Elizabeth from The Law Student's Cookbook is hosting Food'N'Flix this month. And her pick - Attack of the Killer Tomatoes - is a perfect, silly movie for a month that ends with Halloween.Click here to see Elizabeth's invitation to her movie selection.
I am, admittedly, not particularly silly; some friends would even venture to say that I am pretty humorless most of the time. But I have my moments. I did, after all, go to midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show with a rolls of toilet paper in my bag and danced the Time Warp in the aisles. Multiple times...but that was two decades ago.
Still, after working on an article deadline for almost twelve hours, I wanted nothing more than to pour myself a glass of red wine and watch something that didn't require too much thought. This fit the bill!
Within the first two minutes of the movie - A killer tomato comes up out of the drain and cornering a woman in her kitchen. Yes, really! - I knew that I was in for an utterly insane, shameless cheap and silly flick. It's so horrible, so cheesy, and so cliche that you can't help but laugh. You may be laughing at the movie, but you'll be laughing. I think it's safe to say that this movie was deliberately awful. And, in that regard, it's an incredible success.
I won't go too much into detail about the movie. There's not much to tell. But when disguise expert Sam Smith dresses as a tomato, infiltrates the ravenous hoard, and asks, "Can somebody please pass the ketchup?" I knew I had a winner for my post. I've made homemade ketchup before, but it was too heavy on the cloves. So, I whipped up a another batch of...
"Please Pass the [Homemade] Ketchup"
Ketchup
15-20 medium sized tomatoes
1 T crushed garlic
5 T white balsamic vinegar
5 T blue agave
ground cloves (go easy!)
ground cinnamon
ground cardamom
ground mustard
ground paprika
one vanilla bean, split down the middle and separated into caviar + pod
splash of pure vanilla extract
freshly ground sea salt
You have to skin the tomatoes which is sort of like trying to deseed a strawberry...unless you do these two easy steps first. Bring water to a boil and submerge your tomatoes - whole - into the water. Let sit for two minutes.
Quickly plunge the tomatoes into ice water. They can sit in there for as long as you like.
Now you can score the skin and easily peel the skin off! Piece of cake.
Cube your tomatoes and place them in a saucepan with a splash of olive oil. Once they begin to soften, use a potato masher to create a chunky sauce. Note: I like my sauces chunky - and I don't mind seeds - so I didn't pass this through a sieve. You could do that at this point, if you want a smooth ketchup. Add in all of the ingredients except the vinegar, agave, and salt and continue to simmer until the ketchup thickens. Add in the vinegar and agave and cook until it's the consistency that you want. Season with salt to taste.
Water process as you would with jam to seal your jars.
Next month, Leslie of La Cocina de Leslie has picked "Julie & Julia." Can't wait.
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