It was a lovely day today, one of those rare days of summer that we hardly ever get nowadays in the UK. To celebrate I wanted to cook something light and summery and what better than badrijani nigvzit - Georgian style fried aubergines filled with a spicy walnut stuffing.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Georgian food is probably (well, at least in my opinion) the most unique cuisine in the world. Whereas with other national cuisines you can often detect influences from neighbouring countries, or possibly echoes from past invasions, the countries of the Caucasus, and in particular Georgia and its breakaway regions seem to have managed to hang onto their traditions. While Russian foods have made an appearance (borscht is ubiquitous all over the former Soviet states) traditional dishes have remained true to their origins retaining their unique flavouring that set it apart from anything else I have tasted. I have to say, in the UK Georgian food is woefully neglected and somewhat unknown. With the exception of a few restaurants in London and the south of the country, if you want to taste it you're either having to get the next flight out to Tbilisi (though not direct, alas) or make it yourself.
Badrijani nigvzit translates as aubergine and walnuts, and that's basically what it is. If one ingredient summed up Georgian food it is the walnut. Used both in sweet and savory dishes, it crops up again and again. If you're not a big fan of walnuts, keep reading - this dish may be the one to convert you! Simple to make, and the fragrant walnut stuffing complements the aubergine as though they were born to be together. I've seen a few different recipes for this dish, this is probably the most uncomplicated. Other than frying or grilling the aubergine no cooking is required.
Ingredients
2 large aubergines
200 g walnuts
3 garlic cloves (crushed)
2 tsp khmeli suneli
1 bunch of coriander
1 tbs pomegranate molasses
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Salt (for the aubergines)
1. Slice the aubergine lengthways into thin slices (~ 1 cm). Lay the slices on a baking tray and sprinkle with salt. Salt you say? Isn't that something that cooks used to say eons ago when they were under the impressions that aubergines were evil bitter little creatures that had to be salted into submission? Yes, you would be correct, other than some teeny tiny ones I bought in an Asian grocers I have never had a bitter aubergine. The reason for the salt in this recipe is to draw out the excessive water. You're going to fry the slices and you want them to be as dry as possible. You'll notice that after 5 minutes the aubergines start to 'sweat', leave them for around 30 minutes and then pat them dry.
2. Fry the slices in olive oil until golden brown, and then put to one side to cool.
3. Grind the walnuts until they have the texture of sand (some lumps are okay). I used a pestle and mortar for this as I didn't think my hand held blender was up to the job of dealing with whole nuts
4. To the nut mixture add the garlic, spices, pomegranate molasses, balsamic vinegar and coriander leaves. If you don't have khmeli suneli add ground fenugreek and coriander seeds. Blend until as smooth as possible. You want the consistency to be a thick paste, but if it's too thick add a little olive oil to loosen it up. It should look something like this
5. Lay the slices of aubergine on a plate and add a tablespoon of the stuffing mixture, then spread it out.
6. Roll the aubergine slices from the narrow end to the base and secure with a cocktail stick. Repeat.
7. You could serve immediately, but I think they taste even better if the flavours are allowed to mingle for an hour or so. Eat at room temperature. Be amazed.
Georgian cuisine is quite heavily bread based, with possibly the most well-known being the khachapuri, a delicious cheese-stuffed bread. Another stuffed Georgian bread is lobiani, which is filled with mashed kidney beans. I'm not really a big fan of baking, but I am a big fan of bean cuisine, so decided that this would be an ideal accompaniment to my ajapsandali.
It's a pretty forgiving recipe, and although it says knead the dough for 10 minutes, I think I only kneaded it for around 5 minutes. From an aesthetic point of view, the final form can take many shapes, some lobiani is very flat, others almost bun shaped, and some rolled out in a sausage. I went for round and flattish.
Ingredients
500 g flour
1 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
25 g margarine
320 ml warm water
Filling
400 g can of kidney beans (drained)
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp khmeli suneli
1 tsp cumin seeds
For the dough
1. Add flour to a large mixing bowl and rub in margarine
2. Add the yeast, salt and sugar (I used agave syrup instead of sugar - I had some in the house and have been trying to use it up).
3. Mix in enough warm water to make a dough. The amount may vary depending on how accurate you are with your flour measuring. Anything from 300-350 ml should be about right.
4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes (or until your arms get tired!) put back in the bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for around 1 hour
For the filling
1. Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil until softened and lightly browned.
2. Drain the kidney beans and add to the onion mixture. Some recipes call for cooking the beans from scratch, I went for the easy option.
