Adjika (Аджика)

I want to continue my cooking blog. My son Sergey moved out for real this time and, surprise, he loves my blog! Even his friends are interested in cooking Russian food.

So, in today's menu we have Russian Hot Sauce Adjika. I made it last year and it was a big success with my son. We loves hot food! So, if you are in a mood for something hot, here it is! I did a lot of hot sauce at once, so I had to can most of it.
You will need: 6-8 pounds of tomatoes, 2-3 pounds of bell pepper (any color), 1/2 pound of garlic, 5 oz of red hot pepper, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of salt, 1/2 cup of vinegar, 1 cup of vegetable oil, one bundle of fresh herds of your choice (parsley, cilantro, celery). I also added 1 pound of apples and 1 pound of carrots.

I found a great deal for tomatoes at the fresh market - huge box of home-grown tomatoes for only $12. After I measured them up, I had to double my recipe because I had over 10 pounds of tomatoes. But you are allowed to follow the original recipe. :) Wash tomatoes thorough.

I couldn't find red hot pepper, I found green ones. But even these little pods were very hot and dangerous. Wear kitchen gloves working with them. Wash them, cut the tops off. Here is a little secret. If you want your adjika really hot - do not delete the seeds from the pepper, use the whole pod. If you want it mild - cut pods open and discard seeds into garbage. Then your sauce will have mild taste.

Peeling off garlic was very time-consuming and annoying business. But I don't know any other way to do it better except peel off each one individually. Maybe you know?

Carrots: if you use baby carrots they are ready for cooking. If you use the big real carrots, then wash them and rub them with something hard (like new sponge) so they will be clean.

Wash the apples, cut them into pieces and delete the middle part with seeds.

Now, part by part put all ingredients listed above into blender and crash them well. I dumped all veggie mix into a big metal pot, added vegetable oil and simmer them on a low heat for an hour.

While it was simmering, I took care of my jars. You can use the regular mouth 1 pint Mason jars. But any other glass jars will work too as far as they are whole and have leads.

I placed them into dish-washer to wash and sterilize.

Add the rest of ingredients from your list to the veggie mix: salt, sugar, vinegar, crashed hers. Bring it to boil again.

Simmer a few more minutes and start pouring the hot liquid into the clean jars. Be careful! This is very hot business! I used a special device (лейка с широким горлом).


When you fill up all your jars, tight them up with clean hot leads, place then on some soft surface and cover up to keep them warm. Leave them for another day. They continue to pa-sterilize inside.

Afterward, I had a lot of garbage....

and a lot of dirty dishes that I had to wash...

But it was totally worth it. It was very good. If you are still not convince to make it for yourself, come to my house and I will give you one jar for free! :)