Simple home-made ketchup recipe

Home-made ketchup proudly posing with the beautiful quilt my mom made for me for Christmas

I’ve wanted to make my own condiments since I read the Bea Johnson book that I’ve now mentioned several times. My first attempt was Dijon mustard. It tasted good but it didn’t really taste like Dijon mustard so maybe I should’ve started with a solid home-made mustard first and expanded from there.

We did make a fantastic ketchup last night. I’d been looking at various recipes that were complicated and time-consuming. This was simmered on the stove a bit but that’s not something that requires much effort on the part of the cook. I’m not a big ketchup person but it’ll be hard to keep away from this stuff. It tastes so tomatoey, nothing like what we’ve been buying in the store for years. I cleaned out the ketchup bottle we had because it’s easier to use the squeeze bottle but I put the extra in a jar.

This recipe says it’ll store in the fridge for one month. I’m hoping it’ll store longer because I don’t think we’ll go through it all in just one month. We make a terrific barbecue sauce and it stores for about three months very well. Hopefully the creator of this recipe was just being cautious.

I love that I know what’s going into the ketchup now and we won’t be contributing to the making of plastic ketchup bottles. They’re recyclable but the caps aren’t and there’s a lot of oil that goes into making all the plastic we package things in.

Home made Ketchup

2 1/2 cup water

1/2 cup tomato paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup yellow onion, chopped medium

1 teaspoon garlic, grated or minced

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

1 pinch ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onions. Stir and saute 8-10 minutes until the onions are soft but not browned. Add the grated garlic. Stir, until you can smell the garlic, about 30 seconds. Immediately add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 45 minutes, check the consistency of the ketchup and continue simmering as needed. Pour the ketchup into a blender. Blend for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning (ie salt) as needed.

*Straining is not necessary. Just pour the ketchup into a jar. Seal and refrigerate overnight. Yields approx 2 cups.

**This ketchup has no preservatives or stabilizers. It must be kept refrigerated and will stay fresh for up to one month.

Recipe taken from: http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Ketchup/

How would you like your yearly garbage bill to be $15?

Stylish compost bins = lower garbage bill

I was working on year-end numbers for our household this morning. I usually do this the last week of a year but I’m a little behind. Since I’ve posted a lot about recycling and reusing the last several months, I thought I’d share that we spent $15 on garbage disposal in 2013.

As you may have guessed, we live in an area where garbage service isn’t mandated though that issue was debated last year and will, no doubt, come up again this year.

We compost and actually use our compost in our garden beds and we recycle like crazy. I even read in the last few months that it’s okay to bury salmon skin in garden beds. It makes sense, right? Consumers buy bags of fish fertilizer to plump up certain beds so I now deposit our salmon skin several inches down in our raised tomato bed. It’s in a convenient spot near our front entrance so it’s simple to do and I can keep an eye on whether critters are rooting around. Haven’t had any problems.

Since I read that amazing book by Bea Johnson (Zero Waste Home), we’ve done even better with the amount of trash we have. I went on our annual dump run on August 8^th and we’re still using the same kitchen garbage sack I lined the garbage with nearly five months ago. There’s no food in it so it doesn’t stink and it’s still not full.

Some things that aren’t conventionally recycled can even be up cycled with a little effort. TerraCycle does these things called Brigades like Mixed Waste Brigade or Cheese Wrapper Brigade or Candy Wrapper Brigade. They’re designed for large companies and schools to earn points towards things like play ground equipment but families can participate, as well. You just don’t receive points. Collect items that aren’t ordinarily  recyclable in a small box, TerraCycle sends you a prepaid mailing slip when the box is full and then mail your items off to them. Participating companies melt these items down into play ground equipment (coincidentally) or refashion them into purses and wallets.

In the last 14 years, we’ve spent $285 on garbage disposal. I realize we’re a family of two but if every household pitched in a little bit more (only buying things in recyclable or reusable packaging, for instance and stop buying those ridiculous single-use water bottles), what an amazing difference we could make in the amount of oil used to make plastics and the amount of garbage that ends up in our landfills.

