Ajvar recipe

Macedonian autumn preserve: roasted red horn peppers ground coarse and stewed for hours with oil until a spoon leaves a track.

16 hours and 40 minuteshard6 ingredients

Ingredients

• 5000 g red horn peppers
• 1000 g eggplant
• 400 ml sunflower oil
• 4 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp white vinegar

How to make Ajvar

1. Roast 5 kg of red horn peppers (roga or ajvarka type) and 1 kg of eggplant whole over an open fire or under a very hot grill until the skins are blackened and blistered all over.
2. Pile them into a covered pot for 20 minutes so the steam loosens the skins.
3. Peel everything, pull out the stems and seeds, then leave the flesh in a colander overnight. This draining decides whether your ajvar is thick or watery.
4. Grind the flesh through a meat grinder on a coarse plate. Do not use a blender, it turns ajvar into purée.
5. Put the mash in a wide heavy pot and cook it on low heat, stirring almost constantly with a wooden spoon, for 2 to 3 hours.
6. Pour in 400 ml sunflower oil in stages as it reduces, and add 4 crushed garlic cloves and 1 tbsp salt in the last 30 minutes.
7. It is done when a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a clear track and oil separates at the edges.
8. Stir in 2 tbsp vinegar, fill hot sterilised jars to the rim, seal them and let them cool upside down. They keep about a year.
9. Eat it at room temperature with bread and white cheese.

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