Georgian · sauce/condiment

Ajika (Pounded Red Pepper and Blue Fenugreek Paste)

Ajika (Pounded Red Pepper and Blue Fenugreek Paste) reads allium 4.9, nutty 4.4 and herbaceous 4.2 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Georgian sauce/condiment, about 240 hr 30 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 4.2 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 2.7 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 4.3 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 3.2 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 5.4 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 5.8 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Allium 4.9 · Nutty 4.4 · Herbaceous 4.2 · Salinity 3.8 · Heat 3.8 · Sourness 3.6 · Richness 3.4 · Earthy 2.9 · Citrus 2.3 · Warm Spice 2.2 · Sweetness 2.2 · Floral 1.9 · Bitterness 1.8 · Umami 1.7 · Fruity 1.7 · Funk & Ferment 1.6

What's in it (10)

• fresh red chili pepper — 500 g
• garlic — 120 g
• coriander seed — 60 g
• blue fenugreek — 30 g
• dried marigold petals — 20 g
• walnut halves — 30 g
• salt — 45 g
• fresh coriander — 20 g
• dried summer savory — 10 g
• red wine vinaigrette — 30 g

Time & effort: about 240 hr 30 min (30 min active) · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 99.5 kcal, 3.5 g protein, 4.5 g fat, 14.6 g carbs

Dietary: Vegan — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (6 steps)

1. Spread the chillies on a tray in a warm airy room, or thread them on a string, and leave them 3 days until they have wilted and lost roughly a third of their weight. Water is what makes ajika ferment badly and go mouldy, and this step is why village ajika keeps for a year.
2. Toast the coriander seed in a dry pan over medium heat for 90 seconds, until it smells like orange peel and warm dust, and grind it.
3. Pound everything together in a stone mortar, a handful at a time, in this order: garlic and salt first to a wet paste, then the chillies, then the blue fenugreek, marigold, ground coriander, walnuts, fresh coriander and summer savory. This takes about 25 minutes and it is worth it, because a food processor shreds where a pestle bruises and the resulting slurry tastes flat.
4. Work in the vinegar at the end. The paste should be thick enough to hold a furrow.
5. Pack into a clean jar, press the surface flat and leave it in a cool place for a week before you use it. It sharpens and settles.
6. Blue fenugreek, utskho suneli, is the signature. It is a different plant from the fenugreek of Indian cooking, sweeter and more like celery and hay, and there is no honest substitute; buy it from a Georgian grocer.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Bean Soup (Lobio) — Georgian
• Tomato Pachadi (Roasted Tomato and Lentil Relish) — Indian · Andhra
• Mchuzi wa Samaki (Swahili Fish Curry) — Swahili Coast
• Quinoa Black Bean Summer Salad With Tahini Dressing — Latin American
• Chicken Korma — Indian

Keep reading: what allium, nutty, herbaceous mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.