Ketchup - Moon Style

I had promised myself I was done pickling and preserving for this year. I don’t seem to be able to stop. I may be making up for last year when I had a week old baby and I was quite certain that the US Open would not have been able to proceed if Tilly and I weren’t  sitting in our chair watching. Perhaps, making pickles is my subconscious excuse to have the US Open on in the background this year because there is no way I can think of to justify sitting in the chair to watch, and Tilly won’t sit still anymore.

Regardless of the reason, I am very happy that, while I was watching the US Open last year, Stephen overbuilt our basement shelves, buckling as they are under the weight of dill pickles and carrots, pickled beets, beet and horseradish relish, bread and butter pickles, blueberry chutney and syrup, mustard relish and salsa not-quite-verde. The freezer lid barely closes, filled with Mason jars full of roasted tomato sauce, strawberry freezer jam, pestos and bags and bags of summer fruit. 

I have vowed to be done after today’s effort, just in time for the US Open finals, so it seems a fitting end.

***

As most children I know do, Poppy has an almost obscene love affair with ketchup. She asks, and is denied mostly, for it on everything. I think that ketchup smeared on everything is almost criminal. Don’t get me wrong, I think it has its place. No fried potato is fully dressed unless it has been plunged in a puddle of the stuff but, I just don’t think it belongs everywhere.

When Feisty Chef tweeted that she was making pickles in The Chronicle Herald earlier this week, I had to have a peak. One of the recipes was an East Indian Tomato Relish that looked like it might just change the face of ketchup as us Moons know it. 

I thought about it all week and, after some careful thought as to what needed to be done and the tweaks I would make, today was the day. Poppy, gowned in her paint splattered Hello Kitty apron and determined to make her own ketchup, pulled a chair up to the counter and watched while I blanched and refreshed 40 tomatoes. She then set about peeling all forty. She wanted to chop the onions but the tears allowed me some elbow room while she counted out the lids for the jars.

I left out the peppers that Feisty Chef uses and changed the quantities of vinegar and sugar. I also doubled the recipe and I am glad I did. It seems like a ridiculously huge amount of tomatoes and onions until it cooks for the better part of three hours and is reduced to about one-third of the original volume.

I added some spices as well but not too much because my intended consumer is four. I also decided to whizz it up with the immersion blender for a smoother texture. It is a lot of prep work and a long cooking time but, I think, the results were very delicious. It is a little more chutney-like than ketchup and next year, I will likely lose some of the sugar but I am really pleased. I would let Poppy dip her grilled cheese in it for sure.

When Poppy tasted it, with her food critic nose crinkle, she said, ‘it tastes good but it isn’t really real ketchup, is it?’

I replied, ‘Isn’t it?’ Under my breath, I was saying, ‘Get used to it toots, there is eleven pints to eat.’

Ketchup - Moon Style inspired by the Feisty Chef’s East Indian Tomato Relish

40 large field tomatoes

8 large onions - chopped

1 tablespoon mustard powder

2 teaspoons five spice powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons pickling salt

7 cups sugar

6 cups apple cider vinegar

Boil a large pot of water. Score the bottom of the tomatoes. Plunge them into the boiling water for fifteen seconds or so. Remove with a slotted spoon and plunge them into a large bowl of ice water. You will have to do this in batches so you don’t over cook the tomatoes.

Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes. Put them into a 14-16 quart pot. Add the onions and bring to a boil. Boil for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the spices, sugar, salt and vinegar. Return to the boil and cook, lowering the heat gradually as the mixture thickens for about two hours. Stir as necessary. When it has cooked down to about six quarts, turn it off. Using an immersion blender, purée until smooth.

Pour or ladle into sterilized jars and seal. 

I then processed this for ten minutes in a water bath canner. You can use a big pot with a rack in the bottom and cover the jars with an inch of water.

This makes 11 pints.