Over time, the famous Caucasian sauce has undergone many changes in Slavic cooking. The basic ingredients, delicious aroma and rich taste remained unchanged.
Most modifications to the adzhika recipe are associated with the desire to diversify the taste and the need to store the acute adzhika at home.
Spicy adjika for the winter - general cooking principles
Regardless of the adjika recipe, to make it you will need:
• pepper,
• salt,
• herbs,
• garlic.
Gathering a sharp adjika for the winter, you should remember that it is necessary to work with pepper only with gloves, otherwise you can get severe skin irritation.
Pepper. The more fleshy and juicy the pepper is, the thicker and pleasant the consistency of the sauce will be.
As a rule, two types of peppers are used - sweet and spicy. Sweet varieties (Bulgarian, Paprika, Gogoshar) can be replaced and varied, and in the case of sharp varieties it is better to strictly adhere to the recipe. The most burning are the chili peppers "Jalapeno" and "Habanera", with them you need to be extremely careful, the more familiar are the "Ogonyok" and "Ukrainian bitter".
Salt Stone or coarse grinding should be chosen, the quantity is usually given in recipes.
Herbs give flavor, traditionally used dry herbs ukho-suneli, hops-suneli, coriander, fennel seeds. Fresh herbs give a wonderful aroma to boiled adzhika, however they spoil the appearance - when cooking they get an earthy hue.
Garlic It is always used in adjika, but its amount depends on whether it is the main source of sharpness. If the recipe says a lot of hot peppers, the amount of garlic can be reduced.
Tomatoes. Tomatoes were not included in the composition of the traditional adjika, but today almost half of the recipes of the acute adjika for the winter include tomatoes and other vegetable purees used for the viscosity of the sauce. When choosing tomatoes, attention should be paid to their structure. Optimal dense, ripe, not very juicy fruits with a minimum of liquid inside.
Depending on the recipe, you can store spicy adjika cooked for the winter in the refrigerator, cellar or other cool place. In any case, for long-term storage, the sauce must be placed in sterilized jars.
Acute adzhika for the winter (classic)
The classic Abkhaz adjika is a great addition to smoked sausages and meat dishes cooked on charcoal.
Ingredients
• Red Bulgarian pepper - 2 kg
• Paprika - 700 g
• Red chilli - 600 g
• Garlic - 400 g
• Spice mix (dill seeds, coriander, hops-suneli) - half a glass
• Salt of stone 5 tbsp
• Fresh coriander - half bunch
• Vinegar 9% - 4 tbsp.
Cooking method
Bulgarian and hot pepper must be thoroughly washed and wiped dry with a clean kitchen towel. Seeds and stalks should be removed from Bulgarian pepper, only stalks should be removed from bitter ones. Seeds are left in order for the acute adjika for the winter to turn out as hot as possible.
After pepper preparation, it is necessary to peel the garlic and disassemble it.
Vegetables, garlic and hot pepper seeds should be scrolled in a meat grinder 2 times, to obtain the most homogeneous mass.
Then you need to add spices, herbs, salt, vinegar and put on a slow fire. As soon as the mixture boils, immediately remove from heat, spread on sterilized jars and roll up. If the bright saturated color of adzhika is important, it is better not to add fresh greens.
Keep adjika should be in a dry cool place no more than 6 months.
Acute adjika for the winter (tomato)
Very aromatic, spicy and, at the same time, softer, in comparison with the traditional, tomato adjika is ideal for boiled meat, poultry, vegetable side dishes and rice dishes.
Ingredients
• Tomatoes - 2.6 kg
• Carrot - 900 g
• Bitter pepper (Chile) - 3 pcs.
• Vinegar - 200 ml
• Sugar - 200 g
• Paprika sweet pepper - 900 g
• Coarse salt - 1/4 cup
• Garlic - 0.3 kg
• Green apples - 800 g
• Refined vegetable oil - 200 ml
Cooking method
First of all, you need to prepare the ingredients. Wash, dry and peel peppers, apples, carrots and tomatoes. Remove peppers and seeds from peppers. Peel the apples and remove the core. Peel the carrots. Remove the stem and peel the tomatoes.
Prepared products are placed in a meat grinder and skip 2-3 times, until a homogeneous structure is obtained.
Pour the mixture into a suitable saucepan and place on the stove. Stirring occasionally, simmer for an hour, then add salt, vinegar, sugar, oil and garlic passed through the garlic jam.
Wait until the mixture boils again, boil for another 5 minutes and remove from heat.
Then expand the adjika into clean, dry jars, cover with lids, do not twist. Sterilize the filled jars in a saucepan of a suitable size for 10 minutes, then roll up.
Acute adjika for winter (soup)
Very spicy fragrant sauce perfectly emphasizes the taste of meat and vegetable dishes. Can be used as a seasoning for soups.
