Tomato ketchup

With the potential glut of tomatoes now the season is peaking, here’s something that’ll please almost everybody for a while to come. This makes rather a lot, but it will keep for at least a month in a covered container in the fridge.

5kg ripe tomatoes

4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

4 tsp Dijon mustard

½ tsp four spice mix

1½ tsp ground ginger

1½ tsp salt

4 tblsp icing sugar

1 tblsp white wine vinegar

Core the tomatoes and reserve the stems. Place the tomatoes in a pressure cooker and add water to a depth of 1cm. Bring the cooker to full pressure for 20 minutes and then allow to cool. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, slowly cook the tomatoes over a medium-low heat for about 45 minutes. Pass the tomatoes and liquid through a sieve, discarding the leftovers.

Add all the other ingredients, except the icing sugar, the vinegar and the stems, to the tomatoes. Place in a pan and simmer slowly over a low heat until it is reduced by half - this will take about 4 hours. Pass the mixture through a sieve again. Add the icing sugar, return to the pan and continue to reduce over a low heat until it reaches a ketchup-like consistency - this will take just over an hour.

Allow to cool, and then add the vinegar. Finally, place the reserved tomato stems into the ketchup mixture for a few hours to infuse it with the fresh vine odour - it’s important to do this after the mixture has cooled, as the vine aroma is destroyed by heat. Discard the stems before serving