Finger-Licking Zucchini Adjika

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   Gather the listed ingredients. Wash the vegetables, peel the garlic cloves, and rinse them. The amounts here make about 600 ml of sauce.

2. Step 2:

   

   Seed the bell peppers, trim the stem ends off the zucchini, and cut the cores out of the tomatoes. Rinse the prepped vegetables well, cut them into pieces, and run them through a meat grinder using a fine or coarse plate. If you like, blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for about 5–6 minutes before grinding and slip off the skins.

3. Step 3:

   

   Pour the ground vegetable mixture into a Dutch oven or saucepan, set it on the stove, and bring it to a boil. Then lower the heat to its minimum, cover the pot so the mixture doesn't splatter everywhere, and simmer for about 25–30 minutes, until a third of the liquid cooks off.

4. Step 4:

   

   Press in the peeled garlic cloves, add ground black pepper and ground red pepper, and salt to taste. Pour in the 9% vinegar and vegetable oil. It's best not to taste the hot sauce—you could burn your tongue, since the mixture has a lot of fiery red pepper. You can swap it for fresh red chili, but seed the pod before adding it.

5. Step 5:

   

   Simmer the adjika over the lowest heat for another 15–20 minutes, stirring now and then so it doesn't stick to the bottom. Meanwhile, scald the jars and lids with boiling water, since you'll be sealing the adjika for winter. Because the sauce is so potent, it's best to preserve it in small portions—jars of 250–350 ml.

6. Step 6:

   

   Pour the boiling sauce into the hot jars and seal them right away with lids or a canning tool. Turn them upside down and let them cool.

7. Step 7:

   

   You can store the adjika in the pantry—it contains vinegar—or in a cellar, basement, and so on.