Day 74

Oh my God! I can’t believe I totally forgot to tell you about Rachel’s Homemade tomato ketchup. Now, when it comes to tomato ketchup, it has to be Heinz and nothing else will do. That was, of course, until I made Rachel’s homemade ketchup. Now that tomatoes are in season, there is an incredible opportunity to buy locally from your local stall or market to make one of the nicest, nicest, nicest recipes possible!

The recipe is from Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home cookbook and goes like this…

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
225g (80z) onions, peeled and roughly chopped
600g (1lb 6oz) tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
75ml (2¾ fl oz) white wine vinegar
75g (3oz) sugar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp ground all spice
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the onions and toss over a medium heat until cooked and a little golden. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes, until very soft.

Remove from the heat and whiz in a liquidiser or food processor. Pour through a sieve into a clean saucepan and simmer, uncovered and stirring regularly, for another 30 minutes, or until the mixture is thick.

Pour into sterilised jars or bottles and put the lids on. I use Kilner jars; put them through the dishwasher and use straightaway. Alternatively, you can put the jars in a saucepan of boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Kilner jars can be bought in a lot of supermarkets and I got mine in Supersavers and Dunelm.

I’m not saying to make this every time you need to ketchup but at least make this once this summer. It is absolutely gorgeous and you will be amazed at how you can make ketchup even nicer than Heinz and that is no easy feat! The first time I made this ketchup was about six years ago when we were having a family over for dinner so I made the children homemade chicken goujons using Rachel’s recipe with the ketchup and they loved the whole lot. Another time I made the ketchup was when Dear Husband had a friend around for dinner and the dinner guest actually asked if he could take the ketchup home. Of course, I said yes and he brought me back the jar when he was finished with it. For all the dishes I have ever made for all the many people who have eaten in our house, that has been the one and only time that anyone asked to take something home so, that alone, will tell you how good this recipe is. Go on, make it! Tomorrow, I am going to post the recipe for the chicken goujons so chat to you all then!