Homemade Ketchup!

OK. Pioneer project number one. I managed to scrounge 2 1/2 more lbs of tomatoes off the plants, mostly cherry, about half of them sun gold tomatoes. Sun gold tomatoes are sweet, which I find challenging. I was thinking about making a tomato jam recipe that was recommended by a friend, but I didn’t have vodka (!) and I don’t know, the idea of putting two cups of sugar into tomatoes kind of puts me off. Almost as much as going out in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon and buying vodka. I did want something that would be spicy and sweet.

One thing I have been wanting to do is make ketchup. I looked around on the web at several simple recipes. The ones I’ve seen in the past have called for tons of tomatoes and lots and lots of time. I wasn’t really into that.

I had settled on “curried ketchup” and a simple recipe. I started by roasting the tomatoes. But as I was getting ready to put it together, I realized that surely Amy Thielen would have something to say about this! And yes, in her “projects” section, she has a recipe for ketchup.

I didn’t follow it exactly, but I did use her spice sachet.

Basically, I did this:

Quick Homemade Spicy Ketchup

adapted from Amy Thielen’s “The New Midwestern Table”

2 1/2 lbs of tomatoes
small onion
1 inch ginger, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp sea salt

spice sachet, wrapped in a square of cheese cloth and secured:
cinnamon stick
1 tsp allspice berries
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp coriander
1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar

Roast tomatoes for 15 minutes in 350 degree oven until collapsed and shriveled. Cool slightly. Put in a blender with ginger, garlic, salt, onion, and puree until it’s really smooth.

Pour into a cast iron skillet through a fine mesh sieve (a food mill would be better, but this works for me), pushing to get all the liquids into the pan. Add the sachet and simmer on a very low temperature for 1-2 hours, until it’s the consistency you want. Thielen puts it through a blender again, but I just put mine into a jar (I got a little over a half-pint) and into the fridge. It should keep a couple of months (longer in the freezer). I don’t think it will last that long.