We are now into the 3rd week of our 3 week adventure and today is the day we came for...my beautiful friend Julia's wedding day! We've been to Vietnam, Singapore and are now in Bali and have had the best time, eaten a lot of incredible food that I will do my best to recreate for you, and spent time with amazing people.
In 4 days we will be back to reality and straight into cold weather so I'm making the most of beach dresses, sandals and summery cocktails while I still can. And to keep you going until I can post photos and tell you all about our adventure, here is this week's homemade recipe.
This sauce is lucky it's so delicious. I won't go into too much detail but the 1 hour it took me to make this sauce involved using a vacuum cleaner to rescue 2 tomatoes from behind my chest freezer and accidentally deleting ALL the photos I took of the process for this sauce. Sigh. But at least I now know that my vacuum cleaner is dual purpose. Win.
Anyway, this sauce is so easy to make that it doesn't matter. It's basically a matter of blanching the tomatoes to remove the skins and then throwing them, an onion and some flavours into a pot and cooking away. And in the end you have this fab tomato sauce that leaves anything else for dead.
It goes perfectly on a burger or with fries. Or with whatever you put sauce on, which in Josh's case is just about everything!
Homemade Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg tomatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Ground black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- Pinch of each mixed spice , chilli powder & ground coriander (to taste)
Instructions
- Cut a small cross in the ends of the tomatoes. This will make it easier to peel the skins off. Bring a pot of water to the boil, add tomatoes and bring to the boil again. After a few minutes test to see if the skins will peel off easily. If they don't, cook for another few minutes. Drain the boiling water and fill up the pot with cold water. Using tongs/a fork (they will be really hot) peel the skins off the tomatoes and discard.
- Add the peeled tomatoes and all other ingredients to a pot and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaf and then using an immersion blender, whizz up the sauce until it is smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender you can transfer the sauce to a regular blender instead.
- Continue to cook for another 20 minutes until sauce has thickened.
- Allow to cool then refrigerate. Sauce will keep in the fridge for a few weeks. It will also freeze well.
Jan says
A great recipe for dealing with small batches of tomatoes. I followed the exact recipe and instructions and the results were perfect. Thanks Laura.
Kelly Walker says
Tastes great. Very close to store brought ketchup
paul sefont says
stuck to the recipe tastes great looks exactly the same.
Michelle says
Do you think you could do this then store it in preserving jars so it's lasts longer, was thinking about doing a big batch?
Laura says
Hi Michelle, I have never preserved this recipe so I would be unsure as to how it would go sorry! I don't think it would have enough sugar/vinegar in to keep it for long enough though. I prefer to stick to tested recipes for preserving and keeping at room temperature!
Ross says
I preserve this recipe in jars to use predominantly in pasta. I have not had any problems yet. I sterilise the jars and lids and I always make sure that the lids pop when they cool.
Liz says
Sorry how much water do you put in final stage? Or do you drain before blending? Have ended up with some very watery sauce...
Amit says
No water in the second step, the cold water is to cool down the tomato, stop that frm cooking further.
Trent matika says
I have a theory as to what may have happened...
When the skin is boiled enough to peel off, you’re to drain the pot and fill it with cold water. This cold water allows you to not have hot steam burning you as you peel the tomatoes. After peeling, you’re meant to put into either another pot or drain all the water again and THEN add all the other ingredients amd bring it to a boil, turn down to a simmer for 20 minutes and you should have some yummy tomatoe sauce . I tried it and it is beautiful
Sweet Tea Sweetie says
Looks so delicious!!! That's creative using your vacuum to rescue the tomatoes!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
Laura says
Haha thanks Kari! I was at a loss...there was no way I could move that freezer!
Pretend it's a Donut says
looks so good. and I'm not even a big fan of ketchup!! I even pinned it haha. that's how good this looks. 🙂
Laura says
Hey, that's awesome thanks so much!
hermionespantry says
I hope you had a great holiday and get home safe! I have always wanted to make my own tomato ketchup so I will definitely be making this with our homegrown tomatoes, thank you for the recipe!
H x
http://www.hermionespantry.wordpress.com
Laura says
Thanks Hermione! We are home safe now...feels a little strange. Super early to bed tonight!
Mel @ The Creative Fox Den says
This looks delicious! And your photos are beautiful. I came here from Peeled and I'm so glad that I came across your blog! Keep up the great work
Laura says
Thanks so much Mel! I'm off to check out your blog now too =)
Living Well With Joce says
Reblogged this on Living Well With Joce and commented:
Being a girl who likes to drown everything in sauce, I'm going to definitely give this a go..and I think you should too!
Laura says
Thanks so much for the re blog
..hope you like it 🙂
saretap says
This looks so simple but tasty and nutritious. I'm going to add this to my list of staple sauces - thanks!
Laura says
It was so simple! I hope you enjoy it!
Sarah Hartin says
This sauce looks good, have been thinking of doing this for a while, you made it look more doable
Laura says
I actually couldn't believe how easy and tasty this was...you should definitely try it!
Sarah Hartin says
Think I will, I'm still saving old bottles 🙂
Caryn Hellberg says
This looks delicious - definitely a plan for the million tomatoes in my fridge!
It would be so good for kids too, much better than the nasty stuff off the shelf, and a good way to introduce them to chilli 😉
Laura says
I couldn't agree more...I'm all for eliminating nasty stuff, especially when it comes to kids!
Whisked Away says
Your trip sounds absolutely dreamy! Enjoy! And I've never thought of making homemade ketchup, I'm sure it tastes delicious without all the added preservatives. Win, win!
Laura says
Thanks, it has been so much fun! Very mixed feelings about going home! It was the perfect way to use up a few extra tomatoes before we went away!