Ketchup at the Barn-B-Q

Yesterday we had a little end-of-summer cookout. The sky spit and threatened all day, but evening blew in cool and pleasant, good for horseshoes and grilling.

I made my first ever batch of homemade ketchup! It was a great success, easy, and quicker to cook down than I thought.

Ketchup for Everybody

12 large tomatoes
1.5 C brown sugar (I used sucanat)
1/3 C molasses
1/3 C cider vinegar
2 allspice berries
dash of cinnamon
salt and pepper

Core and seed the tomatoes, and chop roughly. Put in a large saucepan with about an inch of water and set to boil. Add other ingredients and boil, stirring often, until reduced by 75%, dark red, and thick. This took me about an hour and a half. You could double/triple/quadruple the recipe and can some, as I'm planning to do this weekend.

Black Bean Burgers

2 C black beans, cooked
reserved bean liquid
flour
cumin, nutritional yeast, berbere, mustard powder
1 small red onion, minced

I always cook beans with bay leaves, garlic and hot peppers, so the beans were spiced from the get-go.

Remove bay leaves and mash beans. Add onion and spices. Add bean liquid to thin, or flour to thicken. Form into patties and refrigerate for one hour. Grill till light brown grill marks appear.

I also marinated some asian eggplant in a hot and sweet marinade (pineapple salsa from my housemate's job, with oil and rice wine) and grilled that. Delicious.

Other highlights included delicious corn from my friends' garden and boxed wine brought back on a plane from Provence.

The Worst Summer Ever is almost officially over!