Tomato Juice

This will be a two (maybe three) part recipe.  The first part of this recipe will be making Tomato Juice.  The second part of the recipe will call for Tomato Juice.  To make this recipe, I modified a couple of other online recipes.  I found making tomato juice was a little like making Ketchup, but with obviously different results.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. Very ripe Tomatoes

(Since it's early in the season, I had to let these sit in a bag in the window sill for a few days to ripen.)

2 Stalks of Celery - Chopped with leaves

2 T. Raw Sugar

*Cuts the acidity of the tomatoes.  You can probably use less for riper tomatoes.

1 t. Salt

1 t. Cayenne Pepper

1 dash Black Pepper

Directions:

1.   Chop the tomatoes into quarters or eighths.  Cut off the green parts and the bad spots.  Squeeze the seeds out.

2.  Blend tomato pieces on liquefy for a full minute.

3.  Put blended tomatoes and all other ingredients together into a non-corrosive pot. 

4.  Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down to simmer.  Simmer for 20-25 minutes.

5.  Pour mixture through a strainer into a large bowl to strain out the celery and excess pulp.  Discard the celery (or eat it, as I did, because it was yummy) and pulp.

6.  Let the tomato juice cool in the bowl, then put it into a jar and chill in the refrigerate before serving.

*By the way, despite it saying it was published by Kristen, it was still published by Fr. Foodie.  She took and uploaded the pictures.  (Grrr...Blogger!)