Bean, Couscous and Kale Medley

I’m still on my ‘clean out the pantry’ kick. With the recipe we made last night, we’ve used up some dried beans and most of our couscous. My goal in this endeavor is not to never use these grains and beans again but to have fewer options on hand so my ingredients are fresher.

Another one of Bea Johnson’s ideas that I love is not buying canned goods. I’m not saying that’s going to be me but it’s a very interesting concept. I appreciate the perspective of so many of these Simple Living writers even if I don’t embrace all of them for my family.

Bea actually cans a lot of tomatoes each year but, other than that, she buys local, in season produce and utilizes dried beans in her recipes. She does have the advantage of living in California where the weather is a bit more conducive to a longer growing season (she has canned goods in the earthquake kit she keeps on hand for her family). In assessing my own canned items, I realized I could drastically reduce our supply by just using dried beans in place of canned ones.

Using dried beans is healthier because you’re in charge of the sodium content and the bonus is that fewer cans are created to be ‘recycled’. It doesn’t take much effort to cook dried beans, either. Soak a weeks’ worth in a very large bowl for 6 hours (I.e. first thing when you wake up on a Sunday morning), cook them over the stove for 60 – 90 minutes (after dinner while you’re watching television) and put them in the fridge to add to whatever recipe you want to add them to throughout the week.

Bean, Couscous and Kale Medley

4 ½ C water

2 C couscous

1/3 C olive oil

Bean, Couscous & Kale Medley

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ C red onion, chopped

½ C Walla Walla sweet onions, chopped

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 ½ C vegetable broth

2 cups fresh green beans, chopped

½ C red cabbage

½ C green cabbage

2 15.5 oz cans Great Northern beans, drained

4 vegan Boca Burgers, defrosted & roughly chopped (or whatever brand you prefer)

4 cups kale, roughly chopped

In a large, covered saucepan bring water to a boil. Add couscous, stir with a fork, put the lid back on the pot, set the pot off the burner and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Drain any excess water and set couscous aside. In a large skillet on the stove, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onions and red pepper flakes and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Add vegetable broth, green beans and cabbage and cook, covered, for 10 minutes. Add Great Northern beans, Boca Burgers and kale and allow to cook until kale is wilted, approx 5 – 10 minutes. If dry, add more water ¼ cup at a time. Makes 6-8 servings.

Note: I used dried Great Northern beans that I’d soaked and cooked a few days ago and was storing in a bowl in the fridge.

Fresh Tomato, Lentil & Onion Soup

One of the ideas I enjoyed from the author of Zero Waste Home was how she likens cooking to dressing. She always has on hand two grains, two beans and two pastas and then assigns basic meal ideas to each day of the week (I.e. pasta on Monday, a bean dish on Tuesday). While Bea admits some people might find this less exciting than having several options in a pantry at one time, it’s similar to the fact that we wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time.

So I started pulling out all the random ingredients I’ve acquired and, boy howdy, was she spot on. Some time ago I went through this phase of making risotto so I had a 64 ounce yogurt tub of Arborio rice that, when I opened it, looked quite peculiar. As I began to empty the contents into a glass container, all was revealed to me (in disgusting detail). Little buggies had infested my container and, frankly, made my life simpler. I tossed the lot of it on our compost pile and let go of the idea that I had a few risotto dinners I really needed to get to making.

Armed with determination I pulled out black beans, brown rice, buckwheat, couscous, garbanzo beans, Great Northern beans, lentils, navy beans, oat groats, red lentils, split peas, and wheat berries…sans buggies. I am living proof of Bea’s theory and I am now whittling down my selection of beans, grains and pasta. I have to admit, however, that some of these items were an accident. I was 100% convinced the buckwheat was barley which just goes to show that the bulk foods section can seriously tax an otherwise normally functioning brain.

With this soup recipe, I have only five ingredients to go to meet my goal!

Wine suggestion: Due to the mellowness of this dish and the addition of the herbes de Provence and black pepper, I’d go with a fruit-forward Pinot Noir such as 2008 Gresser Vineyard Pinot Noir-Willamette Valley.

