My Ground Cherry Ketchup Recipes

CHERRY KETCHUP

Steps:

• In a saucepan, combine the cherries with 1/2 cup water. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook until the cherries soften, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool slightly, then pass the cooked cherries and their liquid through a food mill, or press them through a colander, to make a chunky juice.
• In a clean saucepan, combine the juice with the spices and salt. Simmer over low heat until reduced by half, about 15 minutes, stirring often.
• Add 1/4 cup vinegar and keep cooking until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove a bit of the ketchup, let cool and taste. Adjust salt, spices and vinegar until the flavor is sweet, spicy and tart. The ketchup will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

HOMEMADE KETCHUP

Steps:

• Pour ground tomatoes into slow cooker. Swirl 1/4 cup water in each emptied can and pour into slow cooker. Add sugar, vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, celery salt, mustard powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and whole clove; whisk to combine.
• Cook on high, uncovered, until mixture is reduced by half and very thick, 10 to 12 hours. Stir every hour or so.
• Smooth the texture of the ketchup using an immersion blender, about 20 seconds.
• Ladle the ketchup into a fine strainer and press mixture with the back of a ladle to strain out any skins and seeds.
• Transfer the strained ketchup to a bowl. Cool completely before tasting to adjust salt, black pepper, or cayenne pepper.

GROUND CHERRY PIE II

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Wash ground cherries and place in unbaked pie shell. Mix brown sugar and 1 tablespoon flour and sprinkle over cherries. Sprinkle water over top. Mix together 3 tablespoons flour and 3 tablespoons sugar. Cut butter in until crumbly. Top cherry mixture with crumbs.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, reduce temperature to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and continue to bake for 25 minutes.

MY GROUND CHERRY KETCHUP

Steps:

• Mince the onions.
• Cut green and red mild peppers into pieces as big as a stamp.
• Pass the spices and the black pepper through the blender to obtain a spice powder.
• Peel, take away the core and cut the apples in 1 inch pieces.
• Peel and wash the ground cherries (physalis peruviana) thoroughly.
• Mix all the ingredients in a big thick cooking pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat.
• Let cook until the liquid acquire a syrupy consistency, stirring often to prevent sticking at the bottom of the pot(about 40 minutes).
• Pour into sterilized Mason jars and close the lids.
• Verify that the jars are vacuum-sealed.

KETCHUP - FROM FRESH GARDEN TOMATOES

Steps:

• Depending on size, halve or quarter your tomatoes. Sauce tomatoes (Roma) are ideal, but any will work. I used a combo of Roma, Beefsteak, and (mostly) Cherry.
• OPTIONAL: Smoke a tray's worth of the tomatoes. I cold smoked mine for a few hours over hickory. It gave it a subtle but delicious smoke flavor. Again, this is totally optional.
• Add the tomatoes, salt, garlic, sugar, and onions to a pot and boil for 30 minutes.
• Cool the mixture until you can send it safely through your food mill. I used the mixer attachment and it worked beautifully. If you don't have a food mill, you can peel and squeeze the tomatoes using the boiling water / ice bath method.
• Return the now de-seeded and de-skinned tomato sauce to the pot and back onto the stove.
• Continue to boil the sauce to reduce and thicken.
• Meanwhile, in another non-reactive pot; heat the apple cider vinegar with all the remaining spice additions. Heat until the spices have infused into the vinegar.
• Using a fine strainer to leave behind the whole spices, pour the vinegar into the tomato mix. If you don't have a strainer or tea-ball, you can wrap the spices in a cheesecloth satchel.
• Continue to reduce until you reach the desired ketchup texture. This can take 4-6 hours. I've heard of people using a crock pot for this process.
• Follow standard canning procedure if you want a shelf-stable product. Otherwise, cool and keep in the fridge.