bottles and jars

on the far right is the completed tomato vodka. it's very subtle, and the tomato sings a sweet, soft note. at first i strained it through a sieve only, and it was much murkier. the flavour was stronger as well, but not pleasantly so - almost as of fruit on the cusp - about to go off. i strained it again, through muslin this time, achieving the end result, and i am pleased. i'm trying to come up with a cocktail to showcase it, but until then... bloody marys! but for a bloody mary you need worcestershire, so...
my worcestershire sauce recipe:

• 1/2 white onion, chopped
• 1/2 granny smith apple, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 3 cloves
• 2 allspice berries
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 cup tamarind paste
• 3 tbs. palm sugar (it's a guess - slightly smaller then a golf ball size piece) - or brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
  
• 3/4 cup malt vinegar
• 2 cups water

crush the allspice and cloves fine in a mortar. heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onion, garlic, and ginger. season with salt and pepper and cook on low until the onions are translucent. add the apple and the spices and cook a minute further before adding all remaining ingredients. bring to a simmer and cook, covered, for 20 minutes. taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning - if it seems too vinegary add more sugar. strain and bottle.

i like it because the vegetarian worcestershire sauces that i have been able to find (all two of them) have been thick and syrupy. this recipe yields something more like lea & perrins in viscosity, sans the little fishies.the other jar is tomato ketchup - which i am going to call love-apple catsup from here on after a recipe in salt: a world history. the book mentions how ketchup had it's origins as a fermented fish sauce - so worcestershire and ketchup have something in common... nice segue... the recipe i used is from jamie oliver, pretty much verbatim except for substitutions made out of necessity, but it's quite good. i used it to make a thousand island dressing, which along with my sauerkraut combined to make some mighty tasty tempeh ruebens (i'm trying tempeh again) last night that i did not take pictures of.
to come full circle, here is the vodka before straining: