Food: Tomato and Jalapeño Ketchup

With the tomato plants all swept away by the dreaded blight earlier in the week this is probably going to be my last batch of red cooking for the year. So much of what comes out of the kitchen relies on these simple red fruits and yet we only get to harvest them and eat them fresh for, at best, three months of the year. Yes, I know, I could just go and buy some any time, grown in hothouses or freighted in from somewhere else, but that is not my philosophy. And they never taste as good as ones straight from the vine, either!

My plan had been to smoke a batch of red jalapeños as we both love the earthy flavour of chipotles but the harvest is unlikely to ripen significantly before the first frost, so maybe next year. Instead, I'll be pickling green jalapeños on the weekend and the handful or fully ripe fruits will be perfect in a batch of Tomato and Jalapeño Ketchup. Most of the tomatoes have gone into passata, either simple sieved or rich roast, and now I reckon I have enough for essential use until next year (some 25 litres!) the remainder of the crop can go into making condiments and pickles. Fun food.

So, to the recipe. This is adapted from a Jamie Oliver Ketchup Recipe which I use as a base for various sauces.


Tomato & Jalapeño Ketchup

Makes around 2.5 litres so plenty to give away to friends.

Ingredients
2 large onions
1 medium aubergine
Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger (Powdered ginger can be used if desperate - the flavour will be less warm and subtle)
4 cloves garlic
6-8 red jalapeños
Very large bunch of fresh basil, stalks and leaves
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
5 cloves
1 tsp crushed black peppercorns
salt to taste
olive oil for sweating off the veg
2 kilos very ripe tomatoes
400ml red wine vinegar
180g sugar

Method

Chop the onion, garlic, aubergine, jalapeños and basil stalks coarsely. Add to a large pan along with the coriander seeds and cloves and sweat off with a good slug of olive oil until soft. Add the halved tomatoes and 700ml of water. Bring up to a boil and then simmer until reduced by a half - easily a good half an hour.

Black seeds from my own saved cross of Big Jim chillies which add extra bite to the jalapeños

Add the basil leaves (what a smell!) and salt to taste and then put the whole lot through a liquidiser. Push it through a sieve to get all the bits out; Jamie recommends doing this twice but being essentially lazy, I don't. The second passing through the sieve will make for a more silky ketchup.

Still steaming!

Return the passed puree to the cleaned pan and add the sugar and vinegar, stir until the sugar is dissolved and the bring back up to a simmer. Allow to reduce until a good thick ketchup consistency has been achieved. Stir from time to time and make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan. A burnt flavour note is not one we are looking for! Check the seasoning - consider salt and sugar at this stage.

Pour into sterilised jars or bottles and seal immediately. It should keep in a cool dark place for 6 months (given the chance). Water bathing the bottles will extend the shelf life. Refrigerate once open.

And apart from possibly one more batch of sweet pickled green tomatoes, that should be it for the year. Roll on late June and the first fresh tomatoes of 2016. Although before that will be the arrival of the seed catalogues and the continued search for the perfect tomato.