Homemade Catsup, Tasty, but Time Consuming

Recently, I listened to an interview on National Public Radio as I drove to the farm  and a comment from a food expert made me laugh.  When asked what home cooks could do to make a healthy diet difference, the expert replied that people should make their own catsup.  I first attempted this condiment in 2010 and whether you call it catsup or ketchup, it is an arduous task and not something every home cook would choose to make.  Not that it is a difficult recipe, but it takes quite a bit of time. Of course, the homemade taste, not to mention the absence of high fructose corn syrup, is worth the effort.

After I found a basic recipe online, I modified for our family's taste.  We are not fond of sugary sweet catsup, so my recipe uses little sugar and relies on tomatoes' and peppers' natural sweetness.  In 2011, I accidentally dumped some turmeric in the pot of bubbling tomato mixture and with a pleasant result, I incorporated that ingredient in subsequent batches.  To up the ante for pepper flavor, I use a Thai red chile and a couple of sweet Jimmy Nardellos, a beautiful long red pepper that is identified as a member of the Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste.  Foods included in this living catalog are deemed delicious, but face extinction.  Easy to grow and an abundant producer, I recommend this pepper to gardeners who love sweet peppers.

Jimmy Nardello peppers are deep red and sweet

Of course, catsup's main ingredient is the paste tomato and I use a few varieties because I think they make the best product.  Amish Paste, with a heavy feel and dense flesh, is an excellent catsup tomato and with Japanese Plum, another weighty pear-shaped fruit, and San Marzano, it is difficult to make a catsup that is not delicious.  I know many readers are now shaking heads and saying, "What about Romas?"  Don't get me wrong, I like Romas, but after growing numerous paste tomatoes, I find Romas to be inferior in taste and texture to other varieties.  It is too late this year to grow your own, but if you plan to make catsup, check farmer's markets for heirloom paste tomatoes.

Amish Paste tomato

San Marzano tomato

Because it takes so long to reduce, I cook catsup for one day, refrigerate the mixture overnight and finish the following day.  Yes, it is a two-day job.  It is probably not necessary to use an immersion blender to finish this recipe, but if you like smooth catsup, I recommend this tool.  For about twenty bucks, you will find many uses for this handy device, which makes whipping cream and blending soups a snap and is much easier to clean than a standard bar blender.

Japanese Plum tomatoes are a heavy paste variety

Sure, it takes time to make homemade catsup and industrial brands are probably more cost effective, but when you taste the fruits of labor, made with heirloom goodness, you, too, may decide the flavor is worth the effort.  

Finished product

Catsup (August 21, 2014)  
Total Yield = 76 ounces
(Total weight for tomatoes should be about ten pounds)
12 San Marzano tomatoes
4 Japanese Plum tomatoes
18 Amish Paste tomaotes
2 Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers
1 Thai red chile pepper (remove seeds)
4 sweet onions
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
5 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground paprika pepper (I dry and grind these with a mortar and pestle)
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt (I use coarse Himalayan Pink)
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Wash, trim ends and cut tomatoes in chunks before pureeing them in a food processor with peppers.  Use a food mill to strain the puree and remove skins and seeds.  Puree onions and stir into the tomato mixture in a large stainless steel pot.  Cook and stir occasionally over low heat until the mixture reduces by about one third.  (Note: This step took five hours.)

In a small pot, combine vinegar and  other ingredients and simmer for about thirty minutes.  Use a strainer to remove solids as you add about half the spiced vinegar to the tomato mixture.  Continue cooking and reduce a bit more.  Remove the pot from the heat and place in a deep sink.  Use an immersion blender to smooth the catsup.  Return to heat and cook until the mixture is the desired consistency.

Pour hot mixture into hot jars or bottles, leaving about 1/8 inch headspace.  Use a boiling water bath to process jars for fifteen minutes.  Remove jars from boiling water bath and immediately invert them for five minutes.  Upright jars and cover with a heavy towel for 24 hours.  Check to be sure lids sealed and refrigerate any that fail to do so. 

