red pepper ketchup and some no shows

the bane of every restaurant is the no-show. it's irksome when you can't fill the restaurant but more so when you've had to turn down 5 tables the same night. the issue that we face is, what do you do? ring the number that made the booking, that always brings to mind david foster wallace, who suggested that we try to see what the issue could be from the other side. god forbid an emergency of some sort, followed by a restaurant pursuing a booking. that said, the four cars that overtook me in a a 300 mph zone in saint nicholas at about 4.30 yesterday, it couldn't all have been an emergency, so you're most probably all a***holes. sorry mister wallace.

to the recipe. last week i gave the recipe for the polenta, so this week the ketchup. this will make quite alot.

1 jar of roasted peppers in vinegar, i like the lidl variety.
1 large onion
a couple of cloves of garlic
250g tomatoes
some ground ginger, cumin and coriander to taste
sugar to taste.

the nice thing about this is that the vinegar is already there, you create with this as your canvas, so to speak (ludicrously).

sweat the onion and garlic in some oil, add the tomatoes and cook out a little. add the peppers and vinegar and the seasonings, tasting as you do. cook until everything has broken down and reduced. you should have a mix, that when blended, will be thick, like a ketchup. blend and bottle while still hot.