By JESSE GRAHAM
ONE sauce to rule them all was chosen earlier this month, in a valley-wide competition to find a winning sauce.
Healesville’s Barb Brandenberger was chosen as the winner of the sauce competition, run by Yarra Valley Gateway Estate on 12 April, with a modified family relish recipe.
Ms Brandenberger’s tomato and roasted red capsicum relish was so popular that it not only trumped around 40 other contenders with the official judging, but it won the People’s Choice award, too.
The relish stood out against the others in a competition which called for the best home-made tomato sauce of any kind – whether relish, chutney, pasta sauce or a classic pie-and-sauce product.
She was announced as the winner on 12 April in a judging day at the Coldstream business, and will receive a cooking class with Gary Cooper from local restaurant Bella Vedere.
Ms Brandenberger also scooped up a gourmet food hamper, as the winner of the People’s Choice award, and said she was excited to have been chosen the winner.
“It was my mum’s recipe, with a couple of tweaks to it,” she said.
“I went into it not thinking that I’ve have any chance, but you’ve got to be in it to win it.
“It’s very exciting and very unexpected!”
Yarra Valley Gateway Estate’s Brett Spurling organised the competition, which was run in conjunction with Gladysdale Bakehouse, Bella Vedere and Cunliffe and Waters, and said he was pleased with the response.
“We thought it was great to get 40 entries,” he said.
“One of the comments from one of our judges was that it was a very high standard of entries, and the entries were all local home-cooks.”
Mr Spurling said with the success of this year’s competition, he would most likely run another in 2015.
The second-place winner was Wendy Dunn, who made a classic tomato sauce – Ms Dunn will be receiving a dinner for two at Rustik Restaurant, organised by Gladysdale Bakery.
To see Ms Brandenberger’s award-winning recipe, visit mail.starcommunity.com.au.
Tomato and Roasted Red Capsicum Relish recipe
By Barb Brandenberger
2 kilograms tomatoes (peeled and diced)
4 large cloves garlic (finely chopped)
500 grams onions (finely diced)
4 tablespoons salt
750 grams sugar
4 teaspoons ground allspice
4 cups malt vinegar
2 tablespoons curry powder
4 teaspoons powdered mustard
2 tablespoons cornflour
4 medium sized red capsicums (roast until skin blackens, peel and dice when cool)
4 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
Steps:
1. Put tomatoes, onions and garlic into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt. Leave for 1 to 1.5 hours, then strain and discard liquid.
2. Put tomatoes, onions, garlic, capsicum and mustard seed into a large pan with sugar, vinegar and allspice. Bring to boil then simmer gently until mixture has reduced by almost half and tomato is soft.
3. Mix powdered mustard, curry powder and cornflour to a thinnish paste using some extra vinegar. Add to the tomato mixture slowly, all the time stirring. Cook for another few minutes until thick.
4. Bottle hot relish into hot, sterilised jars and seal straight away.
