with gluten, but pectin and fruit is 100% natural. Vegan, no gluten, it's a really great way and a long, long time ago, not in a galaxy far away, but in our planet, we started making jams and we discovered that apples were, there was something about them that created a thickening agent. - I never knew this, this is so cool to know. And of course, you know, all that, you know, being a torton blue chef and in the apple country in Julian, known for apples and apple pie and all those good things. I know that you do a lot with apples but you put, yeah, apple tarts, you also put cilantro in here and you say that, you know, so that gives it, it's interesting, cilantro and also having coriander, that gives us kind of like a little fresh kind of flavor to it, doesn't it, just kind of like a, it's like refreshing to me? - You know, it does and that's why we're gonna add that chopped cilantro towards the end because we don't, if we added the cilantro while we were cooking all these ingredients, the cilantro would turn to mush and if you watch, while you're cooking this, you'll start to smell an aroma that comes when once the temperature of all your ingredients heats up and once it starts to boil a little bit, you'll start to smell it more. And that's a good thing and a bad thing. One, all the stuff that you see escaping the pot, those are water molecules. So as those dissipate, we're thickening what's in our pot, which is starting to form a jelly-like texture or begin to begin. And then once we pull that off, we're gonna add the cilantro and puree it. So the cilantro, it adds like a fresh element to the end of the jam. If you're one of the people out there who doesn't like cilantro, I still recommend you trying this recipe, but just omit the cilantro, just don't use it. Coriander is the seed of cilantro and it has a different flavor. But one in 10 people, when they taste cilantro, they taste soap. - Huh, I don't want to taste soap 'cause that'll take me back to my childhood when I had like a language problem that's got-- - Your mom did that to you too. - Does it happen? Yeah, man, it's like, here, I'm gonna put it, I'm gonna give you the cilantro, mom. No, you won't. Oh, don't ever, don't ever, you know, Nancy. Never test Nancy, things like that. You'll never do that. Oh, just to prove that I will, you will now eat the soap. So yeah, but it wasn't cilantro. But yeah, I think it's a different flavor, you know? And I never really ate cilantro until we got to this country. And specifically California and Mexico, when we lived there. And I was like, oh, I thought it was parsley. And then it's like, that doesn't taste like parsley. You know, it kind of looked like parsley, but it had this shock to me. And then later, I kind of learned how to enjoy it and not overdo it because I think a little cilantro goes a long way. I agree. Yeah, man. So no soap, no soap. Now, you also say in the recipe that you could squeeze half a lemon in there and add salt. And you could add more mango if you want to make it like chunky and have a little different flavor. It's nice to add the mango after everything's been pureed and you let it chill for a little bit. And then you fold in like minced mango or like small diced mango. It looks better on the plate. It also adds like a textural contrast when it's in your mouth. But again, if I would recommend trying it before you do that, just how it is, and then because we're all curious, chop up that mango, add a little bit to it, and then taste it again. Because that'll help the mango have a more dominant flavor. It'll also help your plating. It'll make the plate look a little more pristine or a little bit more restaurant-like versus home cook-like. And it's just a small little trick that when you just look at it, you would never think to yourself, wow, how did this all get pureed? But there's still these little chunks. Part of going out to a restaurant and eating is like the magic that happens. And this is one of those little tricks that chefs use or this analogy will say magicians in the kitchen would use to give it a little flair. - And it's an old magician thing because you've got a stick blender. So you have a magic stick. - Yeah, it's a little magic wand in there. - If you don't have a stick blender, go ahead and put this in your blender for about 20 seconds or so. Just pulse it though, don't do it on high. Do it on kind of like a lower pulse. - Okay, okay, good stuff. Now, I have to always ask this, it's summertime, right? And this is like the perfect summer dish. I know California grows mangoes too, man. Out in Fallbrook, I have friends out there growing mangoes and avocados. And I was like, wow, I didn't know. But hey, they're there. I wanna know from you, you're gonna make this. What are you gonna eat it with? Because like you said, you can do so many different things. But for you right now, you're gonna have a lovely dinner. You're gonna invite someone over. What are you gonna prepare with this? Is that being your magic trick? Your magic sauce is like, here it is. And what are you gonna drink with this? 'Cause that somehow I want white wine for some reason. This kind of calls to that. I don't know why, but it does. - I think you saw that Blanc would go great with this. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go to my local baker and I grab some brioche buns. I'm gonna marinate some chicken with a little bit of lemon juice, some jalapenos, some cilantro and some oil, lemon. Yeah, maybe a little pepper in there and then let it fit for a couple hours and throw it on the barbecue. And I'm gonna do a grilled chicken sandwich on brioche bread with some mango jalapeno jam on top with your glass of Sauvignon Blanc. - And music? You know, music has to be part of this. The merry man. - Oh, it does. You know, when I was getting ready for this interview, I just had Johnny Cash going through my head, so I'm gonna have to say Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. - Hey, they got the Calapeño for that. Absolutely. (laughs) Absolutely. Thank you so much, Chef Jeremy and everyone. Again, you can go to jeremythonthehill.com. It's got a great video recipe series with tips as well. And it's got recipes on his website, sign up for his newsletter. Every person who gets the newsletter gets put into a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to eat at jeremythonthehill. So check that out. So again, go to jeremythonthehill.com. And his recipes are also featured at Big Blend Radio and TV magazine just to go to blendradiontv.com and this recipe is there. And just type in mango. So I forget Big Blend Radio airs Sunday through Friday. Yeah, pretty busy here. So just go to bigbendradiontv.com for the schedule, how to listen live or on demand. And we've got some music for you, Jeremy. Are you ready? - I'm ready. - You know what, I just changed my mind of what we're gonna do, but I feel very California, like vibes, you know, you're talking about the apples and Julian and everything. And I was just thinking about the beach. So I'm gonna play California Days by our friend Josh Pfeiffer. And this little jazzy, it's off of his album, American Cruner Act One. You can go to joshpfeiffer.com. So here it is, California Days. Thanks so much, Chef. Jeremy, you take care. - Thank you, Lisa. You too. (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ I love California Days ♪ ♪ Where the sunshine smiles on everything ♪ ♪ Where the ocean breezes blow ♪ ♪ And the swaying palm trees grow ♪ ♪ I love California Days ♪ ♪ Take a drive on down the coast ♪ ♪ Find the things you love the most ♪ ♪ From the golden gate to a hole in a bay ♪ ♪ Everybody knows it's true ♪ ♪ So there's nothing you can do ♪ ♪ But pack your bags and head on down this way ♪ ♪ California Days ♪ (guitar music) (guitar music) (guitar music) (guitar music) (guitar music) (guitar music) (guitar music) ♪ I love California Days ♪ ♪ I got my sunshapes and put the right top down to stay ♪ ♪ We could head to Monterey ♪ ♪ And watch that sunset fade away ♪ ♪ I love California Days ♪ ♪ Take a drive on down the coast ♪ ♪ Find the things you love the most ♪ ♪ From the golden gate to a hole in a bay ♪ ♪ Everybody knows it's true ♪ ♪ So there's nothing you can do ♪ ♪ But pack your bags and head on down this way ♪ ♪ California Days ♪ ♪ California Days ♪ (guitar music) (guitar music) (guitar music)