The Country: Abkhazia
The Dishes: Adjika, Chicken with Bazhe Sauce, and Eggplant with Adjika
The very first country on my list is Abkhazia, a disputed territory on the Eastern coast of the Black Sea. In a nutshell, it is a very conflicted area, so while Russia, Abkhazia itself, and a handful of other countries consider Abkhazia an independent country, Georgia, the United Nations, and in fact the majority of the world consider it a part of Georgia's territory. There was a war between Abkhazia and Georgia in 1992-1993, and again in 2008, and Abkhazia is now considered a Russian-occupied zone. There is much more to say about this complex conflict, but I will move on to the food regardless.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed preparing (and eating) an Abkhazian meal. Abkhazian cuisine's staples include corn and corn meal, meat and dairy products, and vegetables. Meat is usually boiled or grilled, while vegetable dishes often involve seasoning green vegetables with walnuts, spices, and the famous Adjika sauce. Interestingly, every meal is accompanied by a platter of vegetables, with fresh vegetables in summer and both pickled and root vegetables in the winter.
The first dish I prepared, the night before the meal, was Adjika. In Abkhazia, people take Adjika very seriously. It is a spicy sauce or condiment with a tomato and hot red pepper base that is used to flavor many dishes. Apparently, each family has a slightly different recipe, which they keep rather a secret. This article is a wonderful read and does a much better job of explaining the spicy phenomenon that is Adjika. I used the recipe linked below, although I did add some dried oregano and powdered cumin to the recipe. Also, I used a food
processor instead of a meat grinder. Terrible, I know, but efficient. The result was a spicy, delicious sauce that was almost a cross between salsa and Sambal-Oelek.
My main dish was very simple, pan-grilled chicken breasts with a Bazhe sauce. The chicken breasts were very simply grilled in olive oil with a little salt and pepper. The Bazhe sauce was a real surprise; I had never tried a sauce like it. The recipe called for hazelnuts, but the local supermarket didn't have any. Around here, you can buy pig's feet and pig's skins and some people actually eat them, but no hazelnuts. So instead I used pecans and walnuts, which was still lovely, The sauce ended up being very delicate but with a quite complex flavor, helped by the white wine vinegar and the different spices. I would love to make this sauce again, perhaps with hazelnuts next time.
As a side, I tried making Eggplant with Adjika. The dish consisted of grilled eggplant slices topped with a mixture of mayonnaise, peppers, green onions, garlic, herbs, spices, and of course some Adjika. The dish was very strong in flavor, almost overpowering, and in future I might add more mayonnaise in proportion to the other ingredients, to try and lighten up the dish.
Here is some background information and the recipes I used:
-An overview of Abkhazian cuisine:
http://abkhazworld.com/aw/abkhazians/culture/654-abkhazian-cuisine
-An great article by a man who is serious about his Adjika:
http://abkhazworld.com/aw/blogs/647-adjika-sauce-of-glory-pride-of-abkhazia-by-oliver-bullough
-The recipe for Adjika:
http://georgianrecipes.net/2013/09/29/ajika-with-tomatoes/
-The recipe for Chicken with Bazhe Sauce:
http://georgianrecipes.net/2014/05/25/chicken-tabaka-with-hazelnut-bazhe-sauce/
-And the recipe for Eggplant with Adjika, again a Georgian site:
http://georgianrecipes.net/2014/08/04/eggplant-with-ajika-and-mayonnaise/
