Kaisapha is a traditional dessert of Upper Adjara, built on the region's winter larder of dried fruits and walnuts. Cooked dried plums are topped with stone-crushed walnuts and sugar, then drenched in burnt butter (iaghi). Served juicy with tea or bread, it is little known outside Adjara and reflects the highland Muslim kitchen's reliance on preserved foods through the snowbound months.
Soft, jammy plums with a deep cooked sweetness, the walnuts adding crunch and oil, the burnt butter pooling on top with a nutty, caramelised aroma. Eaten warm with tea, it is sweet, rich and intensely plummy.
The dried plums are simmered in a little water until they swell and soften, releasing their juices into a syrup. Walnuts are crushed coarse in a mortar (not ground fine), so they keep their texture, and scattered with sugar over the plums. The butter is browned until it crackles and poured hot over the whole dish, where it sets into a glossy layer as it cools.
Variations
A variant uses dried apricots alongside plums. Some cooks add a stick of cinnamon during cooking.
On the Palate
Where Kaisapha sits in the Georgian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
6 steps · 20 min
- 110 min
Simmer 500g dried plums in 200ml water with 2 tbsp sugar for 20 minutes until swollen and soft.
- 25 min
Coarsely crush 200g walnuts in a mortar, not too fine.
- 33 min
Spread the cooked plums in their syrup across a serving dish.
- 44 min
Scatter the crushed walnuts and 3 tbsp sugar evenly over the plums.
- 54 min
In a small pan, heat 80g butter until it foams, browns and crackles (burnt butter).
Watch outHeat the butter until it foams, browns and crackles to a nutty burnt butter — that toasty depth defines the dish; stop at pale yellow and it tastes flat.
- 62 min
Pour the hot burnt butter over the dish and serve warm with tea.
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