Thursday, February 24, 2011

Ketchup - the number one condiment in the world!

I have found this recipe time and again posted in different places! I have made it twice with store bought tomatoes and with homegrown tomatoes... both were great, but I think I like the homegrown taste better, plus I know how those tomatoes were grown as opposed to the store bought ones from South America! LOL!

I am copying it and pasting it with pics from the article I found it in..

It's a little time consuming, but OMG is it worth every minute!!!! 


Ketchup
From the February 2009 issue of Saveur
KOD notes in parentheses
Ingredients
4 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
¼ teaspoon celery seeds
¼ teaspoon chile flakes
¼ teaspoon whole allspice
2 pounds tomatoes, roughly chopped (
I used a 28-ounce can of tomato puree)
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ cup white vinegar (
I used white wine vinegar)
5 tablespoons brown sugar
1 medium onion, chopped
1
anaheim chile, chopped (I couldn’t get my hands on one, so used a poblano chile in its place)
1 clove garlic
Tools:
cheesecloth

Method
Wrap cloves, bay leaf, cinnamonm, celery seeds, chile flakes and allspice in a layer of cheesecloth; tie into a bundle and put into a four-quart saucepan over medium-high heat along with tomatoes, salt, vinegar, sugar, onion and Anaheim chile. Smash garlic and add. Cook mixture until onions and chiles are very soft, about 40 minutes, stirring along the way.

Remove spice bundle and puree sauce in a blender or food processor until smooth. (A hand-held immersion blender would work here as well..) Note: Be careful of spattering, as sauce is hot. I used a towel to cover opening of food processor.
Strain sauce through a mesh sieve. Pour strained sauce into a four-quart saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 30 minutes. Add more salt, sugar or vinegar, if you like.
Transfer ketchup to a glass jar. Set aside and let cool. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate for up to three weeks.
Makes 2- 2 ½ cups.


Homemade Ketchup (adapted from Kim O’Donnel’s version in the Washington Post)
Spices
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 whole cloves
- 1/4 Teaspoon whole allspice
- 1/4 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 Teaspoon celery salt (Kim used celery seeds, but the salt worked for me and I had it on hand.)
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons salt
Other stuff- 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes (If you want to use fresh you need about 2 pounds)
- 1/2 Cup white wine vinegar or white vinegar
- 5 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 poblano chile, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
Put your spices (minus the salt and celery salt, they will just fall through) on a section of cheesecloth and tie it up.
ketchupspices_500.jpg
Throw that in your pot with all your other ingredients.
ketchupreadytocook_500.jpg
This needs to simmer for 40 minutes.  Stir it every 10 minutes or so.  All of your veggies should be very tender.  Take out your spice package and toss it.  Then you need to puree all of the tomatoes and veggies.  I only have a small little processor so I had to work in batches.  No big deal though.


*NOTE FROM JOE: I used my blender, works fine!
pureeketchup_500.jpg
Then you need to push all of this through a metal mesh.  Most of it will go through if you work it with a spatula, but you’ll be left with about 10% leftover gunk.  This gunk is very tasty actually, so you could eat it, but it’s also fine to just toss it. *NOTE FROM JOE - IT IS SO GOOD< SAVE IT AN USE AS A TOPPING ON SOMETHING OR EAT IT PLAIN!!! YUM!!! 
leftovermush_500.jpg
You’ll end up with this, ketchup-like liquid!
ketchupthroughmesh_500.jpg
Put that back on the heat and simmer for about 20-30 minutes until it starts to thicken.  At this point you can season to your liking.  It might need a bit more vinegar, or sugar, or salt.  Then transfer it to your jar and let it cool.  You can store it in the fridge in a sealed container for a few weeks without a problem.
It’s awesome with things like potatoes.
ketchupandpotatoes_500.jpg

Sweet and Spicy Mustard

Ever have a Pastrami Sandwich or a Bratwurst, and wish you had some Deli style mustard, instead of the plan yellow mustard that is in the fridge? Well you can whip this up pretty fast in a blender at home and make enough for a few dogs, or multiply the recipe and make a whole jar of it for everyone to enjoy!




Sweet and Spicy Mustard
3 tablespoon of mustard powder
3 tablespoon of sugar
3/4 Cup distilled vinegar
2 tablespoon of flour
2 teaspoon of turmeric
1 tablespoon mustard seed








Instructions:

All you do is combine everything in the blender and hit puree..  mix it for a few seconds, open the top, scrape the sides and mix again till all the flour and powder is dissolved.  

Making your own mustard is really cheap and tastes much better than the store bought ones. 

Makes a little over a 3/4 cup of mustard. 

You may not like it right out of the blender, but letting it sit in the fridge overnight or a bit longer enhances the taste. If you like something with a bit of spice to it, and a little sweetness then you will love this mustard! 

Again using ingredients that you can buy anywhere. You also get a few anti-oxidants from the turmeric used in this recipe.. so you could even say it's better for you that store bought mustard.. 

Chocolate Sauce - Homemade and tastes great!

I don't know about you, but I enjoy some chocolate sauce on my ice cream! I was talking to someone one day about making chocolate sauce and she said you don't make it you buy it... well I did some research as I always do and found this awesome recipe!


Homemade Chocolate Syrup


Ingredients:

2 Cups of Sugar ( Preferably from Organic)
1 Cup of Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (not dutch processed)
¼ Teaspoon of Salt (Kosher)
1 Cup of Water
3 Teaspoons of Vanilla ( You can reduce this if you like)






Instructions:

  • In a 2 quart pot, combine the sugar and cocoa powder, stir together and get all the lumps out.
  • Add the salt, then 1 cup of water.
  • Mix well.
  • Heat to a boil on medium heat.
  • Continue to boil until the sauce thickens a bit, about 5 minutes. Stirring to keep it from overflowing.
  • Remove from heat.
  • Allow to cool to room temperature or around 100°F.
  • Add vanilla to taste ( I almost prefer it without any vanilla).


Place into a bottle and refrigerate. (I use a catsup bottle I found at the 99 cent store – comes with a spout, but you can just use an old syrup bottle, that way no one knows it's homemade unless you tell them! LOL!

Keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Can be used to make Chocolate Milk,  ice cream topping, garnish a dessert dish, hot chocolate, pancakes and anywhere else you normally use chocolate syrup!

The cost of this syrup is about half the the store bought stuff and has a much better taste, without High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)


Condiments

Hi Everyone (all three of ya at this point in time.. lol)

I thought I would delve into the land of condiments and want to share some of the recipes I use to make my own Mustard, Ketchup, Mayonnaise, syrups and possibly some other things..

My reason for making my own is a few things... first of all the processed foods you buy have tons of sugar and other things in them like "natural" food coloring.. (did you know one of those "RED" colorings is actually made from crushed beetles?) and since every damn dressing and mayonnaise is made with SOYBEAN OIL these days.. well I decided that I will make my own dressing using something healthier than soybean oil. 

Just so you know I am opposed to Soy products, unless they are fermented... there are many reasons for this and you can read about them on the Internet. I try to steer clear of Soy, HFCS, Microwaves, and a few other things that I will probably mention over a span of time. 

Ok so today we are going to make something totally sweet! 

So let's get started on this section of Condiments with some home made chocolate sauce! 

Sorry!!!

Those of you that have been "following" my blog know that I have been kind of lazy about it since June last year!  Obviously! LOL !

Well it's time to get started on a new batch of things... I will see what I have posted and what I have not posted. I have one or two items that were ready way back when I was active on this blog, but things happened that took me away from my focus on this.. Hopefully I am back at least monthly!

So here goes... how about starting with something sweet?