Badrijani (Aubergine & Walnut Paste Dish)

[Jubal]

Making Some Badrijani

So, I made badrijani (ბადრიჯანი) today - a traditional Georgian dish, often used as a starter though I just had it as a meal.

Recipe here: https://georgianrecipes.net/2013/03/29/eggplant-with-walnuts-and-spices/

Unfortunately I didn't think to start taking photos until partway through the process - but here's the paste I made. I didn't have some of the suggested spices so this is walnuts, white wine vinegar, garlic, salt, paprika and powdered rosemary. It was nice - had what for me was a reasonable paprika kick, though that probably would make it extremely mild for most people's taste. The big struggle was getting it paste-y enough: the walnut was chopped fairly fine, I have a little rotating-handle chopper which is good, but it never fully got to paste consistency and I suspect one really needs a good pestle and mortar or maybe a really fine food blender.


Then it was time to cut some aubergine, I got one from the farmers' market down the road a few days ago (white rather than the purple I'm used to associating with them, but as far as I know the colour doesn't make much difference) :


And then I fried the aubergine and added the paste:


Then added some tomato bits as a garnish/addition. This was random based on what I had available but actually worked very well - the tomato and paprika flavours go fairly well and the coolness of the tomato countered out the spice kick quite nicely.


Then I put it in the fridge for a bit until the aubergine had cooled down, then I ate it. It was quite nice, I should make this more often. I might try cutting the aubergine thinner, trying to get the paste more consistent, and maybe roasting rather than frying the aubergine next time as apparently that works just as well.

[Othko97]

This looks really good! While I have to cater for a nut allergy these days (otherwise I'd be trying it ASAP), I'll be sure to look at the rest of that site. I've never had any Georgian cuisine before and it certainly seems delicious.

[Jubal]

Yeah, there's some lovely stuff there There's definitely more of it I should try (or stuff I should try again and try to get right this time!)