Preparation

Cup of Yum
1. Rinse the tomatoes well in water.
2. Slice the top eye parts of the tomatoes. Roughly chop the tomatoes.
3. Discard spotted parts or peels.
4. Peel and rinse the garlic, ginger. Later roughly chop them.
5. Halve and deseed the dry red chilies.
6. Rinse the raisins and keep aside.

Cooking tomatoes

1. In a huge pot or casserole or a 4 to 5 litre pressure cooker, take all the chopped tomatoes.
2. Add the ginger, garlic, red chilies, raisins, vinegar, salt and sugar.
3. Mix well and keep the pot or cooker on a low to medium flame on the stove top.
4. Keep on stirring at intervals.
5. When the tomatoes soften, switch off the fire. The softening takes about 25 to 27 minutes.
6. When the mixture is slightly hot or warm, blend the puree with an immersion blender or in a regular blender. If using a regular blender, then don't add too hot of the tomato mixture.
7. Make a smooth puree.
8. With a strainer which is not very fine, strain the puree very well directly into a pot or a large sauce pan.
9. Strain very well. Now you can sterilize the jar.

Sterilizing jar for storing tomato sauce

1. First rinse the jar. in a large sauce pan heat water till it reaches its boiling point - meaning it has begun to boil.
2. Immerse the jar and its lid in the hot water. Continue to boil the water along with jar for 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Remove the jar with the help of clean tongs and place the jar inverted on a thick towel kept on the kitchen tabletop. Let the jar dry naturally.

Making tomato sauce

1. Keep the pot or pan with the strained tomato pulp on the stove top,
2. On a low to medium flame, simmer the pulp till it starts thickening and reaches a ketchup like consistency. Takes about 35 to 40 minutes.
3. Heat 1 tsp of water in a small bowl. add ¼ teaspoon of sodium benzoate to the hot water.
4. Stir and dissolve the sodium benzoate. The preservative should be dissolved in the water.
5. Pour the sodium benzoate solution to the hot tomato ketchup. Mix and stir very well.
6. Pour the hot tomato sauce in the sterilized jar. Close tightly with the lid.
7. Let the sauce cool and be kept aside for some hours or a day. Then keep it in the refrigerator and use after 1 or 2 days.
8. Serve tomato sauce with any snack or appetizer.