Autumn Means.....

Preserving of course!! A years supply of green gage jam/sauce prepared earlier, and last night we made a few litres of tomato ketchup. Love it......

Tomato Ketchup (Adapted from Jamies recipe in At Home)
1 onion
Lots of tomatoes (I guess it was about 2kg)
Salt
Pepper
75 grams brown sugar
Basil
Parsley
Egyptian Spice Mix (Mixed Pepper, Cloves, All spice, Ginger, Rosebuds, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Nutmeg)
150ml Red Wine Vinegar

Chop and sautee the onion, basil, parsley and spice mix. While that's on the go, quarter the tomatoes and place in a non reactive pot and bring to the boil. Add the onion mixture to the tomatoes, add the brown sugar and vinegar. Simmer for about 15 minutes and then blend or whiz in the food processor. Retrun to the saucepan and reduce until you have the desired consistency and bottle in sterilized bottles... It's great!

Greengage Jam
1 kg greengage
500g sugar
Lemon juice

Halve and pit the green gages (Helen over the backfence doesn't do this, she just simmers the fruit whole and skims off the pips, I haven't tried that yet) Put them in a non reactive saucepan, and bring to the boil. Puree with a maullee (not the correct spelling?) or food processor. Add the sugar and lemon juice and simmer until a dollop put on a cold saucer sets to the desired consistency.

Now most jam recipes call for equal parts sugar to fruit, but this lot set with half the amount of sugar. We did add some unripe fruit, which apparently helps..Enjoy!