Walking on my stomack...or how to make AJVAR in a few small steps

Ajvar, and the story of how to make it, simply has to be told. On one of the weekends that I visited my grandparents in Croatia, my mother also decided that we will make Ajvar there. Ajvar is a traditional food, sort of a relish, made out of roasted peppers and aubergines. It is made in September, when the first meaty peppers are ripe, and the story has it that the ones from Macedonia are the best! Hence, my mother dragged me early one morning to the big market, to go hackeling for the best peppers. I duly forgot to take my camera, hence no picts. But, I made up for it by snapping each stage of the Ajvar process. So here it goes...





It all starts with peppers, which need to be roasted, and we bought approx 30 kg of peppers! Also, aubergines are roasted too. Once the peppers are ready, they are left to cool down in a closed pot, so the skin will be easy to peel off. Peel off! Yes, I ended up in this scene of peeling peppers (the one hiding behind long hair), which is exclusevily reserved for women (feeling my simmering angerrrrr?!).




At the same time, this role division seem to work well, my uncle looks after the gas fire, my grandfather after the mincing of the peeled peppers, and my mother after everything else. My auntie and grandmother are also roped into the peeling process.
Once the peppers are peeled and aubergines prepared, they are tied into bags and hung overnight (also my uncle's responsibility).


The following morning the peppers and aubergines are minced, and cooked with loads of garlic and some spicy peppers in a huge pot, under the gas fire (not feeling comfortable with the idea of being blown to pieces with ajvar, so you can't tell which is me and which are peppers...nonono...)




All is well, and after a couple of hours of simmering, ajvar is ready, delicious, gorgeous, jammy!