Potato chorba

Method

1. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and cook the onion and carrot over a low heat for about ten minutes, until the onion is soft. Add the chopped pepper and give it five minutes more.
2. Stir in the garlic and the grated tomato and let it cook until the tomato loses its raw smell and the oil begins to show at the edges, about five minutes.
3. Add the potatoes, bay leaves, salt and pepper, and turn them over in the pan for a minute or two so they take on the fat.
4. Pour in enough water to cover by two fingers, bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, for twenty-five minutes, until a knife goes into a cube without resistance.
5. Make the zaprška: heat two tablespoons of oil in a small pan, stir in the flour and cook it until it smells toasted and turns the colour of sand, then take it off the heat and stir in the paprika and the ajvar.
6. Loosen the zaprška with a ladle of hot broth, whisk it smooth and stir it back into the pot.
7. Crush half a dozen cubes of potato against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon — that, more than the flour, is what makes the chorba thick. Simmer for another five to ten minutes.
8. Take it off the heat, stir in the parsley and let it stand for ten minutes before serving. It is better on the second day.