Now this one is tricky, because this takes time, but then, it is worth the effort, it is home made, made of your taste, no preservatives, and full with nice veggies and herbs. This time I come with my home made ketchup recipe, which is burger’s, fries’, meat’s, pizza’s and other nice food’s complementary asset. I love it. I used to work at a bistro for a whole summer season before got back to the advertising industry’s madness and I learned ther from the chef who made this every week freshly for the guests and so I needed to do that week by week.
To be honest, this is all subjective and based on a persons’ taste. For me it is every time a bit different, but this is how I did it last time, check it you, it is sort of 2-3 hours thing, but you can put it away and store it for about 2-3 months, if you have it in a really clean bottle in a cold and dark room.
Ingredients for about 3-4 half litre bottles:
1 kg ripe tomatoes
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
1 small can of tomato puree
3 garlic cloves
5-600 gr ripe carrots
200 gr celery, or 2-3 celery stalk
2-3 medium onion (normal or purple)
4-5 cl balsamic vinegar
2 dl red wine (dry)
3-4 tbsp virgin olive oil
50-100 gr brown sugar
salt, pepper
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
the amount of seasoning is up to your taste: cloves, cinnamon, coriander seed, oregano, basil, parsley
and how to prepare? let’s see :)
1. You need a big fat pan in which every ingredients fits in easily and heat up on medium.
2. Over the olive oil you braise the roughly chopped onions and garlic, and after they look glassy you season it with the cinnamon, coriander seeds, oregano, pepper and fry it for a little less than a minute constantly stirring it.
3. Into with the carrots, celery (stalks) chopped into 1-2 cm big cubes/slices and add the brown sugar. After 5-6 minutes of occasionally stirring add the smashed garlic and the tomato puree and the Worcestershire sauce, than the red wine, than add a pinch of salt and the chopped ripe tomatoes.
4. Add the canned tomatoes, and the cinnamon, oregano and basil and red wine vinegar and let it slowly cook for 1,5-2 hours, depending on how much time you have.
5. Add the fresh parsley and pour it into a food processor (glass with heat resistance) or use a blender. If you want a rougher, than just simply put it back on the stove and taste it, add salt, pepper, maybe chilli if you feel so and than you are done, ready, cool it up and enjoy. If you are a more sophisticated person, you can press it through a filter and than put it away into a clean, sterilised bottle.
One nice tip, never use used spoon, fork, knife, anything because you will bust all of it within days. ;)
