Lately I have been channeling my inner farmers wife (1950’s style). We have so much produce at the moment that I am making jams, cakes, and preserves galore. I think that Country Boy got a little too excited about the idea of a vegetable garden, and has planted so much. We can’t hope to eat all the fruit and vegetables we are picking each day, so we are giving our spares to friends and family. We have just started picking tomatoes and are getting a large bowl full each day. We have lots of different varieties; Black Russians, Tigerellas, Tiny Toms, and lots of others I don’t know.

When we moved to the country, we reduced our income, and so my inner cheapskate frugalista has kicked in big time. I am enjoying squirreling away all the produce that we have for later in the year when we don’t have as much. I am imagining fruit crumbles and pies in front of the fire in the middle of winter. I am thinking about jams, and preserves, and reading cook books. I am not sure whether the reality will live up to my imagination (but it is still fun to think about).

So over the weekend I made a big batch of homemade tomato sauce, and it was yum!

Ingredients
2 red onions – finely diced
5 garlic cloves – finely sliced
1T olive oil
2T curry powder
2.5 kg ripe tomotoes – roughly chopped
2c white sugar
600ml white wine vinegar
1t salt
2T cornflour (optional)
2T water (optional)

Method
1. In a heavy saucepan, saute the red onion and garlic in olive oil until soft and clear.
2. Add in the curry powder, and cook for a further minute.
3. Add in the tomatoes and cook them until they have collapsed.
4. Add in the sugar, white wine, and salt.
5. Simmer for an hour, until the sauce has thickened.
6. If the sauce is too runny, blend the cornflour in water, and then add into the sauce. Allow to boil and thicken slightly.
7. Spoon hot sauce into sterilised jars, wipe the top, and seal (I got 5 large jars from this quantity).

I can thoroughly recommend it to dip meat balls in (which is what we had for dinner on Sunday night).