Homemade Tomato Sauce.

Nidhi, my daughter loves tomato sauce...she needs sauce for bread rolls, cullets, samosas, puffs, pizzas etc etc.....and that's how I started  making homemade sauce....I think it was way back in 2000 that I got the book, "Pickles, Chutneys, And Preserves" and got hooked to simple homemade Tomato Sauce recipe (Chinese). Since Nidhi, cannot do without sauce and I did not want to pump her with store brought sauce with all the preservatives, colours, emulsifiers, God only knows what else??....

Whenever I see nice red plump tomatoes I give in......red ones weakens me!!!....I got these gorgeous babes for just Rs 5/kg..

I follow the recipe completely and Nidhi always says this taste better than store brought ones.....Infact when she was 5 years old I used to pour this sauce into her favorite tomato sauce bottle and she never used to think otherwise.

The recipe calls for a spice bag....its nothing just tie up the spices in a cloth and dunk into the tomato puree while it is simmering. I have not used any artificial colour or preservatives....I bottle and refridgerate it...for me the sauce lasts anywhere around one month or so....remember Nidhi is sauceholic!!! And oh! the standerd recipe is for half kilo tomato....but I always make 2 kg....so my spice bag contains more spices than stated in the recipe. I usually add the vinegar depending upon the sourness of the tomatoes......it is always better to decrease vinegar a bit.                                                                                Spice bag!!

Recipe Source: Pickles, Chutneys, Preserves, by Vasantha Moorthy.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes: 1/2 kg.
Garlic cloves: 4.
Onion: 1 medium, sliced.
Sugar: 2 tbsp.
Salt.
Spice bag:
Cloves: 3.
Cardamoms: 3.
Cinnamon stick: 1".
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp.
Peppercorns: 1/2 tsp.
Vinegar: 1/2 cup.

Method:
Pls note that I double up the recipe for 2 kg tomatoes.

1. Wash and chop the tomatoes. Chop garlic and onions. Put them into a pressure cooker.

2. Let it cook for 1 or two whistle. Allow it to cool and open when completely cooled.

3. Put this pulp into a mixer jar and given it a run, pass this through a sieve into another large vessel.

4. Add the sugar, salt, vinegar, and the spice bag into it and put on fire and once it boils, reduce heat and let it simmer. (It is advisable to keep an eye on it as it tends to boil over and spill).

5. Reduce heat and simmer for some time (for 2 kg it takes anywhere between 15 to 25 min) till it thickens. Remove from fire....bottle it. (regret the bad picture quality...I made this at night and lightening was poor).

Well thats it.......its really easy and exciting to make homemade tomato sauce.....and I am glad my princess is getting good quality real tomatoes into her system :)

Use as a dip for almost anything!!!.
Can use in curries when you ran out of tomatoes!!!. Enjoy!!!