Dried bean zacuscă

Name: Dried bean zacuscă
Ingredients: 5 kg kapia peppers; 5 kg gogosari peppers; 1 kg dried beans; 4000 ml water; 30 g salt; 1 kg onion; 500 ml tomato purée; 400 ml oil; 1 tablespoon peppercorns; 5 bay leaves

Conserve - Dried bean zacuscă by Alida M. - Recipia

My daughter, a student in Timișoara, called dried bean zacuscă, a Romanian bean spread, “poor man’s food”, her fallback when she had neither money nor food left. I’d call it more the broke student’s food; the roasted peppers and onion come together into a thick paste, while the beans stay whole. As it simmers, I make sure the beans soften but keep their shape. Prep: 90 minutes. Cook: 345 minutes. Rest: 120 minutes. Total time: 555 minutes. Serves: 50. About 275 kcal and 6 g protein per serving.

Ingredients

5 kg kapia peppers
5 kg gogosari peppers
1 kg dried beans
4000 ml water
30 g salt
1 kg onion
500 ml tomato purée
400 ml oil
1 tablespoon peppercorns
5 bay leaves

Preparation

1. Roast the kapia peppers and gogosari peppers at 220°C, in several batches, for 120 minutes in total, turning them until the skins blister and blacken in places. Peel them and remove the stems and seeds. 2. Put the dried beans and 4000 ml water in a pot, add 10 g salt and boil for 90 minutes, until the beans are soft on the outside but still firm in the middle. Drain the beans. 3. Peel the onion and cut it into quarters. Grind the roasted peppers, gogosari peppers, onion and beans, if you’d rather not leave the beans whole. 4. Sterilize the jars for 15 minutes in an oven heated to 120°C. Keep them warm until you fill them. 5. Put the ground vegetables and beans in a large pot. Add the tomato purée, oil, 20 g salt, peppercorns and bay leaves. Boil for 120 minutes, stirring almost constantly, until the zacuscă thickens and the oil rises to the surface. 6. Fill the sterilized jars while the zacuscă is hot and seal them tightly. Let them cool for no more than 2 hours at room temperature, then put them in the fridge.

Notes

Serve on toasted bread or alongside boiled potatoes. For such a large batch, set aside a full day, especially if you need to roast the peppers in several batches. The batch fits in a heavy pot of at least 20 liters. Keep the jars in the fridge for no more than 3 days; once cooled, transfer portions for later to freezer-safe containers. Choose fleshy, firm kapia and gogosari peppers with no soft spots; thin ones leave little flesh after roasting and peeling. If the skins are hard to remove, cover the peppers for a few minutes after roasting and the steam will soften them. Older beans take longer to cook, and cracked beans may fall apart in the pot, so check them before draining.