#ajvar

Ajvar posting. Pictures are from 13th and 14th of September this year.

Heute spielte eine halbe Fußballmannschaft gegen den Hunger:

Frikadellen und Gehacktesröllchen aus gewürztem Schweinehack, Ei, eingeweichtem Brötchen, Zwiebel und Senf. Ab in den Airfryer: 220 Grad, 12–13 Minuten, saftig-kross! Dazu Basmatireis mit Brühe, Zitronenabrieb aus dem Multi-Topf und ein schneller Dipp aus Schmand mit Ayvar. Ergebnis: Alle schrien nur noch „Nochmaaal & meeehr!“ ;))

©️®️CWG.2026

I live in Krakow for almost year but had no idea that we have park named "Little Croatia". Spent some time there, got free ajvar, got some Podravka merch and nice accesory from Karlovac ❤️

Podravka is croatian company that produces ajvar (eggplant & red pepper paste), vegeta (famous mix of spices from Croatia) and much more (even tea). Podravka is placed in Koprivnica.

Karlovac is city placed close to Zagreb. Raised by Charles II of Austria in 1579. It was raised to during Ottomans war times. Also in 1991 croatian army fought there against serbian army. Same events happened in 1995. In quarter "Turanj" combats were most bloody, and currently in Turanj is placed Museum of Civil War.

There's one specific pepper preserve I wanted to make really badly because it's the best tasting thing ever, and I never knew how it was made. We call it „ajvar“, it's sorty like a pepper chutney type of thing. It takes a lot of peppers, and some eggplants, and the process of making it was very intimidating.

You're supposed to roast the peppers, then peel them and clean the seeds out, then grind or blend them, then cook them, mix with grinded eggplants, oil, salt, sugar and vinegar, cook a long time while stirring, then preserve in jars. A lot of work!

I knew my first time making it was going to be filled with mistakes, but also that I have to go thru it, or I would never get to the second and third time, when I would know exactly what I'm doing. I planted the peppers, waited very late into season for them to get red, harvested a big amount, and here's me preparing to roast them in an oven:

See? That was my first mistake, I introduced way too many green ones, because I didn't want them to go to waste! I didn't think it would matter that much. I was wrong, but it's okay.

So my next fallout was hilarious because it was only after I started this that my brain alerted me, that I do not, in fact, own a grinder, or blender, or a food processor of any sort, which is just, great time to remember this. But, a solution was found! I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but I cut them all to small bits, then later, while cooking, smashed them with the potato-mashing thing. Texture was so similar to what it's supposed to be like, I can't complain. Cutting and cleaning them took forever.

I also didn't have any eggplants at this point, but it's possible to make it without eggplants, so, no big deal. A bigger deal is that I was very low on oil, which is necessary, but as I was unwilling to visit a grocery store just for oil, I decided to just put a small amount in and then add oil in the future, when I'm eating it. We'll see if that works out.

Okay so by the time this was cooked, mashed, mixed with salt, vinegar, sugar and oil, it was already night time. I got the most of the big pot filled and the mix is oddly brownish in color, instead of red as it should be, but that's due to all those green peppers that were not supposed to be in there.

This is where I realized it tastes weird, not bad, but, like something is off with it, it doesn't follow the original taste, and it's most likely due to green peppers, some of them were unripe and they gave it acidic and funky taste. Also, I added in a lot of different varieties and most hybrids, you're supposed to use only red horn peppers. But it doesn't taste horrible. To me it's still good! I don't think I'll have any problems eating this at all. I wouldn't give it out or offer to people, because I know they would look at me weird and think I'm tryna poison them, but for my first time, I'm pleased with it!

I don't think there was much wrong with my process of making this, except maybe I didn't roast them for long enough (I only did it for 15 minutes), it was only the choice of peppers that set it a bit wrong. I actually ordered the red horn heirloom pepper seeds for the next summer, so this will be amended! Meanwhile I'll be eating this on my tortillas and bread and with mashed potatoes and I think it'll be just fine for my first year of having it homemade.