Traditionally, Ajvar is made from sweet bell peppers and eggplants. This sweet relish stems from the former Yugoslavia and can now be found throughout Southeast Europe. The recipe can be adapted by adding chillies to make it more piquant. I have used Ben’s recipe as inspiration.
Head straight on to the Recipe For ♥ Ajvar ♥
Back in the ‘olden days’ when I first started blogging, things looked a little bit different. I did a daily diary so the record of what was going on in my life was not kept for perpetuity. But then, to save time, I started sharing my daily life in my blog posts. Now, I know for some people this is frustrating. They just want to get straight to the recipe. But it has been a way of me telling my story, and having memories. However, a lot of things changed in October. I saw how awful the world could be in reaction to a terrorist attack. People chanting and taking the side of terrorists who put a baby into an oven! And as I sit and write this, the world feels like it will never be the same again. My heart is sore as my granddaughter would say.
Today’s inspirational recipe from Lavender and Lime ♥ Ajvar ♥ #LavenderAndLime Share on X
I feel like my goings on do not matter that much. And I do not want to enter into the realm of being a political debater. I stand for religious tolerance and believe all lives matter. But, there is no justification for raping women, beheading children, and all the other atrocities in the Wars the world is experiencing. I feel like I just don’t have the energy needed to talk about the triviality of my life here. To distract my emotions away from all the hurt I am feeling as I listen to my so called friends stand on what I consider the wrong side of history. And so. I am moving away from telling you all about myself. Next year, things will look different around here. I am not sure how long the change will last for but for now it is what I need to do.
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Ajvar
Ingredients
- 260 g pimento peppers
- 200 g eggplant
- 2 cloves garlic
- 15 mls olive oil
- 5 mls apple cider vinegar
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200° Celsius
- Place the peppers into an ovenproof dish and place into the oven for 30 minutes
- Remove from the oven and place into a bowl, and cover with a towel
- Stab the eggplant several times with a knife then place into the ovenproof dish you used to cook your peppers
- Place into the oven for 30 minutes
- Remove from the oven and set aside
- Place the garlic into the same dish, place into the oven and turn it off
- Remove the peppers from the bowl, destem and peel off the skin
- Remove the seeds and place the flesh into a blender
- Destem the eggplant then peel the skin off
- Cut the eggplant in half then roughly chop before adding to the blender
- Remove the garlic from the oven, remove the paper and place the garlic into the blender
- Add the oil and vinegar and season generously
- Blend the ingredients until smooth
- Pour the ajvar into a heavy bottomed saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes over a low temperature, stirring occasionally
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool before adjusting the seasoning
- Serve at room temperature and store in an airtight container in the fridge
For those of you celebrating, I trust your Christmas was meaningful! We had friends over for lunch, and tomorrow we are celebrating with the family. I will pop in to my blog again on the 28th.
View the previous posts on December 26:
- 2021: The Echo Chamber
- 2018: Piccolo Loft San Tommaso
- 2016: Spelt Pasta
- 2010: Christmas 2010
sorry to hear you are feeling overwhelmed Tandy. yes these are hard times to comprehend. Look after yourself! cheers Sherry
Thank you Sherry!
I understand completely. Great recipe.
Thank you Mimi xx
Hi Tandy, I am really sorry to read the content of this post. I don’t understand the world either. We are living in strange and scary times. Hugs.
We are living in the worst of times, with the focus on one place, when it should be all over!
Yeah, I never would have thought that a food blog could be affected by anything really except food – until February, 2022 when war in Ukraine started. So I think I can imagine what you think. Regardless, a little change could be beneficial for blogging and inspiration. And this spread? Delicious – need to make it again! 🙂
Very interesting recipe I shall definitely copy.
Unlike you I have always been a commentator of and in politics. No – I won’t ‘begin’ but, for instance, would you read about matters like ‘the rape of Freudenstadt’ in Europe, at the end of WWII, ALLOWED to be committed by the Allies in ‘retribution’ . . . I was there when 34 of the incoming ALLIED forces raped my 18-year-old babysitter . . . and the rest . . . there is nought new under the sun . . . as a matter of fact less happens than did then!
I feel we should all know what came before, and not shy away from reading about the atrocities committed by all sides – and in the name of war – what a poor excuse to justify terror.
