Ajika
Alternative names | Adjika |
---|---|
Course | Dip |
Place of origin | Georgia |
Region or state | Abkhazia, Samegrelo |
Main ingredients | Red peppers, garlic, herbs and spices, salt, and walnut |
Ajika or adjika (Template:Lang-ab, Georgian: აჯიკა) is a Georgian-Abkhazian hot, spicy, but subtly flavored dip, often used to flavor food.[1][2] In 2018, the technology of ajika was inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Georgia list.[3]
The name derives from the Abkhaz word аџьыка "salt".[4][5][6] The Abkhazian variant of ajika is based on a boiled preparation of hot red peppers, garlic, herbs, and spices such as coriander, dill, blue fenugreek (only found in mountain regions such as the Alps or the Caucasus), salt, and walnut. A dry form of ajika exists that is sometimes called svanuri marili in Georgian or lushnu jim in Svan (სვანური მარილი "Svanetian salt"); this looks like small red clumps mixed with a looser version of the spice mixture.[citation needed] Home-made ajika is available from many market stalls in the Caucasus and in the Krasnodar Krai of Russia. Tomatoes are not an ingredient of traditional ajika, though different versions of ajika, sometimes having tomatoes or tomato paste as an ingredient, are produced on a commercial scale and sold in supermarkets in Russia and Ukraine.
Common varieties of ajika resemble Italian red pesto in appearance and consistency. Though it is usually red, green ajika is also made with unripe peppers.
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Megrelian ajika
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Green ajika
See also
- Eros Pista, a popular Hungarian pepper sauce.
- Biber salçası, a hot or sweet pepper paste in Turkish cuisine
- Muhammara or acuka, a hot pepper dip in Levantine cuisine
- Harissa, a hot chili pepper paste in Maghreb cuisine
- Matbukha, another Maghreb dish with chili pepper similar to ajika
- Zhug, a hot sauce in Middle Eastern cuisine, made from fresh hot peppers seasoned with coriander, garlic and various spices
- List of dips
- List of sauces
External links
- Oliver Bullough (2012). Adjika: Sauce of Glory, Pride of Abkhazia. Roads & Kingdoms.
- Rada Azhiba (2018). Pepper and Stone: how to produce Abkhazian ajika. Abkhaz World.
- Katya Kazbek (2019). Recipe: Adjika. Supamodu.
References
- ^ T. Burford (2008). Georgia, Bradt Travel Guide. p. 69.
- ^ Галина Григорьевна Копешавидзе (1989). Абхазская кухня. Сухуми: Алашара. pp. 77–78. [Galina Kopeshavidze (1989). Abkhazian cuisine (in Russian). Sukhumi: Alashara. pp. 77–78.]
- ^ "Ajika granted the status of an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Georgia". Georgian Journal. 21 November 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
- ^ Ежегодник иберийско-кавказского языкознания. Vol. 12. Академия наук Грузинской ССР. 1985. p. 222. [Annual of Ibero-Caucasian linguistics (in Russian). Vol. 12. Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR. 1985. p. 222.]
- ^ T. Yanagisawa (2010). "а-џьы́ка". Analytic Dictionary of Abkhaz. Hitsuji Shobo Press.
- ^ В. Касланӡиа (2005). "а-џьы́ка". Аԥсуа-аурыс жәар.