Squash Season is Here, Lock Your Doors

If you have lived through a southern squash season, you have probably heard the joke about not leaving your car doors unlocked, for fear a gardening neighbor will deposit a bag filled with that fruit in your vehicle.  An abundant producer, summer squash presents gardeners with a challenge to keep the harvest in check.  Sneaky zucchini squash, with deep green flesh that matches the host plant, are adept at hiding in thick foliage until they emerge, huge and resembling baseball bats.  A versatile fruit that is delicious raw and cooked, summer squash produces beautiful edible blossoms.  Last week, Richard and I experimented with some squash blossoms attached to baby squash and found the results to be one of our favorite summer dishes.  Summer squash produces male and female blossoms.  Both are delicious, but only the female blossoms will form squash.

Helping hands (or paws) are welcome for squash harvests

Remove stamens inside squash blossoms before preparing them.  They are edible, but slightly bitter.  Ideally, squash blossoms should be harvested within hours of preparation and it is best to pick them in morning hours when they are fully open.  Always carefully check inside blossoms for honeybees and other pollinators!

Grilled Baby Squash with Blossoms

Clean several baby squash with attached blossoms, taking care to keep blossoms attached to fruit.
Stuff each blossom with a small amount of cheese and twist the end of the blossom to keep the cheese inside.  I used farmer's market goat cheese flavored with pimento and jalapeno peppers, but cream cheese or any soft cheese will work.
Brush the squash and blossoms with olive oil and season with salt and pepper or a seasoning blend.  I use Possum's Seasoning, a recipe developed by our friend, James Todd, III, that is available in local markets.
Over medium hot charcoal, grill the squash, turning once, for about three minutes.  The cheese will bubble inside the blossom and the fruit will be slightly crunchy.
Alternatively, the squash may be oven-baked, but the smoky flavor of wood charcoal is incredible. 

For more squash recipes, visit www.seedtales.com and click on the "Farm Fresh Recipes" tab.  The Trompe L'Oeil Oyster Stew recipe is one of my favorite ways to use lots of yellow summer squash and I can several jars of the soup base to enjoy when squash is not in season.

For now, during squash season, leave your car doors unlocked and hope for the best.  Perhaps an overwhelmed gardener will leave a sack of summer squash for you to enjoy.

Heirloom Tomato Processing: A Day in the Life

A couple of years ago, Richard and I grew about 400 tomato plants and we learned that number is way beyond the maintenance abilities of two, past middle-age, people.  Recognizing limitations of time and physical endurance, this summer's crop includes ninety plants that represent our favorite varieties.  We planted later than most local gardeners and picked our first real harvest yesterday.  The plants may be fewer in number this year, but I can't remember the last time it took both of us over three hours to pick tomatoes and our best guesstimate is the haul was over 200 pounds.  Back at home, we spent another two hours washing and sorting the fruit and when I walked into my kitchen this morning, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

The day's work

 It's a good thing I love heirloom tomatoes.  Even now, as I write this with aching feet, a throbbing back and hands shriveled from hours of working in water, I still love processing tomatoes.  It is a precise practice that elicits the most delicious winter treats and produces satisfaction for a job well done.   With the help of my grandmother's workhorse 1966 pressure cooker, I canned seven quarts of paste tomatoes, seven quarts of quartered large tomatoes and five jars of marinara sauce.  We started the sauce the previous night when we separated tomatoes that were soft or blemished and put unpeeled sections of usable product in a large stockpot.  After cooking until the tomatoes released juice, I stored the pot in the refrigerator overnight.  My first morning task, after making a tomato omelette for our breakfast,  was to pass the tomatoes through my grandmother's ancient food mill, discard seeds and peels and cook the sauce over low heat until it reduced by about one third, about seven hours.

