Ajvar Making

Ajvar making is a traditional autumnal activity in Macedonia. It is a very work intensive process, so as a result has become an activity which the whole family participates in to make it manageable. Walking outdoors in the fall, the smell of roasting peppers pervades the air, one of the essentials for the creation of a truly Macedonian autumn. This year I got the privilege of experiencing it for the first time with my friend's family in Veles.

We started with 80 kilos of sweet red peppers, and about 25 kilos of eggplants. We washed them all then removed the middles and the seeds.














Next we roasted each pepper and eggplant on the woodstove, a very tedious, time consuming process.





After letting the roasted peppers and eggplants cool, we peeled each one by hand.













Finally, we put them all in a grinder, to grind them into a pulpy texture, then poured them in the big ajvar pan with some oil and salt. The pan stayed on the stove for several hours, during which we had to stir it almost constantly to keep it from sticking to the bottom.








So, we spent the whole day talking, drinking coffee, washing, roasting and peeling peppers together. We ended the day with a quintessential Macedonian meal of fresh ajvar, bread and sirenje (white cheese).