Vegetable spread

Today I have again a typical Romanian recipe. It is a vegetable spread - known as zacuscă in Romania. It is the first time that I make this dish. When I was living in Romania, my grandmother was making this spread for me. But now I live in Vienna and it was about time that I cook the vegetable spread. I took the recipe from my grandma, so it is a family recipe. Since I did not read it carefully, I have changed it a bit. But that did not affect the final result, but I had a lot more work. I must warn you...you need a lot of patience to make this vegetable spread…I worked two days on it.

Don’t be scared, I didn’t spent 2 full days ahead of the stove...but you still need a few hours to prepare the spread. I got out of the quantities 8 glasses of vegetable spread, I already eaten one. As I said, it's been a lot of work, but I don’t regret it and I will surely make the spread again. And I should not complain, my grandma makes 40 glasses at once.

You need:

2 kg eggplant

1,5 kg paprika

1,5 kg pointed pepper

300 g white onions

400 ml sieved tomatoes

300 ml oil

salt

peppercorns

5-6 bay leaves

1 tbsp honey

You can use only pointed peppers or only paprika. An alternative to the sieved tomatoes is to use 200g tomato paste.

This is how you proceed:

Wash and dry the eggplants and the peppers. Prick eggplant with a fork. Grill eggplants and peppers in the oven at 200°C degrees for 45-60 minutes until they are soft and you can peel the skin easily. Turn around every 20 minutes. I placed the eggplants and peppers directly on the cooking rack and placed underneath a baking tray, as they leave juice and I did not want that my oven is totally messed up.

Allow to cool and then remove the skin. Remove the stalk and deseed the peppers. Place into a strainer and leave to drain overnight.

The next day peel onion, chop and fry in some vegetable oil until translucent. Let it cool down.

Mince eggplants, peppers and onions through a meat grinder. If you do not have a meat grinder, then you can use an electric chopper.

Place mixture in a large pot (I used a paella pan), add oil, 1 tbsp salt and sieved tomatoes, mix well and simmer over low heat for one hour. Stir occasionally (best every 10 minutes).

Try the spread 10 minutes before finish and if necessary add some salt. Add peppercorns, bay leaves and honey, mix well and simmer for another 10 minutes.

 

Fill the vegetable spread until is still hot in sterilized jars and seal. Cover a pot with newspaper, add the jars, fill with water (the water level must be halfway up the sides of the jars) and cook for another 40 minutes at low heat. Remove from heat and cover with a blanket and let cool slowly.

If everything is done correctly, the vegetable spread keeps up to one year. But you have to keep it cool.

Would you take the time to cook an elaborate dish or is it not worth the effort?