Preparing for winter: Adjika

Adjika is a traditional Georgian sauce made out of peppers and fresh herbs, like most sauces. But, unlike most spices, this sauce is amazingly delicious, mixing just about every taste (mostly dill) into a dense sauce that can be jarred and kept for long times. It really is meant to be made in the summer, before the beautiful mountain passes of Khvetsuri are covered with their first frost, or something poetic like that. Essentially, like canning, it is meant to get you through the winter with some semblance fresh flavor. But in modern DC, winter isn’t so crushing, but I would like to not have to buy so many fresh greens in the winter, for cost as well as localist reasons. 

Don’t see the celery and think this is some pablum. The punch packed is straight to the mouth. It’s definitely as hot as a vindaloo and as robust as a goulash. But it also has some delicate, herby flavors that makes it a lot like pesto. Indeed, it is great on pasta and mixed in with vegetables in a stir fry. I have already tried both. Plus, since it is so potent, you really don’t need to use much at all to really kick a simple meal into something fierce. Since I did not use tomatoes, the texture is very rough, which makes it good with a little oil. It does, however, look sort of funny. 

Now, the recipe calls for a few things that I did not add that cost $7 per ounce, because I felt that if I screwed this up it would be a very pricy mistake. Luckily it came out well, and I hope to share it with a lot of people.