Tomato chilly and garlic ketchup

There are times when you feel like making your own combinations as per your taste. Whenever I had savoury snacks like samosa, chaats or crisps, I yearned for a tomato ketchup that had more chilly garlic flavour in it, but I failed to get that in a ready made bottle. This is when my mom taught me to make this easy homemade ketchup with customized flavours. This was awesum!!! Now, I make varied ketchup all as per my taste and dishes. The first time I made the ketchup, my husband complemented me. He thought homemade would be something similar to a dip or a chutney. But, to his astonishment the look, texture and taste was simply perfect and just like ready-made sauces. Here, I am sharing my version of tomato chilly and garlic ketchup.

10 very important tips to keep in mind:

1. You can increase or decrease the ingredients as per your taste.
2. Making a sauce at home is not a tough job but you need to be careful at each step and follow them as per the instructions.
3. Addition of even a little water might spoil the sauce and it cannot be retained also.
4. Do not grind the tomatoes when they are piping hot.
5. Always add the salt at the end because you might end up adding more salt when the quantity is more. Let the quantity thicken before adding salt.
6. Always make ketchup in a small quantity if it is your first time.
7. Never add preservative in large quantity.
8. Before adding preservatives, taste the ketchup if everything is fine. This is the last step where you can made changes.
9.  Always add preservatives as the final step as after that no more changes can be done.
10. Once you have added the preservatives, leave aside the ketchup for atleast 24 hours before using. You can always keep aside small quantity of ketchup in a small bowl/ bottle before adding preservatives also. Always keep this separate non preservative ketchup in refrigerator.

 

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 3-4 hours

Preservative time: 24 hours

Servings: 3 big bottles or 2 kg (approx)

Ingredients:

5 kg Red tomatoes

5 Garlic (full)

2 onions (big size)

7-8 black peppercorns

6 green chilies

1 long piece of ginger

4 cloves

1 ½ cup sugar

½ cup white vinegar

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp Sodium benzoate preservative

 

Procedure

In a large pressure pot, add tomatoes, onions, green chilies, black peppercorns, cloves, ginger and garlic and bring them to a boil. Let them cool properly.

In a mixer grinder, puree the entire content and sieve them.

In a large vessel, pour this puree mixture and boil them till they become ¼th in quantity. It will take around 3-4 hours for the puree to come to 1/4^th level. Keep stirring continuously and always work in low flame as chances of burning at the final stages is more.

Now, add sugar and salt and mix well.  Taste if the level of sugar and salt is balanced. Add vinegar and mix well. By this stage you will get a thick consistency of the ketchup that is ready to be served.

This is the final stage where any changes can be made. If you feel the ketchup is not very hot, you can add red chilli powder as per your taste.

Let the sauce cool down. You can save some quantity for your kids in a small bottle in case you don’t want them to have preservatives. Make sure to store these small bottles in refrigerator always.

Once the ketchup of the big vessel has cooled down, add preservative (sodium benzoate) and give a nice stir to it. Keep aside and do not let anyone touch it. Once the preservative has been added, you can only taste it after 24 hours. It takes around 24 hours for the preservative to get dissolved completely.

After 24 hours, using a funnel, fill the clean and dry bottles with these tasty and lip licking ketchup or sauces.

I guarantee you won’t find a difference if it is homemade or a ready-made bottle. Stay healthy and enjoy the homemade ketchup with your family. You don’t need to scare if your kids are busy licking the spoons now after all you have a bottle of fresh and no-preservative ketchup for them.