Here in California, you could easily assemble a meal from prepacked components almost every night of the week. There are pre-formed hamburger patties, sure to please our six-year-old; par-baked loaves of artisanal bread, even packages of coleslaw with squeezable pouches of dressing to toss together. While we haven’t used too many of these shortcuts, knowing they’re out there is reassuring. Sure it’s cheaper to buy a bunch of green beans and top and tail them yourself, but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day and you can throw together some pretty impressive meals in a short time using pre-prepared ingredients.

Case in point: this salad. Trader Joe’s sells steamed beets and pre-cut butternut squash right next to its bags of salad mix. A little farther down the aisle are the cheeses, I grabbed smoked mozzarella because the kids love it. Nab some bread (oh, and maybe some of the chocolate-covered almonds, them’s healthy fats) and head home to your new favorite salad.

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Arugula salad with roasted squash and beets

adapted from Five and Spice

 

If you are using pre-cooked beets, you only need to roast them for 5-10 minutes at the end of the squash’s cooking time.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings

• 3 medium beets
• 1 medium (1-2 lb.) butternut squash, or one package of pre-cut squash
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 4 ounces (115 grams) smoked mozzarella cheese, diced
• 6 ounces (170 grams) arugula, three or four big handfuls
• salt and pepper

For the dressing:

• 1 Tbs + 1 tsp good-quality olive oil
• 1 Tbs + 1 tsp whole-grain Dijon mustard
• ½ clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
• salt to taste

Method

• Prepare a pot with a steamer insert. Remove the tops and scrub the beets so they’re nice and clean, then chop them into about ½-inch cubes, and steam for 10-12 minutes or until they are just beginning to get tender (stick a fork one in to check).
• Preheat the oven to 400° F (200° C) and lightly coat/spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil. While the beets are cooking, prepare your squash: if you have a whole squash, cut off the “neck”, peel it and dice it into ½-inch cubes. (You can also peel and cut up the bulbous part and clean out the seeds, but I usually save that for another time.) If you’re using pre-cut squash, just make sure the pieces are all about the same size as the beets. Toss with the teaspoon of olive oil to coat, and spread on the prepared baking sheet.
• When the beets have steamed, put them on the baking sheet with the squash. They’ll color the squash where they touch, but I consider that a feature, not a bug. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper, and slide into the oven to bake for about 20 minutes, tossing once halfway through.
• While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the dressing: whisk together the mustard and oil, and stir in the garlic. Add the maple syrup, and then the vinegar, tasting to see that the proportions are as you like. Add salt as needed.
• Rinse and dry the arugula.
• When the vegetables are tender and starting to brown, take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes.
• In the biggest bowl you have, toss the vegetables, arugula, and mozzarella with the dressing and serve.

I stopped eating meat mainly because I was 14 and it seemed like a cool thing to do, but then found I didn’t miss it and haven’t really missed it  in the [redacted] years since. While I believe that it makes sense to reduce the number of animal products we use, I have never had much of a rationale for vegetarianism, and never felt much inclined towards being vegan. I’m way too lazy to monitor my diet that closely – living with three committed omnivores, I am okay with picking the sausage out of my favorite lentil soup. I’ll cook meat for everyone else, although they have to make their peace with the fact that I won’t taste it to check how it is. What about your family? Do you have a pescatarian in your midst? Or lurking lactose intolerance? How do you handle multiple dietary needs around the table?

So back to the subject of this post. Despite being happily ovo-lacto myself, my most beloved cake recipe is, by chance, vegan. It’s a Bundt cake and pretty much my stock answer to “what should your birthday cake be?” Although it’s extremely easy to make, it falls into the category of a special occasion cake so it’s not a one I make or eat too often, and that’s not right. When I started seeing cookies baked from cake mix around the internet, a little light  went off over my head. Could this be a way to get a dose of chocolate spice deliciousness whether it’s a birthday or not?

Indeed. Baked for ten minutes, these cookies are delightful puffy, pillowy little cakelets, gooey with chocolate chips and perked up with cinnamon and cloves. But try underbaking them by a minute or two, and you will get what I consider the ideal consistency, which is amazing, almost pudding-y. And  what with them being vegan and all, no worries about raw eggs – go ahead and eat a spoonful or two of the dough, you have my permission.