A Christmas story – during the last year of WWII I was a refugee child living in the supposed Lazarettstadt of Freudenstadt in the Black Forest. We were dying of hunger. Mom had a local artist friend who kept 4 chickens in her cellar – well outside they would have lasted ten minutes! Once a week i walked across the field to get two precious eggs to help keep me alive. Towards the end of the war of then daylight bombings of Munich, Stuttgart et al on the return journey US fighters would ‘amuse’ themselves in strafing any ‘singles’ they could find. Scary for a small kid !!! OK – got caught again – the plane swept over at tree-height – I nearly ‘died’! A couple of minutes later I heard hi back and was more scared than I have ever been! Noise, clonks, things falling . . . and then he was gone. I was alive. Not shot!!! But there were a whole lot of ‘little things’ around me . . . what looked like chocolate, an orange (!!!!!!) and other ‘bars’, a somewhat ‘broken’ banana et al . . . I collected all and scuttled home. Dad tried each in small bits each day to see they were safe . . . then I had the biggest party in town for a week ! Dad prayed for the guy who saw the big picture!!!
What a blessing that man was! And as the Talmud says, to save one life means to save the world entire! What a scary and awful childhood. And my prayers are for these wars all over the world to end xx
I could not resist tho’ this has been told before > we were desperately hungry that final year but the glorious forests around us grew huge amounts of mushrooms. People were too scared to go pick and the ‘patrolling’ Hitler Youth frightened too much. We knew how to manage the last!
OK – we desperately needed food – so Dad and I went gathering! Hardly any effort! Until the day I rushed to a ‘big lot’ near a bush and saw a pair of eyes scanning me -Dad had warned me so I looked back and said ‘freund’ ! Yup, still scary!!! Suddenly three guys stood up – Dad went to them – he did not speak English – so it was’hands, knees . . . ‘ I was told to get back to the forest path and walk back-and-forth. If anyone came I was to face their way and ‘tie’ my shoe . . . the more I did the more difficult i saw the situation.
Dad tried to explain the shotdown Brit and US pilots how to get to Switzerland and southern France – trains, roads . . . gave all the money in his wallet, learned a few English words . . . on the way home asked me to keep all this 100% US! No problem. He was an army-guy after all!
Yes, we did it keep it going till the end . . . oh, we carried food we could not afford . . , yes, there were a number of ‘others’ . . , a Brit guy with a daughter my age actually slid down to embrace me and managed a contact after . .. actually warm memories now of an impossible time . . . E
How beautiful you have a warm memory of that time! One cannot imagine trying to explain to a soldier you mean no harm when the language you speak is not the same as his.
When one is facing death matters become very easy! About 15 years later I brought my new husband back to ‘show-and-tell’ (found out one could not!) Visited Anni who had kept a deli out-of–food at the time. She remembered I would sneak in the back door to beg for food for the pilots ‘Anni, die werden sterben, BITTE!’ . . . actually it is not difficult . . .
You can never show something the horrors and expect them to understand, if they were not there. My Grandmother never spoke of the War and what she went through!
I have seen jars of Ajvar here is South Florida where we have a huge Eastern European community. I do like it and I’ll try your recipe. Looks delicious. Thanks! It is saddening to see the anti-semitism from “friends” who I feel sometimes don’t really understand the history. As Hillary Clinton said when they ask for a cease fire- YOU HAD A CEASE FIRE- YOU BROKE IT!!
Also, Bill Maher has done a wonderful history recap that is very powerful that I have shared with friends who see the other side…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-CRXROorw&t=1s.
The history recap is worth sharing!
Yeah, I never would have thought that a food blog could be affected by anything really except food – until February, 2022 when war in Ukraine started. So I think I can imagine what you think. Regardless, a little change could be beneficial for blogging and inspiration. And this spread? Delicious – need to make it again! 🙂
Thank you so much for the inspiration to make this, and for understanding where I am coming from 🙂
Final huge fun! After the war Anni married the chef and owner of just the about famous ‘Gasthaus’ (Inn) in the area – probably the most handsome man I have met in my life! Well, as it happened, his grandfather was the very original chef of a Black Forest Cake!!! I have eaten THE absolute original . . . well, i talked and husband dear ate the whole damn thing !!!
Now, that is a story well worth sharing! Where was the Gasthuas?
In a tiny village about 16kms outside Freudenstadt . . . y’know – a very comfortable restaurant and half-a-dozen ‘gemutlich’ rooms upstairs . . . probably died out as there was no issue . . .
That is about 70km from where my Aunt lives in Reutlingen.