Rinse the apples. Peel and chop them into rough-chop them into roughly 1/2 inch cubes. A few big pieces or small ones here and there are going to add more texture and taste. Also chop the onion into a small dice.
Peel and slice the ginger. Using the back of your knife gently squash the cardamon pods, save the seeds and discard the outer pod. Squeeze the juice out of the lemon - about 1/4cup of juice.
In a spice grinder grind the dry spices into a powder that is the fennel seeds, cumin seeds, cloves, cardamon seeds and the piece of cinnamon. (If you don't have a spice-grinder, a mortar and pestle works well for these dry spices and simply chop the ginger finely or use a microplane grater.)
Add the sliced ginger, lemon juice and extra 1/4 cup water and grind to a paste.
Heat coconut oil on medium heat in a pan big enough for all the chopped apples. Add the onions, add 1/2 tsp salt and fry on medium to low heat till they are soft.
Add the spice paste and stir around for 30 seconds. Add the apples, 1/2 cup of the sugar, 1 tsp salt and a cup of water. Stir well. Cover and let the mixture heat up.
Stir every 3 minutes or so and cook covered. After about 15 minutes the apples will begin to soften and let out their juice and the mixture will have a lot of liquid.
Rest of the cooking time can be uncovered for another 10 minutes or so. Taste and add more salt as needed. Depending on your taste add another 1/4 cup of sugar, this is needed especially if your apples were a little tart/sour to begin with.
When the mixture is mostly comprised of very soft, almost sauce-like apples it is done. There will be a few pieces that are not soft and that's fine it'll add texture to the chutney.