The canonical version of the cake does not include raisins, although they are in the recipe as written on an index card in my mother’s file. These are to be soaked in brandy or other liquid, and while I scornfully cast out the raisins, I do include that liquid; coffee (what else?) in our household. Feel free to booze it up if you have some handy.

Chocolate spice cookies

Since the original cake is by nature a bit heavy, I used some whole wheat flour in the cookies to give them some heft. You could use all all-purpose, but add the coffee/liquid gradually to see that the mixture doesn’t get too thin. It will thicken some if you refrigerate it for a few hours or overnight.

Ingredients

Makes about 3 dozen smallish cookies

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ cup applesauce
• ⅓ cup canola oil
• ¼ cup brewed coffee, cooled (or brandy, or other liquid of your choice)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a baking pan with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, spices, baking soda, salt and cornstarch. Add the sugars. Stir in the applesauce and oil, then add the coffee and mix until fully combined. The dough will be soft.
• Scoop the dough out in rounded teaspoons on the baking sheet.
• Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until just puffed – leave them to set for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a plate to be gobbled immediately cool.

As a little sendoff for this year, I’ve compiled our weekly menus into a year-long calendar of dinners. It was interesting to see which ones were repeated most often (can you tell we have a kid who loves burgers?), and how often we cooked versus going to a restaurant or getting takeout (although the meal plans are a little unreliable there, since they’re done in advance and if we end up at our favorite pizza place at the last minute it isn’t reflected in the plan). I have included links to the recipes that have them, and I hope you’ll find some useful ideas for your own dinners in the year ahead.

A big thank you for reading here, and I hope the new year is more delicious than ever!

2011 Year in Menus

Whether you went to preschool, ovoda or skolka, I bet you probably made some kind of artwork involving beans and bits of macaroni and a lot of glue. It’s a childhood classic! The pasta collage I present to you here is a classic too, in that I have stolen great ideas from far and wide, and put them together in this tasty assemblage.

We probably eat a variation on this every week; it’s not too involved, nutritious, and can usually be pulled together without a mad dash to the grocery store. You can sub in any kind of leafy green, use a different type of bean, add some cheese, or make mustard breadcrumbs instead of these almondy ones. It’s all good, pretty much. I know it seems like there is a lot to do here, but especially if you use canned beans and that bagged, pre-washed spinach, it comes together fast. Just give your onions enough time to get a lovely caramel color and you’ll be on your way.

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Pasta with spinach, chickpeas and breadcrumbs

The one problem I have with this recipe is that it’s not quite enough for a package of pasta; if you use the whole pound of noodles they overtake the other elements and it’s not as good. I deal with this by setting aside some of the pasta for the kids’ lunches; of course you could either double the amount of the other ingredients and go hog wild, or just don’t cook the whole bag of pasta.

Ingredients

Makes about four servings

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 large clove garlic
• 2 heaping tablespoons almond meal (or ¼ cup almonds, finely ground)
• ⅓ cup breadcrumbs (I use panko but any plain crumbs will do)
• 1 large onion
• 1 can chickpeas (about 1½ cups), drained
• 8  ounces/225 g fresh spinach, rinsed and any tough stems removed
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 ounces/340 g pasta
• parmesan cheese for serving (optional)

Method

• First, make the breadcrumbs. Warm 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-low heat in a small pan. Run the garlic through a press or grate it into the oil and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the almond meal and stir for another minute, breaking up any clumps. Add the breadcrumbs and cook until toasty brown and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Tip the crumbs into a small dish and set aside.
• Slice the onion in half, then into thin half-moons. Warm the second tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and a rich brown color, about ten minutes.
• At this point, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
• Add the chickpeas to the onions and cook for another five or so minutes.
• By now, your water should be boiling; add the pasta and cook according to package directions.
• Add the spinach to the onion-chickpea mixture, reduce the heat to medium-low and stir — you may need to add the spinach a handful at a time to wilt it down and make room.
• When the pasta is ready, drain it, reserving some of the water. In a serving bowl, toss the pasta with the spinach mixture, adding some splashes of the pasta water to get everything to mingle nicely and get all distributed.
• Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the breadcrumbs on top.
• Serve with Parmesan cheese and the remaining breadcrumbs on the side, and let your diners add them to their own serving so they don’t lose their crunch.

