Ketchup
8590 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood

We visited Ketchup on Sunday @ 6pm
Dish we will try to cook – Threesome, fries and ketchup $10

Restaurant Visit
Maybe we just weren’t in a sunset strip kind of mood, but for us, Ketchup didn’t seem to live up to all the hype. However, we don’t want to come off too negative, so we’ll start with the positives. An amazing location is what makes the restaurant. You enter on the ground floor and are then led upstairs to the actual seating area. The entire wall that faces Sunset Blvd. is open, giving you the feeling of outdoor seating. Having arrived around 6pm, we had to wear sunglasses due to the glare from the setting sun, but once it went below the horizon the view was pretty nice.

Another positive was the drink menu. We tried the tropic thunder and the grape crush, both of which tasted like the kool aid drinks we had as kids – but of course with the grown up twist of vodka. Ketchup also has a pretty nice wine list should you want to go that route.

Classic American food with a fun twist is what they are known for. They have a bit of everything – pasta, burgers, seafood and even a few vegetarian dishes, which are always nice to see on a menu. We ordered the threesome (garlic parmesan, sweet potato and cajun fries with all five homemade ketchups), kobe burger blt sliders (two sliders, pickle, bacon, and homemade ketchup), vegetarian lasagna (vegetables in a rich tomato basil sauce baked with ricotta and mozzarella, topped with parmigiano reggiano, wild mushrooms, roasted bell pepper and olive oil) and our friend Megan, visiting from Chicago ordered the mini chicken tacos (grilled chicken, lime aioli, spicy guacamole, melted cheese and chipotle ketchup).

The sliders are served with a choice of Irish Cheddar or Blue Cheese. Of course, we tried both but decided the blue cheese was definitely our favorite as it packed a bolder punch of flavor. Both sliders came with a thick, juicy beef patty, slice of pickle, bacon and of course, ketchup. The chicken tacos were also miniatures of the traditional and came in blue corn shells. Five came on a plate, each topped with a squirt of ketchup and aioli. The vegetarian pasta was a surprising hit. Thinly sliced squash, zucchini and ricotta cheese were layered along with tomato sauce to create the lasagna, as the dish itself is actually pasta-less. A generous portion of mushrooms are then layered on top.

For the blog, we thought what better dish to recreate than the fries and ketchup 5 ways? Sure, the other dishes would be just as enjoyable, but when the restaurant is named Ketchup, you expect good ketchup! The dish is served with 5 ramekins of ketchup – maple, bbq, ranch, banana and chipotle. Banana was definitely the most unusual flavor and it was unmistakably banana. Once we got used to eating a substance that looked like ketchup but takes like banana, it kinda became addictive. The bbq ketchup also proved to be popular. Two flavors that seemed mild were the maple and the ranch. If we hadn’t known those were the flavors we were trying to decipher, we might not have noticed. The fries come in 3 flavors: thin cut cajun, regular cut sweet potato and thick cut garlic parmesan.

Now, since we’ve pointed out the positives in the décor and the menu, we feel it’s only fair to give our readers a full report of our overall impression of the restaurant. Well… we’re thinking it’s probably better to visit the place once it’s dark out side (which is actually when they are the most busy so maybe everyone else already figured that out) as the décor in daylight is a bit disappointing. Ketchup has only been open a few years, yet the place looks like it has already experienced a lot. The white chairs and tables had obvious scuff marks, as did the walls. And one of the dishes our ketchup was served in was both chipped and splattered with food. Maybe all the attention is going into the cooking, but we felt for all the hype, for the location and for the price, the place should be better taken care of.

Taking all things into consideration, Ketchup seems like the type of place to go for a late dinner with a large group of friends when your goal is to get the drinks flowing, fill the belly with some good food, and then party the night away along the strip. And once the sun goes down, the view just can’t be beat. Ketchup becomes a red glow with lights and pumps a dance vibe of music throughout.

Shopping
(prices reflect the cost of the package, not the portion we used.) The rest of the ingredients we already had in the kitchen.

Ralphs-
Sweet Potatoes $3.96
Lemon $.69
Bananas $.92
Chipotle Peppers $1.79
Buttermilk $2.59
Mace Spice $3.29
Celery Seed Spice $3.69
Worcestershire Sauce $1.69

Santa Monica Farmers Market-
Russet Potatoes $3.50
Roma Tomatoes $3.10

Vons-
Peanut Oil, 1 gal. $15.99
Cheese Cloth $4.99

Recipe
Below is our experiment making homemade french fries and 5 different flavors of ketchup.

