Homemade Tomato -Ketchup! All natural, no preservatives

My children are absolute fans of tomato ketchup, and I am a bigger fan than them. we love it with everything - French Fries, Toast, Paranthas, dosas, upma, poha. Everything in our home is jazzed up with a bit of tomato ketchup. Normally we buy our ketchup at the store, but I stumbled upon this recipe for tomato ketchup and decided to try it out. I stuck to the recipe mostly, but reduced the amount of red chillies and left out the sodium benzoate as I did not want to add any preservatives  to something I making at home. I do not have a blanket ban on all artificial food as in I do allow my kids to have sweets, candies, sodas, maggi within reason, but if I am taking the trouble of making something from scratch then I want to make something that is healthier for them.

Ingredients

2.5 kg Tomatoes

12 cloves garlic

4 dry red chillies deseeded

1/2 cup vinegar

2 inch ginger

1 tbsp salt

6 tbsp sugar

Dice tomatoes finely and add them to a heavy bottomed and shallow pan with minced garlic, ginger and all the other ingredients. put a lid on the pan and let it simmer for about half an hour or until the tomatoes get soft. Take it off heat and cool the cooked mixture down. Put it in a blender and blend into a smooth paste. Pass the paste through a strainer (you can buy one here) and then put it back into the saucepan and let it simmer on low heat until it resembles the consistency of tomato ketchup. This is the part that needs the most patience on your part as you will need to literally stand there and 'watch the pot boil'. This part incidentally reminded me of the witches song from Shakespeare's Macbeth

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. 

As the ketchup simmers you can sterilize your container. choose a glass or stainless steel container with a lid, place it in a pot of water and bring to a rolling boil. Let the container dry naturally and fill it with the hot ketchup. immediately close it with the lid and let it stand till it reaches room temperature. you can then transfer it to the refrigerator for a longer shelf life. As this ketchup does not contain any preservatives it is best to refrigerate it  and consume it within three months.