Until I forget: today, starting from 11.30, you can see me on LiveLog Tv, in a story made with the help of a webcam. I’ll have fun with Marie Jeanne. Or she’ll have fun with me. We’ll talk about this blog and about other projects in which I’m involved. And there are going to be a few heehaws, I can tell :).
Today I’ll tell you a big secret: the one that transforms an ordinary gulyas (you can call it “goulash”, it’s ok) into an amazing one, the ingredient that makes any stew shine like Venus on a clear summer night (wow, what’s gotten into me this morning?). Just like any good thing, it involves a bit of work, but believe me, it’s worth it. The result is an explosion of taste. With taste.
Everything starts with the peppers. I received a (smaller) sack of peppers from my aunt Livia. I split them (I’ll show you in the following days what else you can do with some fine peppers) and I roasted them on grill.
I peeled the burned skin, but not all of it because I like its taste (I left very small patches here and there).
Do you see the peppers below? Alright. They’re so hot they make you cry only by sitting next to them. I chopped three peppers and three garlic cloves. With a knife.
In the same thick-bottomed skillet I put the peppers without stems (I also cleaned the seeds, but I left approximately 5% of them because I believe they’re essential to the taste), the hot peppers and the garlic. I poured over them three-four tablespoons of olive oil and I put the skillet on low heat only after I transformed the ingredients into a paste using a blender.
It’s similar to a zacuscă (Romanian vegetable spread), but don’t get fooled, it’s not. It’s a very aromatized sweet and hot paste (it takes about 35-40 minutes on heat for the water to to evaporate).
I put the paste into jars.
I use jars with rubber or silicone fittings, which isolate the content very well and if they are pasteurized after they are filled, they are perfectly sealed and will remain intact for years.
I didn’t sterilize the jar this time, I just covered the paste with a thin layer of olive oil to keep the oxygen away. It can last like this for weeks. I certainly use it, but I recommend putting it in small jars that you pasteurize. You’ll have paste all winter long. Stay healthy.
Special thanks to
Oana Bodnariuc, Authorized Translator
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facebook.com/oana.bodnariuc