2015 Cooking Club Week 28: Home-made ketchup and mayonnaise

So excited! After years and years of following the cooking club, I'm submitting my own recipes! I really hope you like them.

I love to cook - and recently, I've really got into making store cupboard basics from scratch - it really connects me in with everything I eat. I posted about it here!

"But why on earth bother to make ketchup and mayonnaise when you can just buy Heinz and Hellmans?" you ask? Because...

It's healthy - I know exactly what goes into the things I make
It's delicious - really, there is no comparison between ones your make yourself and the ones you buy in the supermarket.
It's fun - cooking is a good way to unwind, and there's nothing like spending time in the kitchen listening to tunes and cooking up a load of deadly things to scoff, and store and enjoy later, or give to family and friends.
It's thrifty - in the long run it's much cheaper than buying the equivalent (once you have some basic ingredients).

Ketchup

This recipe makes about 1.4 litres. I keep old jars from peanut butter and that. I stick them in the dishwasher before I fill them.

The ketchup lasts a couple of weeks once opened. Can you freeze it? Probably, but I haven't tried
It's not as sugary-sweet as Heinz. As well as in burgers and on chips, I use it spaghetti bolognese, chilli, homemade baked beans - it's very versatile.

This batch filled one 740ml jar and two 300ml jars.

Ingredients

- 3 cans of Tesco tomato purée
- 115 mls of malt vinegar - I usually use the vinegar from a jar of gherkins (see, thrifty!)
- 1.5 tablespoons of blackstrap molasses
- 3 tablespoons dark brown muscavado sugar (or any kind of sugar, it doesn't make a huge difference - I used brown caster for this batch)
- 1 teaspoon onion powder (cheap in Tiger stores)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder (cheap in Tiger stores)
- 1/3 teaspoon smoked paprika
- pinch of fennel seeds
- pinch of cinnamon
- big pinch salt (I had a nice smoked Maldon to hand)
- 580mls tap water
- Optional - few squirts of Braggs Amino Acids.



Method

- Place all ingredients in a big saucepan for which you have a lid.
- Stir it well, so it's all combined.



- Simmer on a low heat for 2 hours, stir it 4 or 5 times during this.
- Fill up your jars - I use a ladle and take my time.



Mayonnaise

Full disclosure: I used balsamic vinegar and lime juice when I was making this not to be fancy, but because I'd run out of regular vinegar and lemons, and I didn't have time to go to the shops I had to I made do with what I had.
The result was excellent, though.

However - you can use whatever vinegar you like (I favour rice wine vinegar), and lemon juice - fresh if you have it, bottled if not.

It lasts for a couple of weeks after you open it. It's so quick and easy to make I only make one jar at a time.

This makes enough to fill one 300ml jar (spotlessly clean, of course).

I use the small bowl of a Magimix - any food processor that goes fast will be fine, variable speeds aren't needed.

Ingredients

- 225ml sunflower oil
- 1 large egg
- half a teaspoon of mustard
- half a teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- A teaspoon lime juice
- Decent pinch of salt



Method

- Place all the ingredients except the sunflower oil in the food processor bowl
- Put the sunflower oil in a jug from which from you can get a nice thin pouring stream.
- Put a splash (20mls) of oil into the food processor bowl
- Whizz for 30 secs to combine well
- Turn the processor on, and pour the oil in, in the thinnest stream possible.
- Keep pouring - it should take 4 or 5 minutes to transfer all the oil to the bowl. The mayo turns from liquid to thick and creamy as you go.



- Fill your jar.