 

Across the United States, people are just now coming down from the turkey and pie high known as Thanksgiving. We skipped the bird this year – there were only six of us at the table, several of whom were unlikely to eat turkey, so Valerian slow-roasted a big ol’ hunk of pork and we served that instead. As usual, I filled up on  the sides,  which included a whole stalk of brussels sprouts, very charming (and tasty). Quite reasonably, we had three desserts for  the six of us: this  pumpkin pudding, a berry pie/crostata, and these chocolate cookies. Perfect!

What’s even more perfect is that we have plenty tucked away to last us through the weekend. If you’ve got more leftovers than inspiration at the moment, look no further! Here are some EC ideas to empty out your fridge for the next round of holiday eating.

Turkey stock would be a delicious base for tortellini soup.

To use up mashed potatoes, why not try our Hungarian potato bread? If your Thanksgiving somehow didn’t satisfy your need for fried food, you could make your own langos; bake it up as Töki pompos if you like.

Leftover sweet potatoes could be used in place of butternut squash in this farro salad. Or puree them to use in a tasty bundt cake.

What are your favorite ways to use up leftovers?

When I hear “banana bread”, what comes to mind is the bake-sale staple, a quick bread that is more like a cake, really. So when I was at the library a couple of weeks ago and thumbing through a Jamie Oliver cookbook while the kids selected their easy readers, I was intrigued by a recipe for a standard white bread made with banana puree.

Not, you understand, intrigued enough to actually check out the book (we were walking home and why are cookbooks always so HEAVY?) or even photocopy the page, but I did scribble down some notes. When I first made the dough, I was somewhat alarmed by the morbid purplish-gray color; maybe this is a recipe best enjoyed in low light. But you will enjoy it, because it’s wonderfully chewy, with a little extra sticky-sweet top from a brush with honey. The banana flavor asserts itself without being overpowering, and if you just happen to put a little pat of butter on one of the rolls that’s still warm from the oven? Well, no one would blame you for closing your eyes and just sighing happily.

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Banana bread rolls

Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Since I halved the original recipe, I had to tinker with the measurements a bit. Don’t worry if you have a bit more or less banana puree, just add the flour gradually when you get to that stage and stop adding when the dough firms up and is just a bit sticky.

Ingredients

Makes 14 rolls

• 3 bananas
• 1½ tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp salt
•  3 Tbs honey
• 2½ cups flour
• about 1 Tbs honey for the glaze

Method

• Peel and puree the bananas in a blender or with an immersion mixer. You should have about 1½ cups of goo.
• In a large bowl, stir together the bananas, yeast and one cup of flour. Let it sit for about 15 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble a bit (it may be hard to tell since the mixture is quite thick).
• Stir in the salt and honey, then begin to add the flour half a cup at a time until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Knead it for about 6-8 minutes on a lightly floured surface until it becomes smooth and just a bit sticky – you may need to knead in more flour as you go, depending on how large your bananas were.
• Form the dough into a ball and put it in a clean, oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm spot to rise for two hours or until doubled. You can also put it in the fridge overnight at this stage.
• Grease a baking pan (I used a 9″ round cake pan which wasn’t quite big enough).
• Form the  dough into about 14 balls of equal size and place them in the pan with enough space between them to expand a bit. Cover and set aside for the second rise, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the rolls look a little puffy.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and in a small bowl, mix about a tablespoon of honey with a splash of hot water to thin it out.
• Once they’ve risen, brush the rolls with the honey glaze and bake for ten minutes; brush the tops with the glaze again and continue to bake for ten more minutes. Bake a total of about 20-22 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned.

Wocka-wocka-wocka-wocka…. you know what that sound is?

It’s Pac-Man, swimming in syrupy goodness!

Actually, it’s November, which in the US means All Pumpkin, All the Time. But I’m not complaining. After years of estrangement from nearly the whole squash family, I’ve come to embrace these prolific denizens of the produce section.

