Ajvar for the winter: secrets of a Serbian recipe with roasted peppers and eggplants
Ajvar is a famous Balkan caviar or roasted red pepper spread for the winter.
It is especially popular in Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it is traditionally prepared in the fall during the harvest.
Ajvar recipes are a classic of Balkan cuisine, but why not make it yourself? We've picked a truly Serbian recipe and will tell you how it's prepared in its homeland.
But if you think that cooking is too laborious and time-consuming, you can show your culinary creativity and create your own recipe based on the basic one.
Ingredients
- red sweet pepper — 2 kg
- eggplants — 700–730 g
- sunflower oil — approximately 150–180 ml for frying
- salt — 1 tsp without a large slide, approximately 10 g
- sugar - about half a tsp, 5 g
How to cook Serbian ajvar for the winter
- Wash the peppers and eggplants, pat dry, and bake in the oven at high temperature until tender. The peppers will take about 45–55 minutes to bake, the eggplants will be ready a little faster.
Sweet peppers for ajvar must be roasted - on the grill, over wood, or in the oven - until the skin is charred, which is what gives the sauce its unique smoky flavor.
- Transfer the hot vegetables to separate bowls. Peel the peppers, remove the stems and seeds.
Never rinse roasted peppers with water to make it easier to peel! Water will wash away the natural sugars, oil, and smoke. Only peel peppers with dry hands.
- Peel the eggplants as well. Place the vegetables under a press for 6 hours to drain excess juice.
If you don't remove the juice, the ajvar will have to be simmered for hours, and it will lose its bright color.
- Grind the vegetables with a meat grinder or in a food processor, but do not turn them into a completely smooth puree.
Real ajvar should have a fine-grained texture, so the pepper is passed through a meat grinder with a medium or fine mesh.
- Pour about 50 ml of oil into a wide saucepan and add the eggplants. Cook for 15–20 minutes, stirring constantly. Then add the pepper.
- Simmer the ajvar over very low heat for at least an hour. Gradually add the remaining oil in small portions, stirring frequently to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom.
The oil is added in a thin stream as it simmers, not all at once. It should completely emulsify with the vegetable mixture, making it shiny and creamy.
- About 20 minutes before the end of cooking time, add salt and sugar. Continue cooking until the ajvar becomes thick, rich, and starts to pull away from the bottom of the pan when stirred.
The sauce is ready when a wooden spatula leaves a clear path on the bottom of the pan that does not fill with mass within a few seconds.
- Pour the finished ajvar into sterilized jars and seal them. Store in a cool place.
