Ketchup is so much more than just a sauce made of pureed tomatoes. It’s spicy, sweet and a tad bit sour and tastes great with most deep-fried snacks. This is why this recipe is one of the first in my new category: Fry-day!

With these ingredients, you get about 500ml ketchup, depending on how far you let it boil down. Please note that there are no preservatives in it! Especially if you use fresh tomatoes instead of passata. The ketchup can be kept in the refrigerator, in a sterilized bottle or jar for about three months.

Ingredients

• 1 liter passata or 1,5 kg ripe tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 red bell pepper
• 30 ml lemonjuice
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon or 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp piment/allspice
• 3 cm fresh ginger or 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp seasalt
• 80 gr brown sugar
• 1 tbsp paprika powder
• 1 can tomato puree
• 1 tl mustard powder
• cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt to taste

Puree the tomatoes in a food processor and pour into a saucepan. Cut the vegetables, onion and ginger into chunks so that it can also be pureed in the food processor.

Pour everything into the pan and add the spices and lemon juice, stir briefly and let it cook for 1 hour over low heat. Put a lid on the pan so the steam can escape but your furnace stays clean.

Strain the ketchup in a large, wide pan. If you have it you can use a food mill, so that you minimize the mess and work faster. I didn’t have one, so my trusty sieve had to do all the work. That also worked fine, it just took a little longer.

Add the tomato puree and simmer the sauce over low heat for about 45 minutes to thicken.

Once the ketchup has simmered to the desired thickness, you can bring it to taste with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.

Keep a clean jar or bottle at hand, which you fill with boiling water. Let this stand to sterilize the bottle so that the ketchup can be kept longer. Pour out the water and fill the bottle with hot ketchup and close. This way, you create a vacuum in the bottle and it will spoil less quickly. Can be kept in the refrigerator for about 3 months.

Happy Fry-day!