Thanks to the detailed description and step-by-step photos, you can easily prepare Georgian delicious summer dish Ajapsandali at home. Cooking secrets. Video recipe.
Ajapsandali is a well-known dish of Georgian cuisine that belongs to cold appetizers, but you can also serve it hot. Traditionally, the dish is served with fresh lavash and herbs. The dish consists of summer vegetables, it is saturated with aromas of spices and spicy herbs. Required ingredients: eggplant, tomatoes, bunch of cilantro, basil, vegetable oil, salt, pepper to taste. To taste, the dish may include sweet peppers, zucchini, onions, garlic, hot peppers, sometimes potatoes are added. The dish is used in the cuisines of many nations under different names, for example, its European counterpart is ratatouille (vegetable sauté). The main thing is that the vegetables are very fresh and of high quality. This dish is prepared very simply, and if you know some secrets, then it will also be deliciously tasty.
- Initially, ajapsandal was considered a vegetable dish, but today it is being prepared with meat. It is important not to overdo it in the dish so that the meat taste does not dominate.
- The dish must include ripe eggplants of any kind. It is important to remove solanine from them, which gives the vegetable bitterness and can spoil the taste of the food. For this, the eggplants are cut, salted and washed after a quarter of an hour. You can dip the vegetables for 30 minutes in a saline solution: 10 g of salt and 1 liter of water. Detailed recipes for removing bitterness from eggplants in different ways can be found on the pages of the site using the search bar.
- Spices and spices form the basis of the flavor of the dish. The main herbs of the dish are cilantro and basil.
- If garlic is added, then it is pounded in a mortar or chopped in another way, then the taste of the food will be slightly different.
- When adding sweet pepper to the dish, the fruits can be chosen in different colors. They do not taste exactly the same: greens are tougher than reds and yellows. The dish will look brighter and more appetizing with red pepper.
- Ajapsandal cookware should have thick walls and a heavy bottom. In such a container, heat is well retained, and vegetables become softer faster and are better saturated with aroma.
- It is not necessary to exceed the cooking time, otherwise the food will turn into a homogeneous mass similar to vegetable caviar, which should not be a real ajapsandal.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 184 kcal.
- Servings - 3
- Cooking time - 1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- Blue eggplants - 1 pc.
- Zucchini - 1 pc.
- Ground black pepper - a pinch
- White-blue eggplants - 1 pc.
- Hot pepper - 0.5 pods
- Vegetable oil - for frying
- Cilantro - bunch
- Salt - 1 tsp or to taste
- Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
Step by step preparation of ajapsandali, recipe with photo:
1. Wash the eggplants, cut off the stalk and cut into medium-sized cubes. Remove bitterness from the fruit if necessary. If you use young fruits or white eggplants, then you do not need to remove bitterness from them, i.e. it is not in them. The bitterness is found in an old, ripe vegetable.
2. In a skillet, heat the vegetable oil and put the eggplant to fry. Bring them to a golden brown over medium heat.
3. By this time, wash the zucchini, cut into equal cubes, like eggplants and add them to the pan to the vegetables.
4. Continue to grill vegetables over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
5. When the eggplant and zucchini are a little softer, add the diced tomatoes, chopped herbs and hot peppers to the pan.
6. Season with salt, pepper, stir and simmer the vegetables covered over low heat for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot or chilled ajapsandali.
See also the video recipe on how to cook ajapsandal (vegetable stew with potatoes)
