The Problem With Ketchup

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The UAE has been flooded recently with unwelcome little red guests and I'm not talking redback spiders here.

I'm talking Heinz ketchup from Pittsburgh.

I can almost see you doing the Scooby Doo 'HuuuUH'? at this point. Who cares where ketchup comes from, after all?

Well, me for a start. Because the Heinz Ketchup from Pittsburgh packs a whack of a processed food ingredient that really gets my goat - high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS to its friends. In fact, HFCS is the third largest ingredient by weight in the US version of the plate-side treat that we all know and love. It's why the ketchup is pleasingly gloopy, and yet its a highly processed, vile foodstuff that is 98% likely refined from genetically modified corn.

You'd not get away with this in Europe. And the 'standard' ketchup in the Middle East, made by Heinz' Egyptian subsidiary (it used to be a joint venture, but Heinz bought its partner out in 2009) actually uses sugar as a sweetener rather than the more controversial and dishonest HFCS. Why we're suddenly getting our ketchup in the UAE from Pittsburgh rather than Cairo is a mystery to me.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is nasty stuff. I've talked about it before over at the Fake Plastic blog - take a look, it's linked here and not pleasant reading.

So take a look at that ketchup bottle in your fridge. Just so's you know what you're eating. Or giving your kids to eat...

Baharat

This ‘masala’ or spice mixture is used extensively in Gulf cookery and you’ll need it to make matchbous. These quantities make a smallish amount, suitable for the experimenter rather than the dedicated ‘Gulf’ cook! Arab families will have their own favourite variant, but might like to try this one for a change...

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp broken cassia
• 1 tsp cloves
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp cardamom pods
• 1 tsp ground nutmedg
• 1 tbsp paprika

Grind the spices and bottle them. If you have to grind them in batches, mix them up well once they are bottled.

Couscous

A mightily abused North African ingredient, it is also a very rude word in Arabic, just get the context and intonation wrong and you'll soon find yourself surrounded by people rendered totally helpless through laughter. If this happens, club them before they recover.

It helps to avoid phrases such as 'Mariam's couscous is really tasty'.

Couscous is a small grained semolina, made from durum wheat and used throughout North Africa and the Levant. The packs you buy in supermarkets have been pre-steamed, but the original stuff of North Africa is steamed over a broth. This means that supermarket couscous can be prepared simply by adding boiling water or stock, then fluffing it with a fork after it's soaked for a few minutes.

Buying pre-flavoured couscous, particularly with some daft chef-goon's face on it, is a terrible thing to do. What a waste of money and what a terrible thing to eat: all nature identical ingredients that fill your mouth with the neon plasticity of too-strong, too-bright flavours.

No. Be an adventurer. Make your own couscous. Then add things as you see fit. Try it with a tagine or pop in some grilled vegetables to make a salad. Or make it with a strong stock and just have it nice and plain.