Lyutenitsa with Blue Plums, old original recipe from the village of Trud

Not authored - read on FB. Once upon a time in the Plovdiv village of Trud there lived a Gypsy woman - lush and colourful, even more so than is typical for her ethnicity. My father remembers her from his childhood. My grandmother told me she was an understanding and hardworking woman who went to help people in their yards - in short, a fair, kind and (above all) literate Gypsy. Her extravagance became proverbial in Trud, and even today the older people in the village can be heard commenting about someone that "he carries himself like Papana" (as the Roma woman was called), which translates as "he is very eccentric".

From my grandmother I know that when Papana went to help, she didn't wait to be fed but brought her lunch in a little jar from home. Apparently she once brought this dish, people tried it, liked it and started making it. Only, to the question "what will you cook?" no one in the village would twist their tongue to say "that dish of Papana's", and the dish became known as "Papanka" or Papana's. It can be made as a dish, but was also canned for winter stores. I don't know if what I present is Papana's authentic recipe, but this is how grandma Tsetsa made it.

INGREDIENTS: Aubergine - 5 kg, Tomatoes - 3 kg, Blue plums - 1 kg, Carrots - 500 g, Red peppers - 500 g, Onion - 500 g, Garlic - 250 g, Celery - 1 head, Oil - 1 l, Salt - to taste, Allspice - 10 grains (crushed), Sugar - 2-3 tbsp, Parsley - 3 bunches.

METHOD:

1. Roast the peppers, peel them and chop finely, or grind them in a meat grinder or blender.
2. Peel the aubergines, cut into medium cubes, salt them and wait 20 minutes for them to release their bitterness. Then rinse under running water and leave to drain.
3. Fry the drained aubergines in the fat (about 500 ml) almost to done, then remove with a slotted spoon.
4. Remove the fat in which the aubergines were fried and, in fresh fat (about half a litre), fry the finely chopped onion, the grated carrots and celery together with the allspice crushed in a mortar.
5. Add the pitted blue plums, ground in the meat grinder or blender.
6. When the blue plums change colour to dark, add the grated tomatoes (grated to remove the skins) and optionally one or several halved hot peppers to add their fire. Boil everything for ten minutes, stirring constantly.
7. Add the ground red peppers, the fried aubergine and the peeled garlic cloves, halved in two. Season with sugar and salt to taste and continue boiling a little more. In consistency Papanka should be a bit looser than classic lyutenitsa, because the pectin in the plums will thicken it a little more after cooling.
8. Taste for salt and sugar and if needed balance the flavours - it should be slightly sweet. Add the finely chopped parsley after removing the pot from the heat.
9. Fill jars, close them and sterilise (for the lid) for 20 minutes, timing after the water boils.

From these quantities you get about 15 jars of 300 ml.

Apartment-scale version (to try the recipe by taste): Aubergine - 1 kg, Tomatoes - 500 g, Blue plums - 300 g, Carrots - 1-2 pieces, Red peppers - 2 pieces, Onion - 1 head, Garlic - 1-2 heads, Celery - half a small head (about 100 g), Oil - 200 ml (50 ml of it for the sauce), Salt - to taste, Sugar - 1 tbsp, Allspice - 3 grains (crushed), Parsley - 1 bunch. The method is already clear.

Papanka, from the name Papana. Thank you.