May the sauce be with you

Kids love tomato sauce, and I’ve got no real problem with having a bottle from the supermarket in the fridge. The trouble is that supermarket sauces do contain a ridiculous amount of sugar, often including high-fructose corn syrup, which has a very intense sweetness produced through an equally intense manufacturing process. Isn’t sugar sweet enough for crying out loud?

So, with my kids away, it’s time to experiment. The aim is to have ketchup perfection by the time Spring, and another barbecue season, rolls around.

This is the recipe I tried for my first batch. It produced about 4–5 cups of good, tasty ketchup. As you can see, the colour is reddish brown, which is fine for me, but my boys will be expecting that nuclear red of commercial sauces. My hot, sweet chilli sauce from a previous post - Missing, making, and bringing the bling - is a very bright red, so next time I think I’ll include a roasted and peeled red capsicum. I will also try adding a granny smith apple for a smoother consistency.

Once I get the regular ketchup sorted, then I’ll turn to a slightly spicy barbecue sauce for my 11-year-old who likes a little more punch!

For this recipe, I used my slow cooker. Once I’d completed the saucepan and frying pan mixes, I popped it into the ceramic slow cooker insert, and refrigerated, covered. Just before going to bed, I pulled it out and placed it into the cooker, set it on low, and away we go!

Recipe - Ketchup

For the small saucepan

• .5 cup cider vinegar
• .5 cup vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (I like Lea & Perrins)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• .25 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 clove

For the frying pan

• 2 cans tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 onion
• 2 clove garlic

Method

In a small saucepan, heat the saucepan mixture, bringing to a boil, and stirring to dissolve the sugar and evenly distribute spice and mustard. Once this is achieved, turn off the heat.

Heat pan on medium, add oil, coarsely chopped onion and chopped garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, stirring. Raise heat to bring to boil, simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off heat.
Tip the frying pan mixture into your slow cooker. Pour the saucepan mixture through a strainer into the slow cooker also.

Cook on low for 8–9 hours.

(You can just as well simmer in a larger saucepan for about 3 hours)

Let the mixture cool a little, the put through a blender or smooth-up with a bar-mix.

Place into sterilised containers and refrigerate. What you don't bottle, you can freeze for several months.

There! Who says bachelors can't be saucy?

Bachelor stockings!

There is something about the very small effort over a very long time when making stock that just works!

With my under–9 football team’s game rained out (go the mighty Wanderers!) - and a rainy weekend ahead of me - I took the opportunity to go to my local butcher and spend a couple of bucks on bones. I already have three chickens worth of backs and wingtips in the freezer. So: Saturday is beef stock; Sunday is chicken stock.

For beef stock, the best bones to choose are marrow and chuck bones - the leg and the neck.

My meal plans for the beef stock I’m making today are: slow-cooked rendang danging (Indonesian beef curry), slow-cooked osso bucco with citrus and, for when my children come back from a holiday with their mother, spaghetti bolognese. I’ll have enough for another two meals at least, but don’t want to give myself a headache from thinking too far ahead!

For this recipe, which yields 2 litres of stock, you’ll need an 7 to 8 litre stockpot.

Recipe - brown beef stock

Ingredients

• 2 kilogram beef bones
• .25 cup olive oil
• 2 carrots
• 2 onions
• 2 stick celery
• 2 portabella mushrooms
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 litres water
• 5 black peppercorns (lightly crushed)
• 2 bay leafs
• 2 sprigs oregano

Method

1. Have your butcher cut the marrow and chuck bones into pieces. At home, remove any excess fat
2. Preheat oven 200°C (fan-forced) and place bones in a large baking tray, drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 15 minutes. Turn, then roast another 15 minutes
3. While the bones are browning, chop vegetables into chunky pieces
4. Heat for litres of water in a stock pot
5. When bones are done, remove them to the stock pot and add some water to the roasting pan to deglaze. Add bay leafs, oregano sprigs and pepper corns
6. Place chopped vegetables into the pan and return to oven. Cook for a further 15 minutes
7. Place vegetables into the stock pot and bring to boil for about 10 minutes. Reduce to simmer a slow boil - you need more of a boil than a simmer to make sure you extract all the marrow and other goodness from the bones
8. Over the next few hours, come back every 30 minutes or so to enjoy the aroma, and to skim the froth can scum that rises to the top. A slow boil for 4 hours is best, or a little higher for 2 is also ok.
9. When you’re ready, remove the big bits from the stock pot with tongs
10. Skim and strain through a muslin lined sieve into a clean container, before dividing, stir to get an even consistency at the end
11. Cool quickly by dividing stock into small containers - about 2 cups is good, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
12. Remove layer of fat, under which you will have fantastic, jelly consistency, super-tasty beef stock!Reseal
13. Label and date stock and freeze for up to 3 months