This months challenge was hosted by John from Eat4Fun. The challenge, to delve into what was for me, the unchartered waters of food preservation. The results - ketchup.
It all started with some tomatoes, olive oil and a sprinkling of some form of herbage. Being down on basil or parsley greenery was outsourced from garlic we're growing. Garlic shoots proved to be quite a revelation being that they gave all the aromatics of garlic but not so pungent that the sweetness of the tomatoes was lost all together.
The halved tomatoes were baked at 170C for about a hour and a half till wrinkly and lightly coloured.
Next step involved sweating one chopped onion and two grated cloves of garlic, which were then added to the roasted tomatoes, two tins of chopped tomatoes, a cup of sugar, about a third of a cup of vinegar, with salt and pepper to taste. The bubbly mix was then pureed till smooth and reduced till thick
Finally our cupboard full of jars and bottles was put to good use. My assortment of bottles were boiled in water for about 30 minutes till sterile.
Then our bubbly batch of tomato ketchup was decanted into the steamy bottles. Perfect way to preserve fresh tomatoes. I'm seeing lots of bbq's in our future.