I opened a can of pumpkin to make oatmeal pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for a preschool Thanksgiving Feast (which yes, seemed premature until I learned school is closed all next week!) and had about half a cup left over. So, this morning I made a batch of pancakes to use up the remaining orange puree, to the delight of the kids and Valerian, who really tires of the tiny containers of leftovers that periodically threaten to overtake our refrigerator.

These cooked up tender, a bit spicy, and we gobbled them up faster than the ghosts swallow poor ol’ Pac-Man.

Pumpkin pancakes

Because these are quite tender, you need to be a bit more patient with them – cook them at a little lower temperature so they don’t brown too fast and fall apart when you turn them.

Ingredients

Makes about 10 medium pancakes

• 1½ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ¾ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 egg
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• 1¼ cup buttermilk
• butter, for cooking

Method

• In a large bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the dry ingredients; in a small bowl, whisk together the egg, pumpkin, and buttermilk. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, making sure no hidden pockets of flour remain (although some lumps are fine). If the batter is very thick, add a little more buttermilk.
• Warm a large skillet over medium-low heat; when a little pat of butter sizzles when you drop it in the pan, it’s hot enough.
• Ladle the batter into the pan, about a quarter-cup at a time. When bubbles start to come up through the batter and the edges look cooked, turn the pancakes.
• Serve with maple syrup.

A pot of stock simmering on the stove is the savory equivalent of baking cookies: it’s the fragrance of home. Well, as long as you don’t put cabbage in it. In Central Europe I used to buy cellophane packages of “soup mix” vegetables, usually a couple of carrots, a parsnip, celery root, half an onion and inexplicably, some cabbage. I don’t put cabbage, or any brassicas, in my stock unless I want cabbage soup, because that’s what it will be. The thing with vegetable stock is first of all, don’t boil it too hard. A nice simmer is what you’re going for. The slow cooker is perfect for this task, although I like to make a bigger batch than fits in our cooker. The second thing is salt. I once accidentally dumped in about twice as much salt as I intended to put in, and it was delicious, best I’d ever made! It doesn’t just make the stock salty, it makes all the flavors pop. That said, the tortellini in this soup can be pretty salty in their own right, so taste, taste, taste as you go along to get the balance right.

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Tortellini in broth

To give your stock richer color, leave a couple of layers of the papery brown skin on the onions. (Clean off any dirt, though!) A nice variation is to add a can of chopped tomatoes and their juice to the stock about 20 minutes before you add the tortellini. And of course you are not limited to tortellini – you could use small ravioli, tortelloni, whatever! You will par-cook them separately to keep the stock from getting cloudy (and the pasta from absorbing all the soup).

Ingredients

Serves 6

•  3 medium carrots
• two medium parsnips or parsley root
• one small celery root, or 4 stalks celery
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 medium yellow onion
• five peppercorns
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt to taste
• 1 bunch chard or Tuscan/lacinato/dinosaur kale
• 1 pound (0.5 kg) frozen or dried tortellini

Method

• Scrub all the vegetables, or peel them if you feel ambitious.
• Chop the carrot, parsnip and celery (root) into large cubes of even-ish size; you won’t serve these in the broth, so appearance isn’t important.
• Quarter the onion and peel the garlic cloves.
• Heat the oil in the bottom of a large stock pot over medium heat. Dump in all the chopped veggies, onion, garlic and peppercorns, and saute for 5 minutes. If you’re using a slow cooker you can skip this step.
• Pour 7 cups water over the vegetables. Bring to a gentle boil, them cover simmer for 40 minutes up to 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, cut the leafy parts off the chard or kale. If you’re using chard, chop the stems as well, but I usually discard the kale stems.
• Time to check the stock! Taste, then add salt, starting with 2 teaspoons. If you think it needs a little more flavor, simmer without the lid for 15-20 minutes to reduce it down a bit.
• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the tortellini for 2 minutes less than the suggested cooking time on the package.
• While the pasta cooks, strain the broth; you can serve the veggies as a kind of side dish, as Valerian’s family does, or reserve them for another use. Return the stock to the pot, and add the chard or kale and bring to a low simmer.
• When the pasta is ready, drain it and add it to the stock and let everything simmer together for a few minutes.
• Check for seasoning and serve.

