by Weyalan on Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:33 pm
Almost Jamie's Ketchup
I haven't posted a recipe for a while, and this isn't strictly a curry, but it is damn tasty and a little spicy...
...I watched Jamie Oliver on the telly, making ketchup, the other week and it inspired me to do the same (sure, he is a bit of a tosser - I like to think of him as "the Cockney Cock-head", but his enthusiasm for cooking is contagious and I do like his style of dishes). Anyway, of course I neglected to write his recipe down, so I did my own version, loosely based on what I could remember of his... and it tastes pretty damn good, though I do say so myself. I happened to have a whole bunch of rather over-ripe tomaotoes - the last of the summer home-grown that needed using, so there was a variety of types.
Ingredients
1.5kg tomatoes (approx), ripe, roughly chopped
4 medium onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 fresh chillis, chopped (vary quantity according to taste)
2 red capsicum, chopped
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tom puree
300g red wine vinegar (approx)
150g soft brown sugar (approx)
1 large bunch of fresh basil, chopped (including stalks)
2" cinammon stick
6 whole cloves
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 dollop olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
Method
In a large thick bottom pan (I used a cast iron wok), heat the oil and soften the onions over a medium heat. After a couple of minutes add the garlic & chilli & cinnamon stick. Roughly crush the coriander & fennel seeds in mortar & pestle, add them too, and the cloves and and fry for another minute, then add the capsicum & chopped tomatoes. Fry over a low heat for 5 minutes then add the tinned tomatoes and half the basil (the stalks and larger leaves in particular).
Simmer gently for another 10 or 15 minutes then add the vinegar and brown sugar... the quantities I gave are only approximate guides... use your taste buds to get the balance of sweetness/tartness that best suits your palate. Also add the salt & pepper at this stage.
When you are happy with the taste balance of vinegar & sugar, add the remaining basil & continue the simmering for another 30 miutes or so (or longer, it doesn't really matter), stirring occasionally.
Whizz the whole lot up in a blender or food processer (remove the cinammon stick first). When you have whizeed it, ladle it into a strainer and use the ladle to "smoosh" it through the strainer, back into a pan (it needs to go back in a pan because it should go back onto a low heat so that it is almost boiling hot when it gets poured into bottles). After each smooshing, you will be left with a pulpy/woody mess in the strainer - you can discard this (good for compost!).
It is vitally important to sterilise your jars & bottles. There are lots of ways to do this - you can put them in a pan of boiling water for 15 minutes, or you can wash them and put them in the oven to dry / sterilise (note - don' make the oven too hot otherwise you risk breaking the jars when you pour the ketchup in).
It is also important that you use jars with a good airtight seal. My particular favorite are the Grolsch beer bottles - the large ones with the fancy re-sealable pop-top thingy (but make sure you remove the top bit with the red rubber seal before putting the bottle in the oven to sterilise).
Decant the hot ketchup into the hot bottles and seal immediately. It is important that both the ketchup and the bottle are hot - the bottle should be too hot to touch. Using hot bottles and hot ketchup and then sealing the jars immediately will mean that as the bottle and ketchup cool down, the ketchup will shrink and effectively create a vacuum in the bottle, which will significantly reduce the chances of the ketchup going off/moldy. It is also best to fill the bottle right to the top.
You what?
