I chose tomatoes as the Blogger Secret Ingredient this week for several reasons. First, as the summer winds down, my mother’s garden full of ripe tomatoes was begging to be used. Second, tomatoes are a nutritional powerhouse and one of my favorite foods. Here are some great things about tomatoes: 

• Lycopene in tomatoes may protect against cancer in humans 
• Tomatoes are a great source of vitamins A and C. 
• Tomatoes are rich in potassium, which may lower blood pressure and reduce heart disease

To find out more about tomatoes click here. 

Third, I really wanted to make ketchup. I love ketchup with sweet potato fries, but because of HFCS Awareness Month, I couldn’t have the Heinz in my fridge. I chose this Bobby Flay recipe for its simplicity and it turned out really well. It’s chunkier than bottled ketchup, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

 

I’ll be honest and tell that I used the ketchup when it was still warm, so it kind of tasted like a thick tomato soup, but it was still really delicious. Tastier than ketchup, but a little different. It had a sweetness better than that of ketchup because of the brown sugar, but it doesn’t have the sheen of ketchup and that has to be a good thing. I will try it again in the next day or two to see if it is more like traditional ketchup when it’s cold. 

Roasted Tomato Ketchup

3/4 pound ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered 
2 tablespoons olive oil 
1/2 medium onion, finely diced 
1 clove garlic, finely diced 
2 tablespoons cider vinegar 
2 tablespoons brown sugar 
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/8 teaspoon allspice 
11/2 tablespoons honey 
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper     

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.In a small bowl, toss the tomatoes in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Roast until soft, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the tomatoes to a food processor and process until smooth. Strain, pressing against the solids with a wooden spoon to extract as much pulp and juice as possible.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until almost smoking, and saute the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the tomato puree, cider vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and honey, and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 20 minutes. May be refrigerated, covered, up to 2 days.

 

Recipe Courtesy Bobby Flay

Episode#: CL9591

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Tags: HFCS, ketchup, tomatoes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.