3. Add the spices to the pan and give a good stir. Take off the heat and mash roughly.
4. Leave to one side to cool.
Stuffing the bread (preheat the oven to 220 C)
1. The dough should have risen considerably, knock it back and knead for a few minutes. Divide it into 4 balls
2. Take 1 ball and roll it out on a floured surface
3. Put one quarter of the bean mixture on the flattened dough
4. Gather the sides together in pleats so they meet in the middle
5. Press the disk flat and gently roll it out again, making sure that none of the bean mixture escapes
6. Repeat the process
7. Bake for around 20 minutes until lightly browned, then take out the oven and place on a cooling rack
8. Brush the surface with olive oil or butter and serve
I'm heading off to the Caucasus in a couple of weeks and figured I'd try my hand at some local dishes to whet my appetite. And because Armenia is my first stop, the obvious logic was to go Georgian ;) Nothing against Armenian food, in fact I find it delicious. My uncle used to go to an Armenian cookery class when I was a kid and I'd often get brought his latest experimentations to try. But Georgian food... ah... I'm a relative newcomer to its delights, having first tasted it a couple of years ago whilst staying in Odessa. My hotel had a Georgian restaurant on site and the smells were too much to resist.
Most countries that have a fairly bland cuisine usually embrace the spicy with open arms; in the UK, Indian food is the go-to if you're wanting something to excite the taste buds, in France you've got the North African influence, and in the US it's got to be Mexican. For the former Eastern Bloc countries the spice fix comes via Georgia (and to a lesser extent Uzbekistan) and despite the break up of the USSR it's still possible to find Georgian restaurants in many places.
And I have to say, it's rare that you taste something so different, so exciting that your first response (had you not been sitting surrounded by scary looking blokes) would be to jump up yelling "Holy shit, what is this?!" Yep... that good.
I spent a large part of the evening trying to figure out what was making it taste just so damn good, my Georgian being non existent, and my Russian and Ukrainian not up to the level required to interrogate a cook. I'd ordered ajapsandali, a vegetable stew not unlike ratatouille. Tomato based (though I later learned that some cooks omit the tomato and use potatoes), with aubergine and sweet peppers. The fresh herbiness of coriander was evident, as was the citrus notes of ground coriander seed, and the earthy tones of fenugreek. All cuisines have their preferred spice blends, with Georgian food the ubiquitous mixture is known as khmeli suneli (which apparently means dried spices), the exact mixture can vary, as do proportions, but the main ingredients that give Georgian food the 'wow' factor are ground coriander seed, fenugreek, fennel, dill, cinnamon and marigold petals.
The recipe below for ajapsandali is my attempt to recreate the meal I ate. I did search online for a recipe, but none that I could find sounded quite right. It could be that it's Georgian food as suited to the tastes of Ukrainians or Poles (I've also eaten it in Georgian restaurants in Poland a number of times) in the manner that Indian or Chinese food is adapted from country to country, but whatever its providence, it's damn tasty and if you're after something a little more exciting than your usual ratatouille, then it fits the bill.
Ingredients
1 large aubergine
2 red peppers
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
2 tsp khmeli suneli
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp oregano
Saffron (couple of threads - optional)
1 large bunch of coriander
1 good handful of flat leaf parsley
a few sprigs of dill
Salt to taste
500 g carton of passata
1. Fry the chopped onion and crushed garlic in olive oil until softened. While the onions are frying, heat the coriander and cumin seeds in a dry frying pan and grind them. As an aside, I'm not normally a 'grind your own' spices snob, for the most part ready ground spices are perfectly acceptible if you get them from a reputable source and they haven't spend the last 5 years languishing on the back of a shelf, than if you grind them yourself. Coriander seed is the exception to the rule, there's nothing quite like the flavour of toasted and freshly ground coriander seed. If you don't have a pestle and mortar then put them in a plastic baggie and beat the hell out of it with a hammer, rolling pin, or bottle. You don't need a fine powder, just enough to crack the shells and release the aroma.
2. Slice the aubergine and peppers into large chunks and add them to the pan.
3. At this point I also chop up the stems of the coriander and parsley and add them to the pot for extra flavour. Reserve the leaves for later on.
4. Stir in the passata and simmer on a low heat for around 1 hour (or until the aubergine is softened)
5. Once the aubergine is cooked through, stir in some finely chopped coriander and parsley and cook for another 5 minutes or so.
6. Add salt to taste
7. Eat! It's delicious with rice or with flat bread.
