I, like many in this world, was brought up with the belief that when it came to ketchup, Heinz had it all sown up. Ketchup was something that came of the grocers shelf and you compared it to the product from Heinz. That was it, there was no way through it. A lot of this was pure ignorance, some from a bit of marketing hype from Heinz themselves.

What I did not know, when I was young, was that a ketchup did not necessarily need to be from tomatoes at all. And in fact, moving away from that restriction opened up a whole new world.

With a proliferation of large red peppers in our allotment they seemed a good candidate for bottling. Digging round the internet and experimenting a little brought me to this recipe. It worked well, and the result is now favoured over my rather wonderful Tomato Ketchup! 

• 900 grams red peppers, the large this mediteranean variety
• 2 large skinned tomato
• 1 large onion, chopped very fine
• 250 ml water
• 125 ml cider vinegar
• 30 grams demerara sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon grated giinger/glossary}
• 1/2 teaspoon sea {glossary}salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustardseed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tsp tobasco
• 3 small hot chilli, finely chopped

Cut the peppers in half, de seed them then roast in an oven, skin side up, till the skin starts to blacken. Remove from the oven and, when cooled enough to handle, scrape away and discard the skin.

Put peppers, onion and water in a pan. Heat to boiling slowly then simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes or so. Once the onions are very tender, pour the entire contents of the pan into a blender and blitz till very smooth.

Put back into the pan and add everything else. Bring slowly back to boiling, then simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You can cook it longer if you wish, reducing the quantity and producing a stronger brew - but don't over do it!

Put in hot sterilised jars and seal immediately.

And that is that! 

Tags: red pepper ketchup tobasco
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