What did the big tomato say to the little tomato? Ketchup.
My grandpa loved ketchup sandwiches. Even as a confessed ketchup lover, the thought of sweet, bright red ketchup heaped onto a hot dug bun and consumed sans hot dog makes my teeth hurt.
In most cultures, condiments like saurkraut, horseradish, pickled ginger, wasabi or kimchi, provide some sort of health benefit such as increasing digestibility or providing anti-microbial properties. Count on the overfed and undernourished North Americans to have our number one condiment be nothing more than liquid sugar.
I first discovered the transformational powers of ketchup at summer camp where, without it, the food was disgusting. My dad, who works in advertising, once mentioned that there was a psychology behind the love kids have for ketchup. He explained that kids put ketchup on everything as a way to control the colour and flavour of their food. I think we love ketchup as kids because bright red ketchup is just a pretty coloured sugar spread that our parents put on the table with dinner.
Of all the things I make from scratch, what seems to impress people the most is that I make my own ketchup. Making ketchup is far too easy to be overly impressed by so give it a try.
Here is my recipe. Note that it is a big fat recipe intended to make lots of ketchup when tomatoes are in season. If you are in to canning- well then get canning. If you are not adept at such things, put the ketchup into half litre mason jars and freeze it. And feel free to let me know of all the ways you use ketchup.
Tomato Ketchup
10 cups tomatoes (Roma preferred), chopped and seeded
2 large onions, chopped
3 large tart apples, cored and chopped
5 whole cloves
5 whole black peppercorns
5 pieces of whole or pinches of ground all spice
1 Tbs sea salt
1 cup apple cider vinegar
4 Tbs Sucanat (raw unprocessed sugar- if you don’t have any, I suppose you could use regular sugar)
2 sprigs fresh sage (or 1 Tbs dry)
1 sprig fresh rosemary (or 1/2 Tbs dry)
1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- Measure out all the spices (accept sage and rosemary) and tie them up in a little square of gauze, cheesecloth, or light cotton fabric (good use for an old but clean t-shirt) with a thread to form a little bag.
- Process tomatoes, onions and apples in a food processor or blender. As this is a large recipe, you have to do this in batches.
- Pour processed ingredients along with the spice bag into a pot. Simmer until volume is reduced into one half
- Chop the sage and rosemary and to the pot.
- Add salt, vinegar, sucanat and cayenne powder and bring to a boil again.
- Turn off the heat and pour hot ketchup into jars. If using sterilized jars, seal immediately. Otherwise let cool and then cover and store in fridge or freezer.
[...] first collected Added 18 Nov 08 from meghantelpnerblog.com Flag as inappropriate or [...]
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