1966 "Modern" still relevant today

My grandmother's food mill is a great tool

While the sauce cooked, I canned tomatoes and loaded the dehydrator with three varieties of small tomatoes, A. Grappoli D'Iverno, Egg and Black Plum.  Around 2:30 pm, I made a tomato sandwich for lunch, slicing a Great White and Green Zebra because I could not decide between the two.  Great White has a bright, slightly garlicky flavor and Green Zebra is tangy and naturally salty.  On sourdough bread, with a slathering of Duke's Mayo (don't even start with the Hellmann's/Duke's debate) and a scattering of fresh basil leaves, it was the perfect meal.  Finally, I pickled some of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of cherry tomatoes we harvested.

Beautiful and delicious, who can resist cherry tomatoes?

Pleased with the day's work, I look forward to adding to my canned goods pantry and enjoying the preserved harvest when days are cold and winds bite to the bone.  I hope to remember how sweat burned my eyes, mosquitoes feasted on my bare arms and mud caked my boots as I reached through tangled vines encased in tall cages to harvest our summer bounty.  Slap me when I say we are having "fast food" as I open a jar of marinara sauce or make salsa from canned paste tomatoes. 

Dinner was the last of the marinara sauce and some al dente pasta, along with a sliced tomato, mozzarella and basil salad.  'Tis the season, folks.  Enjoy it while it lasts. 

Red Thumbs and Pinky Toes

Until several years ago, I knew no one who grew more than a couple potato varieties.  When I was a child, my family grew potatoes.  Period.  Our potatoes were russets and after harvesting, we stored them in a dark cellar and used them until they were too shriveled to peel, but usually, by then, it would be time to harvest the next year's crop.  We also grew a small red-skinned potato variety our family called "new potatoes," but when I discovered the extensive varieties and flavor differences that exist in these root vegetables, potatoes became one of the largest crops at Heart & Sole and at harvest time, I love to see the colorful wake created by the plow.

Potato blossoms are pretty enough for the flower garden

On July 17th, we plowed our first row and gathered over one hundred and thirty pounds of Red Thumb fingerlings and Charlotte, a new variety we tried this year.  After several rainy days, the ground finally dried enough this week to plow a row of Purple Vikings and the yield is impressive.  Last year's cool wet summer severely limited the potato crop, but after two rows, our harvest is well over two hundred pounds, the amount of seed potatoes we planted.  With seven more rows to harvest, 2014 could be our Year of the Potato.
Sorting through baskets of fresh potatoes, I noticed there are many that are too small for long-term storage.  These tiny potatoes are delicious, but will become soft in a few days.  As I placed the smallest tubers in a bucket, I wondered what to do with them.  Potatoes, especially fingerlings, are great for canning and we enjoy those in late winter when our stored potatoes begin to sprout and deteriorate, but these baby potatoes are probably not the best candidates for pressure canning.

Tiny potatoes: pickling prospects?

Why not pickle them?  I thought.  Other root vegetables, like beets, carrots and onions pickle well.  Why not potatoes? 

Online research revealed that, indeed, potatoes may be pickled, but there were few instructions for doing so.  I learned pickled potatoes are traditional Mexican bar food and are served in a jar, along with toothpicks for spearing them.  The few photographs I found depicted potatoes larger than mine and some were sliced or peeled.  I decided to experiment. . .

After scrubbing the potatoes with a vegetable brush, I placed them in a large pot of boiling water for three minutes, then plunged them into ice water, to stop the cooking process.  Adding fresh herbs, hot and sweet peppers and a clove of garlic, I packed the potatoes in glass jars and covered them with a pickling solution.  (For the recipe, see June 17th blog, Magic Beans.)  I stored the jars in the refrigerator and Richard enjoys tasting a potato every day, to test the pickling degree.  Perhaps because the skin is a bit thicker, the Red Thumb variety takes more time to absorb pickling flavor, but it inspired me to dub my efforts as "Pinky Toes."

Pinky Toes: Pickled tiny potatoes, herbs, garlic & peppers

Hopefully, there will be more "too small" potatoes in our future harvests and I plan to try processing these, for longer shelf life.  If any readers have pickled potatoes, please share your comments or suggestions.