How to Make Ajvar, Pt. 2

After Pt. 1, we were left with these cooked and slimy peppers. We roasted some eggplants, not pictured, to add more bulk to the ajvar.

A bowl of the roasted peppers, de-seeded, skinless, and slimy.

We ran the peppers through a meat grinder. Back in the old days, one grinder would be shared amongst a number of families, and dozens of people - well, just women, honestly, would share in the ajvar cooking.


After grinding down all the peppers, and adding about two liters of oil and unhealthy levels of salt, the ajvar pot goes back on the ajvar stove. It bubbles and boils like lava as it cooks down, and needs to be stirred constantly.


After 3 or 4 hours - when it has that "special ajvar glow" according to one elderly Macedonian expert - it's ready for the jars. We got about 9 large jars out of the 25 kilos of peppers and 7 kilos of eggplant.


The best part, of course, is cleaning the pot with bread and cheese at the end.