 

This isn’t my first waltz with gluten-free baking, but almost. I made some gluten-free cupcakes for a birthday party this summer, and let’s just say that even before I burned them they weren’t exactly winners. It’s a pretty different ball game, this gluten-free stuff. (What, how long do you expect me to sustain a single metaphor?)

We have friends who can’t have gluten, which has given me a bit of a push towards trying some of the rapidly-multiplying gluten-free recipes out there. And really, we have dinners that don’t include gluten fairly often without even trying. But baking, not so much. There are so many interesting flours available right now, though, that it’s fun to incorporate them even where health concerns aren’t an issue. They have interesting flavors and textures of their own that may not be exactly like the usual wheat flour-based ones, but are delicious in their own right.

I realize that if you are a Central European reader, you may not have access to as many of these ingredients, at least not easily. But even before we moved, I was amazed to see that bigger “bio” stores were stocking a much wider range of grains, flours and other staples than I’d seen before, not to mention the number of packaged gluten-free products. So take a look around, you may strike it rich – it’s a good time to be gluten free!

This particular recipe is adapted from an applesauce cake on the Healthy Seasonal Recipes blog. My ears pricked up at the words “snack cake”, because, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of all kinds of muffins, quick breads and their ilk. This one didn’t disappoint – it’s not too sweet, moist, and has an almost puddingy texture. What with autumn arriving, I thought the apple original might lend itself to a pumpkin version, so I set about tweaking the recipe for an October weekend, swapping pumpkin for apple, using maple syrup rather than honey, adding some cornmeal, and to reassure the kids that it really is cake, some mini chocolate chips. The result: excellent. Just what’s called for on an afternoon where the wind is picking up, the clouds are moving in, and you’re ready for a cozy and easy baking project. To return to my original metaphor, you’ll want to add it to your dance card.

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Gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cake
Adapted from Healthy Seasonal Recipes

The chocolate chips here are optional, but awfully nice. Mini ones work best, since the cake has a fine crumb that might not hold together so well with larger chunks of chocolate. Make sure you use a more fine-ground cornmeal, polenta for example is too gritty in this context.

Ingredients

Makes about 8-10 generous slices of cake

• 2 cups cooked pumpkin, canned or fresh
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1½ cups brown rice flour
• ½ cup fine-ground cornmeal
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ¾ tsp salt
• generous ½ cup mini chocolate chips

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C and grease a Bundt pan.
• In a blender or tall measuring cup, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, maple syrup, and brown sugar. Use an immersion blender or, you know, a blender to thoroughly combine.
• In a large bowl, whisk together rice flour, cornmeal, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
• Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combined; stir in chocolate chips.
• Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched.
• Cool in the pan for five minutes before turning cake out onto a rack to cool. Allow it to cool completely (or as long as you can wait) before slicing.

 

So, a few months ago it was pancakes. Apparently now it’s eggplant sauce/spreads. But this recipe is actually one of my go-to dinners, even when eggplant and tomatoes aren’t busting out all over the farmers’ markets. When something is good, it’s good! And I’m one of those people who find it comforting to return to the same meal, rather than boring. When I was in graduate school in NYC, living on my own and not really much of a cook, I ate one of two things for dinner about 5 days a week: either broccoli and rice, or tomato soup with couscous. Seriously. It may not come as a surprise that my dad has eaten the same breakfast for 45 years or so. How about you? Do you go back to certain recipes again and again, or are you a change-it-up chef? With young kids, you may not have much choice, although my children will declare a particular food their favorite, eat it non-stop, then just as abruptly decide they don’t want it any more, ever.  Shades of Bread and Jam for Frances.

I first found this recipe in a Jamie Oliver magazine. You probably know him from “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” series, but he’s got a Martha Stewart-like empire in the UK. He still seems pretty down-to-earth and he has a bunch of kids with silly names, so he should appreciate the pitfalls of child-friendly cuisine. Even my eggplant-phobic Mr. B (6) eats this sauce happily, albeit without knowing what’s in it. Less said, better fed!

I’ve made this sauce many times, and about half the time I realize I only have a sliver of Parmesan left, or no fresh basil or something. I wonder, is it the hallmark of a good recipe that if you leave out one of the (few) ingredients it’s still good, or is that a bad sign? Well, either way this one is a keeper in our house, and I bet you’ll be going back to it over and over too.

