Mushroom Ketchup

I’ve mentioned mushroom ketchup in a previous blog so thought I should share my recipe. It is a constant in this house, even with the kids who “don’t like” mushrooms. It can be used to add richness to dishes as an ingredient or as a condiment- great with chunky garlic wedges.

Although mushroom ketchup is reasonably low effort to make, it does need preparing the day before- so make sure you allow yourself time 24 hours in advance.

You will need;

• 800g-1kg mushrooms– any mushroom is fine for this.
• 2 heaped table spoons (around 30g) of good salt, rock salt/pink salt/ salt flakes- not “cooking salt” it will not produce the flavour that you want it to.
• 2 heaped table spoons (around 30g) of dark brown sugar.
• half a pint of malt vinegar-other vinegars will work but won’t be as nice.
• 1 Star anise.
• Teaspoon of nutmeg.
• sprig or half a tea spoon of thyme (also rosemary works).
• Heaped teaspoon of allspice (spice,not the aftershave).
• few cloves.
• smallish onion-peeled and chopped.
• Bulb of garlic- peeled and chopped.
• Blender- non reactive container, clean jars to store, cling film or secure lid.

Mushroom for change!

This is a recipe that you can experiment with, I have made this with all sorts of spices. It is really nice with ginger and cumin in to. If you don’t like anything that is listed, swap it out. You can use less garlic if you want to- we like a lot of garlic. Swap things out, sometimes you need to work with what you have. It is important to sterilise your jars, here is one method but if you do a Google you can find one that suits you.

That 24 hour prep period.

Please do not be put off by this, it is essental but it is low effort.

The day before you want to make your mushroom ketchup you need to slice up your mushrooms, place them into a non reactive container- either plastic or glass. and cover them with the salt. This needs to then be securely covered and largely left alone. The salt will draw the moisture out of the mushrooms and then they will slightly ferment in their own brine. They will change in appearance and may make some prickly popping noises which amuses the children. I tend to leave this on the side and give it a shake whenever I remember. I am not convinced that this has any real benefit but I do it anyway.

Now for the rest of it.

After you have undertaken the above you’ll be left with squishy mushrooms in a dark fluid.

Put the mushroomy brine along with the solids into a large pan and add the other ingredents.

Don’t be impatient and squeeze a chip shop style malt vinegar bottle too hard- I did that once and it took a long time to get the smell out of both my hair and my kitchen after it went everywhere.

Bring the mix up to a rolling boil, then turn it down to a simmer. Stir occasionally and reduce by half.

Take off of the heat and blend with a stick blender. If you don’t have a stick blender you could use a cup or a bullet blender but I’d wait for it to cool down first.

Blend until really smooth. At this stage it looks like actual poo but, like a lot of things in life, you need to look past appearance.

Spoon into sterile jars and store (6 months to a year unopened) Store in the fridge once opened.

Let me know how you get on,

Molly’s Pantry

xx