Pantry Staple: Vegan Worcestershire Sauce

I like making my own pantry staples. It's often much cheaper to make your own (especially if its in bulk) than to buy. I also then know exactly what goes into it. The smell filled the entire house while I made this, it felt like a nice homey housewifey sort of thing to do. All I needed was a vintage apron, a flowery frock, and some heels. Yeah right. If the Beloved came home to find me dressed like that he probably would have thought he'd walked into the wrong house. So I just wore the vintage apron over some regular clothes :) 

If you keep the vinegar bottle you can wash it out and reuse it to keep your Worcestershire sauce in, which is not only thrifty but a good way to reuse something rather than chucking it out or recycling it. I won't lie to you, this is in no way an authentic sauce, but its a pretty good approximation and I just know the Beloved will like slathering it over vegie snags and mash. The capers stand in for the salty anchovies, and I decided to put in pomegranate molasses as a sweet sour stand in for tamarind paste ( I don't have anything against tamarind, I just thought I'd give it a miss). Don't use the cheap nasty artificially coloured brown vinegar - it's just not the same! The flavour will get better as it stores, but its perfectly ok to use straight away. You could even make a huge batch of it and bottle it for Christmas presents. Keep your beer bottles and wash them out, buy some new caps and you're away. 

This isn't gluten free, but if you wanted a gluten free version you could just use all apple cider vinegar.

Ingredients

750ml malt vinegar

250ml apple cider vinegar

280gr jar plum jam

1 tablespoon capers

1/4 cup pomegranate molasses

1/4 cup black strap molasses

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 brown onion, chopped roughly

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

2 tsp mixed spice

4 crushed cardamon pods

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp ground black pepper

pinch sea salt flakes

1 tablespoon sunflower oil for frying

Method

1.In a large heavy based saucepan, saute onions and garlic and salt in oil for a few minutes until soft.

2. Add all spices and stir for a minute to release their flavour and aroma. 

3.Add vinegars, molasses, and jam, and simmer for 45 minutes with a lid on (this limits evaporation). 

4. Turn off heat and allow to cool for about half an hour. Strain through a sieve and then funnel into your reserved bottle - you should end up with approximately 750ml.