Adjika Hot Pepper Relish
Classic cooked adjika is a thick pepper sauce simmered for an hour until a spoon stands up in it. The heat is easy to dial: four chillies give a definite but civilised burn. The garlic goes in right at the end, otherwise only its smell survives.
- Prep
- 40 min
- Cook
- 1 h
- Total
- 1 h 40 min
- Servings
- 24
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 45 kcal
Ingredients
Makes: 4 jars, 500 ml each
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Prepare the peppers
Deseed the sweet peppers. Leave the seeds in the chillies for more heat, or take them out for less.
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Step 2: Mince
Pass the peppers and tomatoes through a mincer. A blender works but gives a smoother purée than adjika should have.
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Step 3: Reduce
Tip into a heavy pot with the oil, salt and sugar and simmer over low heat for 50 minutes, stirring now and then.
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Step 4: Check the thickness
It is ready when a trail drawn across the bottom does not fill with liquid at once. Thin adjika separates in the jar over winter.
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Step 5: Add the garlic
Crush the garlic, stir it in and cook for 5 minutes more — no longer, or the aroma goes.
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Step 6: Seal
Stir in the vinegar and spoon the boiling adjika into clean jars. Let it cool and refrigerate straight away — do not seal it for the cupboard: adjika is too thick for a water bath to heat the middle of the jar, and it holds twice as much pepper as tomato.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Heat lives in the seeds as much as the flesh: remove them and the same number of chillies gives half the burn.
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Tip
Wear gloves with chillies and keep your hands away from your eyes afterwards — the sting lasts for hours.
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Variation
Add 300 g of carrot with the peppers for a thicker, slightly sweeter sauce.
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Storage
Three months in the fridge, a year in the freezer. Small tubs or an ice-cube tray work well — the heat and the aroma come through unchanged.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 24 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 45 kcal | 1,080 kcal |
| Protein | 1 g | 24 g |
| Fat | 2 g | 48 g |
| Carbohydrates | 6 g | 144 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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