Ketchup-

2 1/2 lbs roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 medium brown onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp allspice
4 whole cloves
1/2 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
Salt and black pepper to taste

On a layer of cheesecloth, wrap bay leaf, clove, celery seeds, cinnamon stick and peppercorns. Tie into a bundle. Place in saucepan and add tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt, vinegar, sugar, allspice and mace. Turn heat to medium-high and cook until onions are soft, around 40 minutes. Remove spice bundle. Puree with an immersion blender, or an upright blender. Use a strainer and strain sauce over saucepan, spooning through any lumpier areas. Turn saucepan to medium and cook until thickened to ketchup texture, about 35 minutes.

Maple Syrup Ketchup-
1/3 cup homemade ketchup
1/2 tsp maple syrup

Combine ketchup and maple syrup. Let marinate for 30 minutes to marry flavors.

BBQ Ketchup-
1/3 cup homemade ketchup
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne

Combine ketchup with rest of ingredients. Let marinate for 30 minutes to marry flavors.

Ranch Ketchup-
1/3 cup homemade ketchup
1/8 cup buttermilk
1 TBSP mayonnaise
1/4 tsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp chopped fresh chives
1/8 tsp chopped fresh dill

Combine ketchup with rest of ingredients. Let marinate for 30 minutes to marry flavors.

Banana Ketchup-
1/3 cup homemade ketchup
1/4 banana, sliced

Blend ketchup and banana together using an immersion blender

Chipotle Ketchup-
1/3 cup homemade ketchup
1 chipotle pepper in adobo, chopped

Blend ketchup and chipotle together using an immersion blender.

French Fries-

Cajun Fries-
2 medium russet potatoes
1/2 gallon peanut oil, for frying
Cajun seasoning to taste

Using a food processor, mandoline, or French fry cutter, cut the potatoes into 4mm x 4mm strips. Heat oil in a saucepan at 275 degrees. Add fries a handful at a time, cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove with tongs or mesh strainer. Drain on paper towel. Turn heat up to high until oil reaches 350 degrees. Cook fries again for 1 minute, or until fries are golden brown. Remove from oil onto towels to drain. Season with Cajun seasoning.

Parmesan Fries-
2 medium russet potatoes
1/2 gallon peanut oil, for frying
Parmesan cheese, grated, to taste
Salt to taste

Using a knife, cut potatoes into 1/4” x 1/4” strips. Heat oil in a saucepan at 275 degrees. Add fries a handful at a time, cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove with tongs or mesh strainer. Drain on paper towel. Turn heat up to high until oil reaches 350 degrees. Cook fries again for 1 minute, or until fries are golden brown. Remove from oil onto towels to drain. Season with parmesan cheese and salt.

Sweet Potato Fries-
2 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 gallon peanut oil, for frying
salt and pepper to taste

Using a food processor, mandoline, or French fry cutter, cut the potatoes into 6mm x 6mm strips. Heat oil in a saucepan at 275 degrees. Add fries a handful at a time, cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove with tongs or mesh strainer. Drain on paper towel. Turn heat up to high until oil reaches 350 degrees. Cook fries again for 1 minute, or until fries are golden brown. Remove from oil onto towels to drain. Season with salt and pepper.

Plating-
There really is no wrong way to plate fries and ketchup. Either find 3 large ramekins or a dish with 3 compartments and place the fries in it. Same with the ketchup, any 5 dishes will work. Serve and explore which flavor of fries works best with the different flavors of ketchup.

Rating – We give our dish 1.5 out of 5 stars.

We know what you’re thinking, how could we have done such a horrible job with fries and ketchup? Well, we actually think we did a pretty good job but we certainly didn’t hit all their flavors perfectly. The fries themselves were way more difficult to make that we would have thought. Chopping is more precise and faster if you have a food processor but the tricky part was getting the oil hot enough. If you have a home fryer, you’ll probably find this step a lot easier than we did. If you don’t have a fryer ready at your fingertips, make sure you buy a thermometer for more accurate temperature.

Making ketchup at home was quite rewarding. We recommend everyone trying it at least once. Even just the basic ketchup flavor was surprisingly very similar to Heinz. The individual flavors, on the other hand, were a lot more difficult. The ranch and maple syrup seemed to be our more successful dishes. The bbq however, we think fell short. Ketchup’s seemed to taste like bbq ketchup and ours was more like ketchup that kind of tasted like bbq. Their banana ketchup also had a much stronger flavor of banana than ours had. We think they may also have used banana flavoring instead of only real bananas.

So, next time you feel like frying food at home, consider making some fries and ketchup. Experiment with russet and sweet potatoes and different cuts. Also play around with different ways to flavor ketchup, you can probably come up with more than the 5 we have here.

How would you rate our recipe? We look forward to hearing feedback from you guys on whether you think we got close or if we missed the mark, what would you add to make the dish better. Do you have some special trick for making fries at home? Feel free to email us if you have any questions on the cooking instructions and don’t forget to vote for next week’s restaurant!

Tags: fries, Ketchup

This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Side Dishes, Vegetarian. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.