The summer is over and that means we have only few weeks left to do some pickling and vegetable spread making in preparation for incoming winter months. I don’t find winters around here that cold any more, but they are still very long, way beyond calendar dates. It is not unexpected to wear a jacket all the way up to middle of June. That didn’t matter to me that much before, but as I am getting, lets say more mature, I am starting to miss long sunny days and mild climate I grew up with.
Home made preserves are what brings up some cheer to gloomy winter months and warms up your hearth (and stomach). In spring and early summer we start with fruit jams. We have made jams from grapes, blueberries, apricots, peaches, currants, plums and strawberries, but over the years we worked our way down to just two. Black currant and strawberry jams won the taste race as far as we are concerned and that is all we are making now.
In the fall we do some vegetable pickling, occasional sauerkraut, ajvar, adjika and this year we did ljutenica.
Ljutenica (љутеница) is a spicy vegetable spread that originated at Balkans and is part of Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian national cuisine. The root of the word ljutenica is “Ljuto” which means spicy hot which pretty much defines the essential characteristic of this spread. Ajvar is by far most popular vegetable spread and I would say ljutenica is at the very close second place. While these two spreads have similar shelf appearance they are very different. The key difference is that ajvar contains only roasted peppers, while ljutenica contains primarily tomatoes and small amount of hot peppers.
Ljutenica has a very versatile use from being a great side to fried eggs, barbecued meats to being an appetizer along with soft cheese and fresh bread.
Logically ljutenica we make ourselves is unlike anything that can be bought in the store. As a rule the home made taste is out of this world!
It has that strong sweet and sour, savory tomato kick that can be reproduced only if coming from good and ripe field tomatoes. We did our picking at the local farm grounds and the taste was just so good! Few pounds of these tomatoes were literarily inhaled, as we brought them home! We enjoyed them paired with various cheeses we had, prosciutto and fresh flat bread. It was so good that we couldn’t stop eating! I mean that perfect balance of acidity and sweetness was simply amazing!
Hot peppers we used in the recipe I grew in pots on our backyard deck. This year I pretty much focused exclusively on hot peppers and planted four different varieties.
The process of making ljutenica is fairly time consuming, but simple and easy. I find it rather being meditating like experience. All the colors, scents and flavors experienced during the process are mesmerizing and well worth the effort.
Ljutenica is packed in sterilized glass jars and stored in cool and dark place, basement or garage would do.
The recipe has been adapted from “Kuvajmo lako“.
| Prep Time | 30 min |
| Cook Time | 3 hours |
| Servings |
liters
|
- 5 kg ripe tomatoes
- 200 ml vegetable oil
- 150 ml wine vinegar or apple vinegar
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp sea salt
- 300 g hot peppers washed
- 2 tsp dry basil
Ingredients
|
|
- Wash tomatoes and with sharp knife make cross like 5 cm (2") incision on top of each tomato.
- Fill large pot with cold water, set aside.
- Fill medium size pot with water and over high heat bring to boil, set aside.
- Gently lower several tomatoes at the time into boiling water and keep for 1 minute.
- Use kitchen skimmer to remove hot tomatoes and put them into a pot with cold water. Let them cool off for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove each cooled tomato and peel off the skin.
- Cut the tomato in half and remove hard stem end part, cut tomato into small slices. Repeat the same procedure with the rest of tomatoes.
- Into large pot add vegetable oil, wine vinegar, sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- Over medium heat (5 out of 10) bring to boil.
- Add cut tomatoes to the pot, Reduce heat to medium low (3 out of 10) and simmer with lid off for about 1.5 hour, stir occasionally.
- Stir in salt and simmer for about another 1.5 hour or until the oil start appearing on the surface, stir sporadically.
- In the heated oven sterilize clean jars and lids.
- In a medium skillet over high heat lightly brown whole hot peppers.
- Stir hot peppers into tomato sauce and cook for another 10 minutes.
- Add basil to the sauce and stir until incorporated.
- Fill the sauce into prepared sterilized jars. Cover the jars with thick blanket and leave overnight to cool off.
- Keep jars in a cool and dark place.
No Comments