Banana Ketchup

the80srule's Note:

This looks really cool, and a better alternative to HFCS-laden tomato ketchups on the market these days! It's a bit labor intensive though. From my Pacific Islands e-cookbook. I think Splenda or Sun Crystals would work in place of the sugar and that cutting it should be fine if you're watching sugar intake-- but I'm posting it as written.

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 113

Yield: 113.0 tablesp ...

• 6 ripe cooking bananas
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped (or 2/3 cup if you use the frozen prechopped kind)
• 2 small hot peppers, finely chopped (or 1/4 tsp ground red cayanne)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon allspice
• 1 dash ground clove
• water, as needed

OPTIONAL

• red food coloring

Directions:

1. Boil the bananas until soft and can mash easily. Peel and mash them up, or puree in a blender.
2. Make a syrup out of the vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and clove.
3. Combine the mashed bananas (should be about 2 cups worth) with the onions, pepper, salt, and vinegar syrup.
4. Carefully heat in a heavy-bottom saucepan until the onions soften, stirring often. Add red food coloring to make it look more like commercial ketchup, about a teaspoon or so. Beet juice makes a nice natural colorant if you don't want to use commercial dyes.
5. Wait for the mixture to cool off a bit after the onions get soft then mash up in a blender or food processor for a smooth ketchup-like consistency. You may have to run it through 2-3 times to get a nice smoothness.
6. If it gets too thick, add some water.
7. Heat the ketchup again, to a simmering point and pack into sterilized bottles with 1/2 inch of give at the top, while still hot.
8. Pasteurize by immersing the bottles in a large pot of boiling water for 5 minutes.