Homemade Tomato Ketchup

Ingredients

• ½ kg tomatoes
• 1 small onion, quartered optional
• 3 – 4 cloves garlic peeled optional
• ¼ cup raisins soaked for 4 hours
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• ½ tsp rock salt
• ¼ tsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp any natural vinegar e.g. apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar

Method

Heat a pan with a tight fitting lid. Put the tomatoes, onion and garlic in a saucepan and cook, covered, on medium heat. Stir after 10 minutes when the tomatoes have released a lot of juice.

Continue to cook on a medium heat till the tomatoes are quite soft. This should take another 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Blend to a paste and then sieve through a wire mesh strainer to remove the seeds and skin.

Transfer the sauce to an open pan and boil for a few minutes to thicken the pulp.

In a wet grinder, blend the soaked raisins to make a smooth paste. Add the raisins paste to the boiling tomato pulp. Now add all the dry spices and cook for another 2 – 3 minutes or till you get the desired consistency.

Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Add the vinegar. The sauce will thicken further upon cooling.

Makes 300 ml