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Pindjur (Pinđur) - Balkan Tomato and Red Pepper Spread

Aida
Homemade pindjur (pinđur) spread made with roasted red peppers and tomatoes. Perfect as a dip or condiment.
5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes
Course Appetizers & Preserves, Side Dish
Cuisine Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, Slovenian

Equipment

  • a pair of latex gloves
  • 1-2 baking sheets covered with foil
  • 1 Large pot
  • several smaller glass jars
  • a pair of mittens or thick kitchen towels

Ingredients
 
 

  • 11 pounds ripe tomatoes
  • 11 pounds red bull horn's peppers or red bell peppers
  • 3.5 cups oil vegetable, sunflower, avocado or coconut
  • 1 cup sugar (about 7 oz)
  • 1.75 cups white wine vinegar (about 13.5oz)
  • 2 tablespoons salt
  • 2 batches fresh parsley
  • 14-15 garlic cloves
  • (Optional) 1-2 chili peppers
  • (Optional) 4 lbs (2kg) eggplant
  • (Optional) 1 lb (.5kg) carrot

Instructions
 

  • Roast the Tomatoes. Heat oven to 400°F (200°C).
    Wash tomatoes and place them on a baking sheet lined with foil. Roast for 20-30 minutes, or until tomato skins shrivel. Remove them from the oven and let them cool down. Increase oven temperature to 480°F (250°C).
  • Roast the Peppers. Wash peppers (except chilis), and place them on a baking sheet lined with foil. (You may need to bake them in two batches, or on two oven levels. Alternatively, roast them the day before.)
    Roast for about 25 minutes on one side, then turn them over and roast for another 20-25 minutes, checking frequently to ensure even roasting. Once the skins are blistering, transfer them to a bowl, and cover it with a plastic bag or saran wrap.
  • Prep and Cook the Tomatoes. (Parallel to peppers roasting.) Carefully skin roasted tomatoes, and transfer them to a large pot. Keep all the juices. They should fill up no more than ½, preferably ⅓, of the pot volume. Crush and squash tomatoes using a potato masher.
    Bring to a boil on medium, and stir frequently. Then lower the temperature, and let it boil on low for several minutes, or until the tomato juice thickens.
    Add oil, sugar, and vinegar and stir well. Raise the temperature to medium again, and simmer for one full hour (60 minutes), stirring frequently.
  • Prepare the Peppers. (Parallel to the tomatoes cooking.) Protect your working area with a plastic cover or similar. Prepare two large bowls. One with water, and another empty one. Put the gloves on.
    Take one pepper and remove its stem and skin. Discard them. Scrape all seeds with a knife and discard them as well. If there are any burn spots (black spots) on the pepper, also scrape them off and discard them. Dip the pepper in the bowl with water quickly to take off any additional debris. Finally, transfer it to the empty bowl. Keep all the juices as well.
    Repeat the process for all peppers.
    Cut all peppers into ½ inch (1 centimeter) strips lengthwise. Proceed to cut pepper strips into 2-3 pieces each.
  • Add Peppers to Pindjur. By this time, tomatoes should have been cooking for an hour. Add the pepper strips, chilis, and salt to the pot with tomatoes. Stir well. Raise the temperature to medium and cook everything for another 45 minutes. Stir frequently and thoroughly.
    Slice garlic and mince parsley as pindjur is cooking.
  • Sterilize the Jars. About 30 minutes into the previous step, heat the oven to 200°F (90°C). Wash your jars with water and detergent, rinsing well. Line them up in a deep pan, and place the pan in the oven for 15-20 minutes. This will sterilize them. When done, transfer the pan with hot, sterilized jars to a working area carefully. Avoid touching.
  • Add Aromatics. Peel and slice garlic. Wash and mince parsley. Add them to the pot and stir.
  • Jar the Pindjur. When the time is up, turn the stove off. (Use mittens when handling jars, and be careful to avoid burning your hands.)
    Take out chili peppers and discard them. Transfer the pot with pindjur to your working area carefully. Using a ladle, transfer hot pindjur into hot jars.
    Fill each jar up to the top. Keep pushing the pindjur down in the jar with a spoon so packs well. There should be no air pockets in pindjur, as this will cause it to spoil faster. Fill the jars up to the top.
    Close the lids tightly, then flip each jar, so they're 'standing' on the lids. Let pindjur cool down completely. Then transfer jars to a cool and dark place.
  • Cool. Before storing pindjur, make sure it's completely cooled down.
    Store. Keep pindjur jars in a cool, dark place like a cool pantry, garage, or basement. When stored properly, pindjur lasts several months. Once you open a jar, refrigerate it, and consume it within a week.
    Serve. Serve with homemade bread like Bosnian tepsijaš, fried dough balls uštipci, crescents, meza, as a salad, dip, relish, or a spread.
    Freeze. No. Read the FAQs to find out why.

Video

Notes

  • Cooking Time
Cooking time is an approximation. Your cooking time will depend on how long you roast the veggies, and how long it takes you to prepare them for cooking. 
  • Nutrition Information and Serving Size
This information depends on many factors and was omitted. 
 
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