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Eggplant tomato pasta sauce
Adapted from Jamie Oliver Magazine

This recipe makes a lot of sauce, enough to coat one package of pasta and fill all four of us up and still leave enough for another pound of pasta somewhere down the line. Any pasta shape will do; the original recipe calls for linguine but I like tubular pastas just as much with it. Don’t forget to reserve some of the pasta water to thin out the sauce – any saucy leftovers also make a great spread with crackers.

Ingredients

Makes enough sauce for about 2 pounds (1 kg!) of pasta.

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small (14 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• a handful of basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (about 3 oz)
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Peel the eggplant and if it’s very seedy, take out the fluffy seedy parts as best you can. Cut into half-inch cubes.
• In a large skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat and add eggplant. Cook until it’s starting to get some nice brown color, then add the garlic.
• Put the pasta water on to boil at this point.
• Add the can of tomatoes and the basil to the eggplant; swish a little water around the tomato can and splash it in as well. Then add the balsamic vinegar and let everything simmer for 5 minutes or so.
• In a food processor or with an immersion blender, puree the sauce until it’s just short of smooth. Stir in the grated Parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• To serve, reserve some of the cooking water from the pasta to thin out the sauce to your preferred consistency, and grate some more cheese over the top to make it extra fancy.

 

I sure am sorry I didn’t think to post this recipe for International Talk Like a Pirate Day – I just missed it, on September 19. Ajvar is pronounced aye-var, and it’s awfully fun to say it with a little nautical sneer and swagger. Arrrr!

This is still an apt time of year to talk about this recipe, when the last of the eggplants and tomatoes are ripening. Somewhere between a spread and a condiment, ajvar is a Balkan staple and was at least partly responsible for my substantial weight gain in the years we were living in the former Yugoslavia. You can buy ajvar at almost any grocery store there, and we discovered that the uglier the packaging, the better the product. My personal favorites generally came from Macedonia, but homemade is really the gold standard. It’s not hard to make, I discovered, but messy. The smell of peppers roasting (often just cooked directly on the stove burners) is for me one of the characteristic aromas of the Balkans, just a whiff and you’re there.

As for the eating, my personal favorite is to use it rather like ketchup, on sandwiches. When Valerian and I were first living together, we bought a little sandwich press, and I proceeded to toast up many, many grilled cheese sandwiches with ajvar, to the point where it was getting hard to button my pants. Oof. I recommend a little more moderation, but ajvar really does perk up a sandwich, makes a great topping for crackers, and could easily work as a pasta sauce rather like pesto if you’re so inclined. The sweet peppers contrast with the very slight bitterness of the eggplant, all playing against a smoky backdrop – it’s a savory trip to Southeastern Europe, right there.

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Ajvar

The usual red bell peppers in the US are not quite the same as the peppers you’ll get in Europe, but they work fine in this recipe; if you can find a more typical European pepper, like Pritamin or the others mentioned in Valerian’s pepper guide, use those. Ajvar is often made with hot peppers, too, if you like things a little spicy.

Ingredients

Makes about 2 cups of ajvar

• 4 large red peppers
• 2 medium eggplants
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt & pepper

Method

• Preheat the oven to 450° F (230° C) and line a large baking sheet with foil.
• Pierce the eggplants’ skins a few times with a fork or tip of a knife. Place them and the peppers on the baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes or until the skins are blackened in spots and starting to shrivel. Be bold and let them get well cooked, the smokey flavor will be your payoff.
• Put the peppers in a large bowl and cover with a plate, then set them aside.
• Allow the eggplants to cool, then peel back the skins and scoop out the flesh into a medium bowl or the bowl of a food processor. Try to leave out the seeds, although this is very messy and difficult.
• When the peppers have cooled, peel off the skins and discard. Also toss out the seeds, core and stem. Roughly chop the peppers and add them to the bowl with the eggplant.
• Grate or finely mince the garlic, and add about half to start – since it’s raw, go easy at first and taste to see how you like it.
• Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the mixture to a thick, still somewhat chunky consistency. Season to taste with more garlic and the salt and pepper, and stir it all together.
• Keeps in the fridge for at least a week; this is best a day or two after it’s made.