Tomato sauce time

We're still harvesting loads of huge beefsteak tomatoes (Brandywines) which is great, and keeping me very busy in the kitchen! I've frozen lots and also made a basic sauce (for pasta and also pizza once reduced down to thicken it up).

I've made several batches which are all now stored away in the pantry for use in the coming year.

My trusty electric Fowler's Vacola preserving kettle (water bath unit) is doing a grand job and makes preserving a lot easier. Once done it can easily be emptied of the water using the tap on the side. It was a great score from a charity shop, a fraction of the price of a new one.

We had some of the sauce tonight in homemade meatballs and spaghetti, if I do say so myself it was delicious! You just can't beat homegrown tomatoes.

Homemade sweet chilli sauce

As I mentioned in a recent post, I had Thai chillies in the fridge to use up. Today I made up some sweet chilli sauce with them.
It's very easy to do.
In a food processor chop up about 15 chillies (take off the stalks first obviously!), and then add 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of white vinegar and about 2 Tbsp chopped garlic. Whizz. Tip into pan and heat up stirring to dissolve sugar then boil for about 10 mins.

Add chopped coriander, about 1/2 cup:

Use funnel to fill a sterilised bottle with screw-cap lid.

These ingredients make just one 330ml bottle, but you can obviously increase to make more.
Store in the fridge.

Tomato sauce time

Finally I got enough ripe tomatoes and the time to make my tomato sauce! Similarly to Laura over at Our Wee Farm I loosely based my recipe on a combination of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe that I actually found at The Paupered Chef and this tomato sauce recipe that I had in my recipe collection. It's just fantastic to be able to harvest these great big juicy ripe Brandywine Pinks. They will definitely be featuring in the garden next year.

So we start off with 6kgs worth of tomatoes:

Ingredients at the ready

Pressing the tomatoes and onion through the sieve
I found this process easier by whizzing it in the food processor first (post photo)

The pressed/sieve juice with added vinegar, sugar
and spices goes back in the pan

After much bubbling it's thick thicker!

So 6kgs of fruit produced 11 1/2 300g bottles - several hours later..
PHEW!

But hey, it's delicious!

Tomato sauce recipe

31/2 kgs tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup sugar
1 cup white vinegar
1 1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 stick cinnamon (about 4 cm)
1 tsp celery salt (I left this out as I didn't have any)
4 tsp salt

Wash, peel, core and quarter tomatoes. Let them stand in a colander to drain off excess liquid.
In a large preserving pan mix tomatoes, onion and cayenne. Bring to the boil, cook until tomatoes are soft (about 15mins), stirring occasionally. Put through a sieve and press to extract juice. Add sugar and return to pan. Bring back to boil then simmer for about 1 1/2 hours until reduced by half.

In another pan combine vinegar, cloves and cinnamon (and celery salt if you have it). Cover and bring to boil. Remove from heat and let stand.

Strain spiced vinegar mixture into the tomato sauce. Add salt. Simmer until you reach the desired consistency (about 30 mins). Stir often.

Pour into hot jars and seal. Process in boiling water bath for 10 mins. (Leave a small headspace in jars if doing this).

N.B. I don't remember where this recipe came from so sorry I can't provide a reference.

Homemade mayonnaise

I ran out of our usual mayonnaise and so decided to try making it at home. My first effort was OK, I didn't have a food processor so used good old fashioned elbow grease beating the oil in. The result was a very runny mayonnaise. The recipe I tried used a whole egg, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and olive oil.





This morning I made another version but in a small food processor, using 2 egg yolks, powdered mustard, vinegar and olive oil. It wasn't any thicker but it was a lot easier than beating by hand! I'm not sure how to achieve the consistency I want. I preferred the flavour of the first recipe too.



Anyway, it wasn't hard to make so I will keep trying until I can find a recipe for a thicker mayonnaise.

Tomato sauce recipe

OK we have a big tomato harvest this year so I've made some sauce with the following recipe.

3.5 kg ripe tomatoes, I used Roma not too juicy nice and fleshy

1 chopped onion

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 cup sugar

1 cup white vinegar

A spice bag containing about 1 tbspn whole cloves, 1 piece of cinnamon broken up, 1 tbpsn whole peppercorns, anything else you fancy.

Method:

Wash and peel the tomatoes, remove cores and chop up. If they are juicy put them in a sieve to drain them before putting in a large saucepan or preserving pan. Mix in onion and cayenne. Bring to boil, simmer until tomatoes are soft (about 20 mins). Stir occasionally. Puree using a hand-held blender or put in a food processor.

Return tomato puree to pan, add sugar, vinegar and spice bag, bring back to boil and simmer for about 2hrs or until the mixture is reduced by about half. It should be quite thick.

Pour into sterilised bottles and seal. Keep in the fridge.