Fill 'em up

Welcome to part three of the Ajvar Chronicles. For those of you who missed the previous episodes of this backwards telling of the ajvar series, I'll start with a brief explanation what's going on here at the moment.

Last Sunday San and I were invited to have a look at what a typically Macedonian day of ajvar making is all about. We figured that the 'look at' part in the invitation should be replaced by 'work on a typically Macedonian day of ajvar making'. And so it went. Between all the washing, grilling, peeling, grinding and cooking I found some time to get a few of the essential moments on photo. These are supposed to liven up the bits and pieces of text. Today you can read about the 2nd but last stage of the process - filling the jars with hot ajvar. As the days follow, I will finish all untill step 1 of the ajvar recipe.

At 19:17 hrs, after almost five hours of stirring, it was time to get the big pan off the fire and get the pre-heated jars out. 60 kilos of processed paprika and 14 kilos of eggplant have officially been transferred into ajvar.
Before you pour in the hot ajvar in the jars, it's wise to have the jars heated up. If not, you shouldn't be surprised to see the jar break down of the heat difference.
Filling the jars with delicious ajvar. At 19:17 hrs it was time to get the big pan off the fire and get the pre-heated jars out. 60 kilos of processed paprika and 14 kilos of eggplant have officially been transferred into ajvar.
Jar of ajvar ready to be covered, boxed and stored away.