Ingredients:
• Pink tomatoes with dense pulp - 3 kg
• Hot pepper Jalapeno - 2 pcs
• Paprika pepper - 1 kg;
• Pepper Gogoshary - 1 kg;
• Garlic - 10 large cloves;
• Coriander - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Sea salt or coarse grinding - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• Freshly ground allspice - 0.5 tsp
• Parsley and cilantro herbs - half a bunch
• Freshly ground black pepper - 1 tsp
Cooking method
Wash the vegetables, remove the seeds and partitions from the peppers, and remove the white parts from the tomatoes. Peel the garlic and skip it through the garlic press. Grind peppers and tomatoes using a meat grinder or blender.
Rinse thoroughly and allow the herbs to drain completely, then chop them as finely as possible and add to the vegetable mixture.
Using a pestle, grind coriander with salt into powder.
Add spices to the adjika and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes after boiling. Pour hot sauce into pre-sterilized jars and spin.
Acute adzhika for winter (cool)
This recipe is notable for the fact that it is the classic adjika seasoning that is being prepared, not the sauce, but it can only be used in small quantities.
It is great with Abkhazian dishes, vegetable stews, salads, fish and even pasta.
Ingredients
• Basil - 2 large bunches
• Parsley - half bunch
• Dill - half a bunch
• Cilantro - 1 big bunch
• Mint - 1 small bunch
• Tarragon - 0.5 bundle
• Thyme - a few twigs
• Young garlic 3 large heads
• Fresh Hot Pepper (Jalapeno) - 3 Pods
• Salt - 2 tbsp. spoons
• Walnut oil - 3 tablespoons.
Cooking method
Peppers must be prepared in advance. In the old days it was strung on a thick thread and hung for a month to dry in a warm, well-ventilated room. If this is not possible, the pepper can be dried by the "accelerated" method, using electric drying for vegetables, or by placing the peppers for 3-4 hours in a slightly opened oven, heated to 30-40 degrees.
Dried peppers must be well washed and cut off the stem.
Peeled garlic and washed and completely dried herbs are added to the prepared pepper and scrolled together in a meat grinder.
Salt and oil should be added to the minced paste and mix until completely homogeneous.
Ready seasoning must be decomposed into sterilized jars and screwed. It is stored in the refrigerator for 6 months, in the cellar and on the balcony for up to 4 months.
Acute adjika for winter (without boiling)
Aromatic and spicy adjika is excellent as a sauce for meat and seasoning for borscht. Cooked without cooking and adding vinegar, adzhika, however, can be stored for a long time without a refrigerator.
Ingredients
• Dense tomatoes - 1 kg
• Garlic - 0.3 kg
• Salt - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Chile - 0.5 kg
• Ratunda pepper - 1 kg
Cooking method
Wash the tomatoes and remove the tails. Wash and clean the peppers from the seeds. Wash the chili. Peel the garlic. Grind all the ingredients in a meat grinder, add salt, mix well and cover.
The mixture should ferment. To do this, it must be left covered in a warm room for 3 days. Mix it two or three times a day.
After 3 days adjika is ready, it needs to be decomposed into sterilized jars and tightly close the nylon caps.
You can store not only in the refrigerator, but also in the cellar.
Spicy adjika for winter (with nuts)
Spicy adjika with nuts amazingly complements the taste of hot dishes and goes well with tomato sauce.
Ingredients
• Red hot pepper - 1.3 kg
• Fresh cilantro green - 1 bunch
• Coarse salt - 1.5 tbsp. l
• Garlic - 100 g
• Dry basil - 1 tsp.
• Walnuts - 250 g
Cooking method
Wash and clean the pepper from the seeds. Put them in a large container, cover with warm water, press down tightly with a lid and set aside for an hour. It is impossible to leave pepper in water longer, otherwise it may lose sharpness.
An hour later, drain the water and place the pepper in a food processor, add herbs, peeled garlic, salt and nuts. Grind until smooth.
Spread out on sterilized cans and tightly close the lids. Store such adjika should be in the refrigerator.
Acute adzhika for the winter - tricks and tips
• Garlic is present in any adjika recipe and it usually takes quite a long time to clean it. There is an easy way to do this in minutes. So, at the head of garlic, it is necessary to cut off the stem and put the head on a cutting board and several times strongly hit the base of the palm on it. Then put the slices in the pan, cover and shake the dishes. After that, most of the slices will be completely cleaned, and the remaining husks will be removed very easily.
• When harvesting acute adjika for the winter, do not remove the seeds, they contain the lion's share of bitterness, but if you need to prepare adjika of moderate severity, remove some of the seeds.
• Traditionally, sharp adjika is prepared for winter in large portions and rolled into large cans. This is not always convenient. So that the sauce is always at hand, and it can be used in everyday cooking, you can freeze the adjika in small plastic containers or ice cakes. It is very convenient to add these fragrant pieces of ice to soups, stews and other hot dishes.
• In the old days, ingredients were rubbed with special stones. It is believed that this method of processing best preserves the flavor and emphasizes the taste of seasoning. Today, the majority of Caucasian housewives, when grinding ingredients for adzhika, prefer a manual meat grinder, this is due to the fact that products are cut in an electric harvester and a blender, and are ground in a meat grinder.
Preparing a sharp adjika for the winter, you can enjoy a unique fragrant sauce, which absorbed the flavors of summer. Moreover, with the right approach, the preparation of acute adzhika for the winter does not require much time.