2008 Gresser Vineyard Pinot Noir

Fresh Tomato, Lentil & Onion Soup

2 tsp sunflower oil

1 large onion, chopped **Garden fresh preferably

2 celery ribs, chopped

¾ C split red lentils

Fresh Tomato, Lentil & Onion Soup – pardon that it’s not a vibrant red

2 large tomatoes, peeled & roughly chopped   **Garden fresh preferably

3 ¾ C vegetable stock

2 tsp dried herbes de Provence

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Chopped parsley, to garnish **Garden fresh preferably

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the lentils and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes, stock, dried herbs, salt and pepper. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the lentils are cooked and tender, set the soup aside to cool slightly. Purée in a blender or food processor until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, return to the saucepan and reheat gently until piping hot. Ladle into soup bowls to serve and garnish each with chopped parsley. Serves 4-6. Taken from Vegetarian by Linda Fraser.

Note: Pair with a fresh salad and crusty bread for a balanced dinner.

Moroccan Stew

We’ve been harvesting a lot of green beans and zucchini lately. Some of the green beans are made into dilly beans which are wonderful on an appetizer tray but most of them are being blanched for use later in the winter. I have a few zucchini recipes I really enjoy but it is hard to keep up with zucchini once it decides to produce like rabbits in a room with no exit. Obviously the cayenne pepper sprinkled on a few zucchini a couple weeks ago did the trick. We’re no longer sharing our bounty with squirrels or whatever little pest was munching on them.

It’s so simple to substitute other vegetables in recipes for green beans or zucchini, however. The nutritional content may not be the same but it’s hard to beat vegetables you’ve grown yourself for freshness and a local food source. I’m reading another amazing book entitled The Zero Waste Home by Beá Johnson and she would be proud of my efforts.

Beá , her husband and two sons produce one quart of garbage per year! Can you even imagine that? I don’t know if we’ll get there but even if we adopt just a few of her ideas, we’ll have made a significant impact in our contribution to the garbage pile. The first one I’ve had down for years is using a stainless steel water bottle that I refill with tap water. Why did Americans so readily embrace the whole bottled water trend, I wonder? Ah, but it’s recyclable, you say. Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? “While there’s still much we don’t understand about the garbage patch, we do know that most of it’s made of plastic. And that’s where the problems begin.” I would love to see people continue to consume water but choose reusable containers to enjoy it in instead of convenient, single use plastics. A thought to ponder.

This Moroccan Stew is so fantastic. The photos aren’t particularly interesting. I swear, the smell, the taste, ah, it’s just an amazing recipe. When I was eating chicken, I used to add 24 ounces of chicken to this when the bulk of the vegetables were poured in so that certainly could be considered for meat eaters.

Wine pairing:  I would go with a medium bodied Pinot Noir for this dish. There’s a balance of acidity and sweetness in the Moroccan Stew that marries well with a lighter Pinot that’s more focused on spice than it is on tannins.

Make Ahead Moroccan Stew

Moroccan stew

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground turmeric

1/8 tsp curry powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 Tbsp butter

1 sweet onion, chopped

2 C finely shredded kale   *I substituted garden fresh green beans

4 (14 ounce) cans organic vegetable broth   *I use 7 cups vegetable broth

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

1 Tbsp honey

4 large carrots, chopped

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

3 large potatoes, peeled and diced

1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained

½ C chopped dried apricots

1 C dried lentils, rinsed

1 tsp ground black pepper, to taste

1 Tbsp cornstarch (optional)

1 Tbsp water (optional)

Combine cinnamon, cumin, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, turmeric, curry powder, and salt in a large bowl, reserve. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the onion in the butter until soft and just beginning to brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the shredded kale and reserved spice mixture. Cook for 2 minutes or until kale begins to wilt and spices are fragrant. Pour the vegetable broth into the pot. Stir in the tomatoes, honey, carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, garbanzo beans, dried apricots, and lentils. Bring to boil; reduce heat to low. Simmer stew for 30 minutes or until the vegetables and lentils are cooked and tender. Season with black pepper to taste. If desired, combine optional cornstarch and water; stir into stew. Simmer until stew has thickened, about 5 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

Note: I recently substituted garden fresh beans for the kale and put them in with the tomatoes, honey, carrots, sweet potatoes, etc.

Recipe taken from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/make-ahead-vegetarian-moroccan-stew/