tomato heaven


we have been doing a bit of thrifty buying lately with the humble tomato. Firstly on a trip to Lederderg Gorge, we found ourselves at Jeff Jone's fruit and veggie stall in Bacchus Marsh where we bought a whole box of tomatoes for $5. Yikes! I hear you cry! So I had to make sauce, as in the sauce you put on snags, chops, chips or anything you like. One batch with Red Wine Vinegar & one batch with Balsamic. It's a great sauce.
Tomato Sauce:
1 tbs cloves
2 tbs whole allspice
1 tbs black peppercorns
Tie these in a square of muslin
5 kg tomatoes chopped up roughly
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbs ground ginger
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
30g salt
600g vinegar (I experiment with different ones to get different flavour ones, apple cider, malt, red wine, etc)
Put all these into your biggest non-reactive pot & bring it to the boil. Boil it steadily for 1 hour making sure that you stir from time to time to ensure that it doesn't stick to the bottom & burn.
Add 1 kg sugar & continue to boil for another 2 hours stirring from time to time.
Take out the muslin bag & squeeze out the juices. Blend the whole pot with a stick blender, & using a funnel, pour into sterilised bottles, cap & allow to cool.
Then skip shopper went to the vic market early on Saturday morning & bought another box of roma tomatoes (bigger box) for $10...that have sat waiting until last night - I couldn't be bothered doing it by myself. So last night, we got ourselves organised, 1st chopping board at one end, bucket for rotten bits, bucket with water for washing them, next chopping board to chop them up, then pot. We filled 2 huge pots - I know lust after one of those huge cauldrons. I also suddenly wanted to have music playing with people dancing around, beer and wine being drunk, children running around, food being eaten....a great tomato festival! Next year. We chopped, we cooked, we blended, we funnelled, we spilt, we put the crown seals on, I broke a bottle...not a good idea - but the red was a great red - we cleaned up, then sat down at 11pm & watch Scrubs, I had no idea that this was on at this time! Great show. I am tired, but have great bottles of tomato.