Autumnal activity

There has been a flurry of activity in the Lambchops kitchen of late.  The start of autumn brings so much fresh produce from the garden I feel duty bound to deal with it all.

Because my tomatoes look like this:

I bought a box of these:

and we picked a hat full of these:

And a neighbour gave me a bag of these:

 I just cannot let beautiful, fresh, organic  (can't vouch for the box of tomatoes though) produce pass me by and I loathe waste, (believe me, our chooks practically starve), so I got cracking.  I will let you know how I got on with everything, but I'll start with the tomatoes.

I always make enough tomato sauce to last a year.  The bought stuff is revolting and surely a last resort, although my philistine children prefer it.  It is the perfect accompaniment to chops and sausages an cold roast lamb.  I usually triple this recipe.

TOMATO SAUCE

3 kgs tomatoes

500g brown onions

30g garlic

1 tblsp cloves

1 tblsp ground ginger

1/4 cup of salt (start with a little less and add more if you need it)

1 tblsp black peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick

1 cup white vinegar

3 cups sugar

Cut tomatoes, onions and garlic into chunks.

Place all ingredients except vinegar and sugar into a large saucepan and boil slowly for two hours.

Put all the mix through the medium disc of a food mill or mouli (you really need one of these to get the right texture), or enlist the help of a child roaming the kitchen in search of food...

Return the mix to the cleaned out saucepan , add the vinegar and sugar and boil until it reaches sauce consistency, stirring from time to time so it doesn't stick to the bottom.  This will take about 30 minutes.

Put into hot sterilised bottles (old gin and whisky bottles are good) and allow to cool before you put the lids on.