Homemade condiments

There are few things that we never buy but instead love to have homemade and you'll understand why when you have tried them. The flavour that you can achieve from such simple recipes is unbelievable. We will add recipes gradually over time for you to peruse and we urge you to never buy these outright ever, always make them! A couple of reasons being... 1. Intense flavour 2.  It's so much cheaper to make 3. You've made it yourself and learnt something new!

So get creative and make your own homemade condiments!

Garlic oil

It could not be more simple. Separate the cloves of a whole bulb of garlic and finely slice each one. For every bulb of garlic, pour 500 ml of olive oil into a saucepan with the garlic and heat gently to boiling point. Turn off the heat and leave to steep until the oil is cool enough to decant into a glass bottle. Remove the garlic slices. 

Basil Pesto

First of all, ensure you have got the ingredients. The quantities below are what we use but you can adjust them to make smaller amounts if you wish, just ensure you keep the ratios the same.

Ingredients

100 g fresh basil
50 g pine nuts
50 g Parmesan/cheddar cheese
3 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into manageable pieces
approximately 150 ml extra virgin olive oil

Note - Basil can be expensive if bought from the supermarket - costs can be reduced by growing your own, its very easy (we did do this but the recent bad weather caused a herb massacre and we lost all our herbs - we live in a city so only have pots and unfortunately no garden). We all know nuts can be expensive, especially pine nuts, but its well worth the investment we can assure you! Alternatively you could experiment with various nuts - just make sure they aren't extremely strong flavoured (you could use cashews or almonds). Parmesan is also expensive and we don't have this all the time so we substitute a mature cheddar cheese which works just as well. You can use more oil if you prefer a looser consistency.

If you wish to keep this for a few days make sure you sterilise a clean jar and lid by boiling in water or placing in a hot oven for 10 minutes (ensure you have oven proof - not plastic - lids).

Method

1. Toast your pine nuts in a dry heavy based frying pan until lightly browned, set aside and leave to cool a little.

2. Meanwhile, remove all the basil leaves from their stalks (you can add the tender stalks as they blend easily but leave the woodier ones out). Grate your Parmesan (or cut the cheddar into little cubes), and place your garlic cloves, nuts and cheese into your food processor and blitz to a fine consistency. 

3.  Add you basil on top and blitz again, you may need to add a little of the oil to help it mix together with the rest. Once it has all combined you can add the rest of the oil saving some to top the jar at the end. Blitz to combine and serve, or scrape into a jar and cover with a little oil to ensure a seal to the air - this will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days - it usually doesn't last this long though!!

Ensure that you take a moment to really savour the heavenly aromas that emanate from the processor, just try not to devour the whole lot in one go!  

Tomato sauce

If you like making your own pizzas, pasta, bases for soups or even certain tapas dishes, this recipe will make you never want to buy in a jar of sauce ever again. This recipe makes multiple jars - you can adjust the amounts to the quantity you want, just keeping the ratios of everything the same.

Ingredients

2 kg fresh tomatoes, peeled

100 g fresh basil leaves

1 bulb garlic (approx. 10-12 cloves)

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Sugar

Notes – It may seem a pain to peel so many tomatoes but trust us, it’s easy and it is so worth it! If you desire a chunky sauce then omit step 4. The salt, pepper and sugar are chef’s measures - everyone has their own palate so start with an amount you think is good, give it a taste and adjust to your palate. Doing this also allows you to get used to tasting your food when making it and you can adjust and do things you like for yourself – this means adjust the ingredients to your palate as well, for example you may reduce the amount of garlic.

Method

1.   To peel the tomatoes, you need to cut a cross (not too deep) into the base of the tomatoes and submerge them in freshly boiled water for one minute. You will see the skin peeling back and you can then remove with a slotted spoon into a bowl of ice water (to cool them down enough for you to handle). Once all the tomatoes are peeled chop them roughly and set aside – remember to keep all the juices.

2.    Peel and slice all the garlic cloves finely - if you are worried about your hands stinking of garlic for the rest of the day wear gloves, but we love garlic! Heat a large pan – we use a stock pan as it’s the largest we have to fit these in – put the garlic in and sauté for one minute without colouring.

3.    Add the tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally. Then tear all of your basil leaves roughly and stir through your tomato mix, cooking for a further 1-2 minutes until wilted.

4.     Leave the mix to cool enough so it’s a safe temperature to blend in a food blender, or you can use a hand blender in a high sided pan. Blitz until smooth.

5.    Return to heat and reduce to the consistency you desire. Season with salt, pepper and sugar. The seasoning is at the end as the flavour of the sauce intensifies as you reduce, so you may not need so much. The sugar is there to balance any acidity from the tomatoes to give a well-rounded sauce.

You can use this sauce for bases of pizzas, and pasta. If you wish to use this sauce for tapas, make a smaller batch and omit the basil, adding in smoked paprika and onions in with the garlic. This makes a delightful patatas bravas sauce.

Vanilla sugar 


It could not be simpler to make your own vanilla sugar! You will find this infinitely useful when baking and making desserts. There are two methods which you can use to do this.

Our preferred method is to pour a kilogram of caster sugar into a food processor along with 2 vanilla pods and blitz thoroughly. This ensures an intense vanilla flavour and is especially wonderful for making desserts such as crème brulée and rice pudding. For those who would rather not sieve their sugar before using, simply bury a split vanilla pod into a jar of sugar and leave to infuse. You can keep topping the sugar back up and just occasionally replace the vanilla pod.