So. I think I left off last week with the word "condiments".
I had big plans. Big, big plans.
But as someone with a job and a family and the usually ups and downs of everyday modern life (like just being tired), I didn't come to the computer today with The Joy of Condiments in my back pocket.
I did make my own ketchup.
If you make your own ketchup will it taste like Heinz? No. Not in the least.
All the sweeteners in the world will not create the texture, color, flavor that is Heinz ketchup.
It is very nice, though to have a little something in the refrigerator that you don't have to worry about. I roasted some potatoes, cut like steak fries, tossed with squash oil and salt before
putting them in the oven and served them with the ketchup.
Had some people over. No one complained.
Here's the recipe:
- 8 large tomatoes, chopped-
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup cider vinegar (made from wine turned to vinegar)
Preparation
Purée tomatoes with juice in a blender until smooth. Cook onion until dark brown. Add garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 8 minutes. Add spices and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring frequently, 1 minute. Add tomato purée, maple syrup, and vinegar and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until very thick, 45 to 55 minutes (stir more frequently toward end of cooking to prevent scorching).
End-of-season tomatoes that have no clue they're on their way to the ketchup factory...
Purée ketchup in blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Chill at least 2 hours (for flavors to develop).
***When I caramelize onions, I let them go quite dark from years of Indian cooking. I highly recommend doing so for this recipe as it gives it an amazingly deep flavor. Even a little scorch on the bottom of the pan in the beginning is okay.
Notice the scorch. A reason for any french chef to cry but a joy for any Indian mom.On a side note, I've been eating bread this week from Bobolink Dairy and Bakehouse. They're at my local farmer's markets many days a week and we filmed some footage there as well.
The bread I've been eating is their Flaxseed Armadillo. It is leavened with starter only (no commercial yeast) and at Bobolink, they know where all of their flour is from. All of it. Usually, I can't eat bread. Love it but I always feel crappy afterwards. Get puffy, even. Not with this bread.
Which brought me and Johanna to have a conversation about "Round Up Ready".
And man, it's freaking scary. In a nutshell---and I urge you to google this---Monsanto created an herbicide that kills everything around the GMO wheat. Obviously, the chemical called Round Up is left behind and the wheat flour most used is contaminated by it. Okay'd by the FDA, Round Up is shown to cause miscarriges in all animals it was tested on.
I feel fine eating Bobolink bread.
First major find on my thirty days of traceability.