Prepare fresh ingredients. Chop garlic, chop ginger, and dice onion. Peel the lemon.
1 Medium Onion, 1 Inch Ginger Fresh, 1-2 Medium Garlic Cloves, 3 Slices Lemon Peel
Heat up a saucepan with oil and add mustard seeds and chili pepper. Keep on a lower heat setting to temper spices (that means to fry spices in oil for a short time to release flavors). Careful, mustard seeds jump out. Do that for a minute or so, or until you can smell the nutty fragrance of the mustard seeds.
1 Tablespoon Oil, 1 Teaspoon Mustard Seeds, 1-2 Medium Red Chili Pepper
Stir in onion and keep over a medium heat setting. Sauté onion to soften a bit.
1 Medium Onion
Stir in ginger and garlic, also sauté for a minute or so.
1-2 Medium Garlic Cloves, 1 Inch Ginger Fresh
Stir in red currants and sugar. Mix up and keep over a medium heat setting.
1 Pound Red Currants, ½ Pound Sugar
Season with your spices by adding them all, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, turmeric, star anise, cinnamon, and lemon peel. Also pour in the vinegar.
3 Slices Lemon Peel, ½ Teaspoon Salt, ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground, ½ Teaspoon Cumin Seeds Ground, ½ Teaspoon Coriander Seeds Ground, ½ Teaspoon Turmeric Ground, 1 Stick Cinnamon Ground, 1 Corner Star Anise, 2 Tablespoon Vinegar
Mix and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and allow your chutney to simmer slowly over a low-heat setting so that it can reduce slowly. That way, the flavors will develop.
When reduced, take out the whole spices, including the chili pepper, and discard them.
Reduce chutney further to desired consistency. You can also check with a thermometer if it is set. 220 Fahrenheit/ 105 Celsius is the setting temperature. Or drop some hot chutney on an ice-cold plate, if it runs it is not set.
Pour chutney into clean jars and fill up to the top. Close with lids. If you use jars with a rubber gasket, boil the rubber first in water to kill all the germs.
Store in a cool place away from direct sunlight and humidity. Keep in the fridge once opened.