Malidzano

A few years ago we ventured into making our own preserves with jams and lazy lutenitza. This year we are expanding the variety with malidzano.

Malidzano (also spelled malijano, malidjano; the sound is dg as in judge) is a Macedonian spread, made out of grilled green bell peppers, eggplans, oil, salt and mustard. Although North Macedonia is right next door, so to speak, the recipe was not popular here until recently - a pity, as it is one of the best tasting veggie spreads out there and very easy to make. And because the name of the spread comes from the Italian word for eggplant (melanzane) and the spread has a definite warm, southern connotation, I'm discretely flaunting my Mediterranean plants in these pictures - the seed-grown  lemon tree and my new acquisition - the bougainvillea, which delighted us with its absolutely gorgeous colors already twice this year. 

The process of making malidzano is fairly simple, though time and effort consuming (but totally worth it!). Grill the peppers and the eggplants (I grill them in a small pepper roaster, but you can do it any way you grill veggies at home), let them cool, then remove the grilled skin of the veggies and mince them (we use a hand mincer) or blend them, if you prefer smoother texture. 

 

Then add vegetable oil (we prefer sunflower oil), salt to taste and a few teaspoons of mild mustard (the mustard is optional, but I find it really essential for the unique taste of the malidzano), and the spread is ready to be served or preserved.

Recipe (proportions per one eggplant):

• 1 eggplant
• 4 green bell peppers
• 40 g sunflower oil (450 g to 4.5 kg of minced product)
  
• salt (3 tablespoons to 4.5 kg of minced product)
• mustard (2 teaspoons to 4.5 kg of minced product)

We preserve the malidzano is glass jars, boiled for 20 min (timed after the water has reached 100C and began boiling).

Lutenitza

Lutenitza is a traditional Balkan veggie relish, which we all love and buy in quantities. It comes in many varieties and tastes and the traditional recipes are vary labour-consuming . However, last year I came upon a recipe for "lazy lutenitza", tried it and loved it. This year I fine-tuned it and so far I've made at least 12 kg of the final product. One of the reasons I'm so enthusiastic for making lutenitza is that the factory-made product usually contains onions or garlic or both and I've been able to track just a single brand that is free of these additives. Since early childhood I've had an uncompromising intolerance for the smell and taste of onions, garlic, leeks and the likes, an idiosyncrasy, which does not make my life easy foodwise, but it is what it is. So being able to make my own lutenitza solves the problem of smell and taste and opens a field for experimentation.

The "lazy" part of the recipe is the preparation of the ingredients. Traditionally lutenitza is made from red peppers and tomatoes and one can add eggplants, carrots, onions, garlic, parsley, spicy peppers to taste. The tomatoes should be made into tomato paste, while peppers and eggplants are grilled, peeled and cleaned of the seeds. The lazy lutenitza requires just chopping the veggies, mixing them with salt and sunflower oil and baking them in the oven. When baked, the mix is blended, using a hand blender and then preserved in jars - this is so much easier and so quick and the taste is still excellent. Dependent on the ratio of the ingredients the taste can be sweeter or more sour or spicy.

This year our preferred  lutenitza is as follows:

• 8-9 red peppers (~ 1.2 kg)
• 4 tomatoes (~ 0.8 kg)
• 0.5 kg carrots
• 1 eggplant
• 1.5 tbsp salt
• 150 g sunflower oil

This is the quantity of vegetables I can get into my big oven tray. I cover the tray with foil and bake them at 250C for an hour and then another half hour at 250 C with fan. After the veggies have been baked, we transfer them into a cooking pot, blend them fairly smoothly, add 1/2 tbsp Italian vinegar balsamico and 1/2 tbsp sugar and a handful of chopped parsley,  bring the mixture to boil and fill it into jars. We sterilize the jars into boiling water for 20 min.

The relish is usually consumed with bread and white cheese.