Dry adjika: recipes and cooking secrets

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

A spicy mixture of many components - adjika - an invention of Caucasian chefs. The cuisine of the mountain peoples is replete with spicy spices and seasonings, which other peoples began to use after tasting Georgian or Abkhazian dishes.

Spice Queen

Adjika is the main seasoning on the tables of the peoples of the Caucasus. Depending on the recipe, it comes in powder and paste form, as well as in the form of a sauce of fresh vegetables and spices.

Ajika is originally a spicy spice. Its composition, and hence the severity can vary. Then adjika is obtained in different colors: it happens brown, red, orange and green. Each of these types adds spiciness and sweetness or spiciness and bitterness to the dish. For any hot dish and even snacks, you can cook the original adjika.

Where is she from

Adjika is of Abkhaz origin. There the word means "s alt". Saying “adjika”, Abkhazians mean s alt and pepper, the main components of adjika.

Adjika was invented in the mountains by shepherds grazing sheep. Their owners gave s alt to the shepherds with them, so that they added it to the food or water of the sheep, then the animals fromthirsty ate more grass, which means they got better. Shepherds were forbidden to touch the s alt, using it for anything other than feeding sheep. So that the shepherds would not covet s alt, their owners mixed it with pepper and cumin, thinking that this would not be successful with the shepherds.

But it turned out the other way around. So, shepherds modified pepper s alt, adding other components to it, only improving dishes. No matter how silly it may sound, however, gradually adjika became the adjika that everyone knows, and since then its essential ingredients are s alt, hot pepper and garlic, and other dry herbs and spices are added depending on the recipe and the region where the dish is prepared.

Main component

Dry adjika consists of many herbs and spices. The main thing is to know exactly how to mix the components. Adjika (spicy) has red pepper in its composition, and there is a lot of it. Turns out it's delicious!

The basic recipe that makes delicious dry adjika includes several essential ingredients, and s alt is not the main ingredient, surprisingly. Red pepper plays the first violin, the sharpness of which creates a familiar taste, which everyone who has tried classic adjika knows.

Don't forget about one of the most famous Caucasian spices - suneli hops. This is an indispensable component that includes dry adjika. This is a multi-component spice: as many herbs as are included in suneli hops, it is even difficult to find them separately. Now it is sold already in the form of a mixture of the right components, and you needjust add it to the dish.

Women of the Caucasus rubbed spices for adjika on a special stone. Now a kitchen mortar is enough for you to make Georgian adjika - a dry mixture of aromatic spices and herbs.

The consistency of the seasoning ground on the stone turned out to be suitable for spreading it on pita bread or other bread products.

No tomatoes

Adjika in the Caucasus is eaten with almost all dishes, sometimes even with desserts.

By the way, they never put tomatoes in real adjika. This is a Russian innovation that has turned the national Caucasian spice into an appetizer akin to eggplant caviar.

Forget about tomatoes when you decide to cook classic adjika.

In addition, adjika can be prepared from dry herbs and spices - dry adjika will come out. It will wonderfully set off any of your meat or fish dishes.

And if you take freshly picked herbs and spices, you get spicy and fresh adjika. Add it to rice or bean garnish. Trust me, it's delicious.

Red pepper gives adjika a red color, and a huge amount of fresh herbs, more often cilantro, which takes up half of the total volume of the sauce, gives a green color.

Why breed adjika?

Here you already have cooked dry adjika. How to dilute it and how to make a sauce or paste like tomato? Simply take water and pour it into your mixture until it reaches the desired consistency. You can replace water with redwine or wine vinegar, then your adjika will turn out spicy and suitable for a festive feast.

The peoples of the Caucasus cannot imagine their life without adjika. Residents of Georgia and Abkhazia are arguing among themselves who owns the championship in the invention of this outstanding sauce.

By the way, the Abkhazian and Georgian adjika recipes are different. Cinnamon was never put in the first one, and Georgians used to cook adjika by adding this dessert seasoning to it.

According to the inhabitants of the Caucasus, adjika improves he alth, from the digestive system to male strength. This is not surprising, given how many vitamin supplements this sauce contains. What is one garlic, famous for its medicinal properties.

Basic recipe

After all, as you can see, dry adjika is very popular. Any Caucasian housewife will tell you how to cook it. But knowledge can be enriched at home. Here is dry adjika, the recipe of which is easy to try.

For thirty hot peppercorns, take one and a half or two heads of garlic, a spoonful of s alt, two tablespoons of zira, four tablespoons of coriander seeds, one tablespoon of dry dill and two tablespoons of suneli hops. Mix everything and crush in a mortar. That's all the wisdom in preparing such a seasoning as dry adjika, the recipe of which given above is basic, and you can vary the ingredients to your liking by adding spices as you like.

Don't forget that when using fresh vegetables and herbs, you will have tofirst fry in a pan in a small amount of oil, and then mix with each other, adding or not adding water (it depends on how thick and sharp the adjika will turn out).

Additional recipe

So, take about 600 grams of ground hot red pepper, 4 tablespoons of dry coriander mixture, 2 tablespoons of dill seeds, and 2 tablespoons of hops-suneli seasoning. Also, add s alt to taste. Don't forget to mix. Here we have prepared dry adjika!

Hurry to cook

You already know what dry adjika seasoning is. You also know how to breed it, so feel free to start cooking the queen of Middle Eastern seasonings, the queen of the Caucasian feast.

Take more pepper, you can use sweet if you plan to serve fresh sauce, do not even think about adding tomatoes, adjika will get rich red color from red pepper, and you will keep the authenticity of the seasoning.

Cook dry adjika the way you like, because you can put as many herbs and spices into it as you wish. You can make it fiery-sharp, suitable for hot, and gently spicy, and sweet-spicy, and with rich greens, and with a prevailing aroma of garlic, and with a complex inflorescence of spices. Whatever she can be. The main thing is that if it is based on a basic recipe, this adjika will be perfect.

There are as many adjika recipes as there are housewives who cook it.

Find your recipe and remember that withoutexperiments are indispensable!