Macedonian Ajvar Recipe

Travelers who visit the Balkan are always pleasantly surprised by the organic produce, and local ingenuity for coming up with simple yet tasty recipes. The most popular dish, perhaps, is to be found in Macedonia. Called the caviar of the Balkans, Ajvar is a traditional dish that every Macedonian household knows how to prepare. Slight variations exist due to personal preference, but the core of the recipe is simple and sufficient.

Recent years saw the growing popularity of the Ajvar, and some strong claims about who owns the right to brag about its origin. Sold in large European cities, from some of the most successful Macedonian companies, westerners are becoming increasingly curious. Truth be told, the entire Balkan Peninsula enjoys the recipe, though it is much more popular in the small country of Macedonia. Autumn arrives, and you will see families preparing it in their backyards.

While traditional Macedonian Ajvar is prepared in large quantities, many people don't enjoy the luxury of firing up their barbecue or frying the red pepper mash on an improvised fireplace. Autumn season in Macedonia is a sight to behold specifically for this reason - many neighborhoods smell of Ajvar, and you can see improvised bakers and chimneys smoking the most urban areas.

Smoke is dotting the map even in the capital city of Skopje, as many families are preparing a significant stash of Ajvar for the rest of the year. The sight, indeed, is surreal.

However, for the purpose of this article, we will focus less on discovering Macedonia through its customs. Instead, I will try to adjust the recipe so you can prepare this wonderful red pepper mash in your kitchen. Whereas the Macedonians are cooking for a stash of 20-something jars, you will prepare a quantity for one or two. It is still the same taste, so don't worry!

Before we begin to roast and peel the peppers, let me introduce you to the list of ingredients. The recipe is rather simple, so you won't have to prepare a whole cart of produce. It goes like this:

• 2 Kg red peppers
• 1-2 eggplants (depending on size)
• 100 ml sunflower oil
• Half a tea spoon of vinegar
• Half a tea spoon of sugar

According to taste, you will add salt, black pepper, and maybe one chili pepper to spice it up and make it hot.

On the other hand, you will need a large oven pan if you are using the oven. If you'd like to use the barbecue, which is even better, then just something to flip the peppers with.

You will need a strainer as well, a meat grinder, and a deep pot with a wooden spoon to stir the mesh once its is ready for frying. So let's begin, shall we?

The first step is to roast the red peppers, along with the eggplant. Regardless of your method, make sure that the peppers are blackened and the skin can peel easily. Once this step is over, put the peppers in a glass container, or anything that is heat tolerant and offers some degree of insulation. Avoid plastic since you don't want those phytoestrogens in your food. The same goes for the eggplant, only in a separate container.

This step is necessary because of the heat generated by the enclosed container. Regardless of how much you decide to roast the peppers, they need the steamy heat in order to peel easily. Allow them, therefore, to sit in the container for half an hour before taking them out one by one, peeling the skin, and removing the handles and seeds.

For the eggplant, remove only the skin.

Once you complete this process, put the peppers on top of one another, and into a strainer. Most of the water will drain, and they will be dry for the frying process - which makes a lot of difference in both convenience and taste later on. The same goes for the eggplant, so two strainers is an ideal solution.

Let everything sit there over the night, or at least for several hours, and get back to finish the preparation.

Using the meat grinder, you will take all of the peppers and all of the eggplants, and perhaps the optional chili pepper too, and make a consistent mash. Grind the peppers and eggplants interchangeably so the mash is equally composed of both.

Vegetables are hard to put through a meat grinder for the sole purpose of being very soft and thin, so make sure to be careful and keep your fingers away from the bottom.

For taste, add a spicy chili pepper as well.

Once the mash is complete, start heating the deep pan, and put some oil coating on the bottom. Then, add the content and let it sit for a minute or two. The pot should be mildly hot, and you will have to start stirring very soon.

Stirring throughout the frying process, you will add the rest of the oil, as well as the sugar, vinegar, and salt. Make sure to fry the mash on a lower temperature setting, and spend at least one hour and a half.

Add half a clove of garlic as well.

The slower you fry the mash the better the taste. The indicator you will need to look for is the consistency of the mash - at the very end, you shouldn't be able to tell the texture from the grinding process all that easily. Macedonians like to say that the best fried Ajvar is the one that just begins to "stick" to the pot. Fine tuning this, however, takes a lot of burned bottoms, so you better take it off the fire a couple of minutes earlier.

Immediately after you remove the Ajvar from the fire, you have to start filling up those jars. Use a spoon and make sure that there is no air left in the jar. Close them tight and let them sit for two or three days, and you have your Ajvar ready.

However, you can also enjoy the mash right away, without bothering with jar containers at all. Simpy let it cool down, getting a thin crust on the top, and fill your spoon before spreading the Ajvar on a crunchy piece of bread.

Ajvar, in Macedonia, is often served with white cheese and crunchy bread. But you can combine this delicious red pepper mash with almost anything in the world. It is not a very healthy recipe (frying and all), and you will not get a lot of nutrients from a single serving on the side, but boy oh boy is it tasty!

Besides, the recipe doesn't require a lot of expertise to prepare, and it is very affordable. The cost of living in Macedonia is super low, so they tend to make this dish in unprecedented quantities.

Oh, and you will definitely impress your guests with Ajvar, since the taste is so potent yet vibrant that there is hardly anyone who stay indifferent towards it. Discovering Macedonia through food is perhaps one of the best ways to learn about its culture, and Ajvar is definitely the number one recipe that is typical for the region.