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Among the many sauces and seasonings that conscientious housewives must prepare for the winter, adjika stands in a special place. Without it, it is difficult to imagine both everyday lunch and a festive table. In addition, there are such an unimaginable number of recipes under this name that many probably don’t even remember how it all began, and what real classic adjika is.
But adjika, being a primordially Abkhazian dish, means, translated from the local dialect, just “salt with spices”. That is, it became a sauce much later, and initially it was a mixture of various herbs with hot pepper and salt. Nowadays, especially in Our Country, adjika is often called a ground mixture of a wide variety of vegetables and herbs, and sometimes even fruits and nuts. And, of course, this mixture is always seasoned with hot pepper and salt.
To preserve a variety of useful substances, and, above all, vitamins, adjika is often made raw, even without additional heat treatment. True, such a seasoning can only be stored in the refrigerator. There are also many recipes for adjika when its ingredients are stewed, boiled and other types of cooking. This article will consider a variety of options for preparing adjika without subsequent sterilization, both with and without heat treatment.
Classical Abkhaz adjika
This seasoning is super spicy, so it is recommended only for special lovers of everything spicy, who also have impeccable health.
To make it, you need to take: 2 kg of hot pepper, preferably red, one and a half glasses of medium-sized rock salt, 1 kg of garlic, 200 grams of ground dry seasonings (dill, suneli hops, coriander) and 200 grams of various fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro , basil, savory, celery).
Garlic needs to be peeled to get a lot of white, shiny cloves. Wash the pepper well, cut into two parts and carefully clean the tails, seeds and all internal partitions.
Rinse the greens, remove all dry and damaged areas and dry.
Then hot pepper, garlic and herbs pass through a meat grinder, mix, add salt and dry spices and stir well again. Ready adjika can be decomposed into sterile half-liter jars and stored in a cool place without light. According to this recipe, you should get three half-liter jars of Abkhazian seasoning.
Adjika with tomatoes
This version of adjika was invented already in Our Country, since tomatoes were never part of the classic adjika. Nevertheless, in the modern world, this adjika recipe has become almost a classic.
What you need to prepare it:
- Tomatoes – 3 kg;
- Bulgarian sweet pepper – 1,5 kg;
- Hot pepper – 200 grams;
- Garlic – 500 grams;
- Fresh herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro, dill) – 150 grams;
- Coarse salt – 150 grams;
- Granulated sugar – 175 grams;
- Vinegar 9% – 150 ml.
All vegetables and herbs must be thoroughly washed and cleaned of all excess.
If you chose the first option, then grind all the herbs and vegetables with a meat grinder, mix with salt, vinegar and sugar, mix thoroughly and arrange in sterile jars. Adjika prepared in this way can only be stored in the refrigerator. But under a screw cap in the refrigerator, it can be stored until the next season.
In the second option, you need to act a little differently. First, the tomatoes are ground through a meat grinder, laid out in a large container and put on fire.
While they are boiling, peel the bell peppers from seeds and entrails and also pass them through a meat grinder. After the tomatoes boil for about 15-20 minutes and some of the moisture evaporates from them, add chopped peppers to them.
At the same time, peel the garlic and cut it into cloves.
Garlic is twisted together with hot pepper.
Continue to simmer until the tomatoes and bell peppers thicken, stirring occasionally. Approximately 40 minutes after the start of cooking the tomatoes, the vegetable mixture should reach the desired condition and grated hot peppers with garlic can be added to it.
After another 5-10 minutes, you can add chopped herbs, as well as sugar, salt and vinegar. After another five minutes, adjika can be tasted, and if there are enough spices, then turn off the heat. Spread the finished seasoning in sterile jars, twist and, turning upside down, wrap with a thick cloth until cool.
Georgian adjika
This version of the Caucasian adjika is also quite traditional and is cooked without boiling. The seasoning turns out to be an intense green color. To get two half-liter jars of seasoning as a result, you need to collect the following ingredients:
- Celery greens – 900 g;
- Parsley greens – 300 g;
- Kinza – 600 g;
- Sweet bell pepper white, yellow or light green – 300 g;
- Hot green capsicum – 300 g;
- Garlic – 6 medium heads;
- Peppermint – 50 g;
- Walnuts chopped – 200 g;
- Salt – 120 g;
- Ground black pepper – according to your taste sensations.
