Week 48 - Ketchup

Have you ever heard of banana ketchup? I didn't know much about it until this ketchup theme came up, because apparently a lot of people really dislike tomato ketchup and needed alternatives. (Didn't know that either!) It's very popular in the Philippines, which made it not only a good choice for the ketchup challenge but also for another entry for the Philippines in our AtWCC.

I followed the recipe at Curious Cuisiniere for making the ketchup, and it was super easy. Onion, garlic, ginger, a couple of mashed bananas, tomato paste, brown sugar, white vinegar, water, and cayenne. Some time on the stove to thicken, then a little cooling, and then blend it all up. Banana ketchup! Super easy.

I didn't really know what to use the banana ketchup for, but on Curious Cuisiniere, they suggested tortang giniling, a Filipino beef omelette, which they also had a recipe for. If you've been reading here for a while, you might think that wasn't going to happen since I don't really cook much red meat at home, plus B has an egg allergy, but we made it work with Impossible Burger and Just Egg, two vegan products that I'm incredibly grateful exist.

In addition to those, the omelette included onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, and some vegetables. It was supposed to be peas, but in prepping the meal, I discovered we were actually out of frozen peas (forgot to update our freezer inventory!), so we ended up using a corn, carrot, and asparagus medley, from which I picked out all the stalks of asparagus because they wouldn't have matched texturally. Next time, hopefully we can use peas as intended.

The banana ketchup was delicious. It added similar flavors to tomato ketchup, but much sweeter and less acidic. It was fantastic with the omelettes. The plate usually also contains some garlic fried rice, but I didn't have time to make that. I tried to fake it by putting some minced garlic over rice, but not the same. Hopefully whenever we make this next (and we do intend to make it again), we can not only remember to get some peas, but also make some yummy garlic fried rice. I love discovering new meals from these challenges, and this was something we'd never had before in our visits to Filipino restaurants. I used up the rest of the banana ketchup making Filipino spaghetti, but that's a post for another time!