Rhubarb Crabapple Ketchup

August 30, 2015 by Hilda 26 Comments

I have been making rhubarb ketchup this summer using a recipe from The Moose Curry Experience. I love this recipe because the ingredients are simple and available, and it has that robust, tart flavour you cannot find in commercial brands, if commercial rhubarb ketchup were available that is.

I decided to make a few changes to this recipe in order to use more of my garden produce, so I combined lovely red crabapples with the rhubarb. You can see that even the insides of the cut apple is red.

Once I started with red, balsamic vinegar seemed appropriate both for the colour and flavour. The result was every bit as good as expected. I will probably alternate these recipes from now on. After all, you can’t have too many good rhubarb ketchup recipes.

Rhubarb Crabapple Ketchup

• Servings: 8 cups
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Ingredients

2 lbs rhubarb, chopped

1 1/2 lbs red crabapples

1 cup brown sugar

1 3/4 cup water

1 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 cloves of garlic

1 tsp red chili pepper

sachet of spices, including 1 tsp fennel seeds, 1 tsp star anise, 1 cinnamon stick

Method

Place all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until the apples are very soft – about 1/2 hour. Strain through a food mill. If the mixture is too thin, return to the pan and cook down to the desired consistency. If too thick, add a little water and/or vinegar to taste.

Linked to Fiesta Friday #83