Hedgerow ketchup
- Preparation and cooking time
- Prep:
- Cook: -
- More effort
- Makes about 500ml
Ingredients
- 500g elderberries
- 500g mix of blackberries, hawthorn haws and/or crab apples
- 3 shallots, chopped
- 2 tsp salt
- 300ml red wine vinegar
- 250g light muscovado sugar
For the spice bag
- 3 dried chillies
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 3 thin slices ginger
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
- 4 pared strips of lime zest
Method
- STEP 1
Wash your bottles in hot soapy water, rinse well and leave upside down to dry. Wash and pick over all the fruit. Tip into a large pan with the shallots, salt and vinegar. Measure the spice bag ingredients onto a square of muslin, tie with kitchen string and add to the pan.
- STEP 2
Bring slowly to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer very gently, partially covered, for 30 mins until all the fruit is softened. Remove the spice bag and press the mixture through a plastic sieve to remove seeds and tough skins.
- STEP 3
Put your prepared bottles in a moderate oven (180C/160C fan/gas 4) for 10 mins. Return the ketchup mixture to the rinsed-out pan and add the sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring, then boil hard for 8-10 mins until thick and syrupy. Decant into your warm bottles, seal and label. Will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks – for long-term storage (up to a year), the ketchup will need to be sterilised (see tip, below left).