All green grass must be washed well, sorted out, freed from dried and withered parts and dried in the shade on a paper towel. Free the garlic from the husk and divide into slices. Wash both types of pepper, free from internal contents and wash well again under running water. If you have sores on your hands, be sure to use gloves when handling garlic and hot peppers.
After all the prepared components of adjika dry up, grind them all with a meat grinder. Don’t forget the walnuts. Then you can add black pepper and salt and mix thoroughly.
Divide the seasoning into small jars and store in the refrigerator.
Adjika with horseradish
This version of adjika can rightly be called a traditional sauce, because in addition to garlic and hot pepper, it also includes the classic hot seasoning – horseradish. So, to make it, you need to find 2,5 kg of juicy and ripe tomatoes, 1,5 kg of bell pepper, 350 g of garlic, 350 g of horseradish and 350 g of hot pepper.
All vegetables are cleaned of impurities, tomatoes and horseradish – from the skin, garlic – from the husk, and peppers – from the tails and seed chambers. Then all the vegetables are ground through a meat grinder and mixed together. Only horseradish needs to be ground through a meat grinder last, so that it does not have time to run out of steam. 200 g of salt and 200 ml of 6% vinegar are added to the grated mass. After thorough mixing, ready-made adjika is laid out in dry sterilized jars and placed in the refrigerator for storage.
Adjika with apples
This version of adjika turns out to be so tender and delicious that it can no longer be attributed to sauces, but to separate dishes that are served as an appetizer.
First, prepare 5 kg of tomatoes and 1 kg of carrots, apples, sweet peppers, as well as 300 g of garlic and 150 g of hot peppers.
From the auxiliary ingredients, you need to take 0,5 kg of sugar and 0,5 l of vegetable oil. Salt and vinegar are added to this adjika during the manufacturing process according to your taste.
Vegetables and fruits are washed and traditionally cleaned of everything superfluous. Then they are cut into small pieces and ground through a meat grinder in any order. Everything but garlic.
All fruit and vegetable mass, with the exception of garlic, after thorough kneading, is laid out in a saucepan with a thick bottom and placed on fire. After boiling, vegetable oil is poured into it and sugar and salt are added. The whole mass is cooked for about an hour. Periodically, it is desirable to mix it using a wooden spatula.
Then garlic mixture with salt and vinegar is added to adjika. Everything boils down for about half an hour. Be sure to taste the finished adjika and add salt and vinegar if necessary.
While still hot, the seasoning is laid out in dry, sterilized jars, rolled up and stored at room temperature.
Some secrets of making adjika
There are some features, the knowledge of which can help you prepare adjika according to any recipe.
- Adjika according to classic recipes is prepared exclusively from coarse rock salt without any additives.
- Hot pepper pods can be used both fresh and dried.
- If you want to increase the spiciness of the seasoning, use hot peppers along with the seeds. To reduce its sharpness, part of the hot pepper can be replaced with sweet pepper or carrots.
- All spices, herbs and garlic for the preparation of adjika are traditionally ground in a stone or wooden mortar.
- The best herbs that go well with hot peppers are marjoram, dill, savory, basil, zira, bay leaf, coriander, blue fenugreek and saffron.
- To give the seasoning a more intense flavor, spices and spices are usually calcined in a dry frying pan without adding oil.
- Garlic for cooking adjika is best taken with a purple tint.
- Tomatoes for seasoning are chosen fleshy. Watery varieties should be avoided, as should damaged or overripe fruit.
- A meat grinder is best suited for chopping vegetables. Using a blender can turn vegetables and herbs into a puree, which is not suitable for adjika.
- To close adjika jars, it is best to use metal lids. Nylon can only be used for those seasonings that will be stored in the refrigerator.
Adjika is popular in many families. Try to cook it according to all the recipes that are described above, and you will definitely find something to your liking.
