RECOVERED RECIPE (Spicy Tomato Catsup, originally posted September 2, 2024) –
As many of you know, I lost the prior eleven months of melinmac cooks posts in September 2024, and I’m now trying to rebuild what I’ve lost. This is one of those posts. Luckily I saved all of the pictures on my hard drive, but the content of the lost posts, including recipes, are not recoverable. At this point I’m not trying to recreate anything more than the recipes with pictures. Hopefully I’ll build it all back over time. Thanks for being here!
A few things I remember from the original post –
This recipe was inspired by a childhood memory – eating “fancy” ketchup at Seddon’s with my parents, my sister, my Nan Nan, and my Pap Pa. I call this “catsup” rather than “ketchup” because, well, I like cats. Actually either term is correct, but I think ketchup is more widely used.
When you’re cooking the tomatoes and spices down, you’ll know that it’s become Spicy Tomato Catsup when scraping across the bottom of the pan with a spoon causes the catsup to part, then slowly seep back together.
Spicy Tomato Catsup
Equipment
- medium saucepan
- food mill, using the finest blade
- decorative bottle
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Roma tomatoes
- 1 small knob fresh ginger (enough for a heaping T, once grated)
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1 t salt
- ½ t ground cumin
- ½ t crushed red pepper
- ½ t garlic powder
Instructions
- Prep the tomatoes and grate the ginger – Cut each tomato in half, remove the seeds, trim the stem end, then dice the tomato flesh. Grate the ginger.
- Simmer – Add all of the ingredients to your saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Finish – The catsup is finished when it looks thick and glossy, and most of the water has been cooked out. You're looking for a texture that's spreadable yet pourable. Run the catsup through the food mill to remove the skins and little pieces of ginger.
