SPICY LOW-SUGAR KETCHUP, No Preservative, make ahead

NICE AS BRANDS ONLY HEALTHIER. No-preservatives

(written June 2015)

                                  

With all the publicity recently about sugar and children's obesity, 67goingon50's efforts to develop a low-or-no-sugar ketchup hotted up. What was needed was something without sugar substitutes which can be frozen. This recipe, adapted from well-known fish chef Nathan Outlaw, has just a tablespoon and a half of sugar and is very good, indeed -- spicy with a great texture. Treat it right and it will end up not unlike our usual favorite tomato sauce!

Not exactly easy-peasy but with a few uncomplicated steps, this one rewards the effort.

Cost:  minimum £1

Makes:   about 4 ounces/120 grams (but easily doubled)

Ingred:

• ½ med red onion, chopped small (red are sweeter than white)
• 390 gm tomatoes (a supermarket pkt.) washed & coarsely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, grated or minced
• 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper, as fresh as possible
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp cumin
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 1/2 lge bay leaf
• 1 - 2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar, to taste
• 1/4-1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar (malt is ok) or red grape juice

Method:

1. Spray a medium saucepan generously with olive oil 
2. Add onion; cook for 10-15 min. over med heat, stirring occasionally until soft and translucent
3. Stir in tomatoes, pepper, garlic, thyme, cinnamon,  cumin, allspice, sugar, salt & pepper and bay leaf.
4. Reduce heat to med-low; cook until tomatoes break down and liquid is being released (about 15 mins)
5. Continue cooking until tomato liquid has gone and tomatoes start to catch (5-10 mins).  
6. Add vinegar/grape juice, turn up heat and boil for 5 minutes, stirring vigorously
7. Take off heat.  Remove bay leaf.  
8. Blend until smooth.  
9. Place a sieve (the kind used to sift flour) over a bowl so it rests on the bowl's edges. Push the sauce through it with a ladle or spatula, making sure you get all the sauce on the underside of the sieve. (Tomato skins and other bits will be left in the bottom.)  
10. (If you want to skip step 9, the tomatoes will be ok'ish but the flavour and appearance is really enhanced by the sieving.)
11. Freeze in family sized portions in sandwich bags; freeze flat so they take up less room
12. The ketchup will keep in the fridge for four days or in the freezer for a month.

Copyright:This recipe has been developed by B  Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may not be reproduced, in any form, without the author's written permission.