Tinatin Mzhavanadze: recipes for Georgian home cooking

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Tinatin Mzhavanadze is one of Georgia's famous culinary bloggers. She has written more than one culinary bestseller, as she herself calls her works. Lives and works in Tbilisi.

In his books he talks not only about national cuisine, but also about Georgia, about the people who live in the country, about traditions.

One of the most famous books by Tinatin Mzhavanadze is “Georgia with Taste”. In it, she describes how to cook lobio, satsivi, khachapuri and other national dishes, gives advice on how to eat them correctly, and reveals the secrets of cooking each of them.

Delicious Georgia

With her recipes, Tinatin Mzhavanadze brightly, with her characteristic flair, tries to convey the taste of national dishes.

As they say in Georgia, fresh bread, wine and fresh greens are an occasion to gather friends and acquaintances, but in practice, of course, the table should burst with an abundance of national dishes. Moreover, Georgian cuisine is one of the most famous and richest in the world. At least once, but everyone should try it.

If you want to learn how to cook real Georgian dishes, check out the recipes from Tinatin Mzhavandze and try to reproduce the culinary masterpieces according to her advice, strictly following the instructions.

Georgian cuisine by Tinatin Mzhavanadze

Each region of Georgia has its own original recipe for khachapuri. Adjarians were no exception and invented their own two.

The dish prepared according to the first one resembles cheese lasagna - achmu.

The second course is prepared in the form of an open boat with an egg.

To make real Adjarian khachapuri from Tinatin Mzhavanadze, take yeast dough and fresh s alty cheese.

In our country, khachapuri is commonly called any unleavened dough cake with meat or any other filling. But this is fundamentally wrong, since real Georgian khachapuri, according to Tinatin Mzhavanadze, is a flatbread with cheese filling, since the essence lies in the name itself. Khachapuri means "cottage cheese and bread". Ordinary pies based on unleavened dough are called hychins. The sizes of real khachapuri can be completely different, there are differences in shape. Again, it all depends on the region in which it is baked.

Today we will talk about Adjarian khachapuri from Tinatin Mzhavanadze. They are formed in the form of a boat.

The main criteria that distinguish real Adjarian khachapuri from all the others

1. The dough should be thin and elastic.
2. The inside of the dough should be soft, and the sides and "ears" should be slightly fried andcrispy.
3. The middle should be thin, but not torn.
4. Dough and cheese – 1:1.
5. There should be a lot of stuffing so that it soaks the dough, which should stretch well when biting.
6. When baking, the yolk of the egg should remain liquid.
7. After eating one boat, you should want to eat another - only in this case the chef will be pleased with himself.

How to eat khachapuri

In no case should you eat khachapuri with a fork and a knife. Only with hands! Otherwise, you will earn disrespect and contemptuous glances from Georgians.

The first thing to do is tear off the crispy crust and mix it with the cheese-egg filling. At the end, there should be a bottom, which is rolled up and eaten like an ordinary pancake.

Century traditions of dough making

Few people know, but the dough for the first khachapuri was prepared only from water and flour. They didn't even add s alt.

Today there are many options. Mistresses of Georgia prepare yeast, unleavened or even puff.

But the traditional is the dough cooked on yogurt - this is a traditional Georgian fermented milk product that replaces yeast in the dough.

True, it is not so easy to find it in Russia, so you can use kefir, curdled milk or other available fermented milk products. Such khachapuri is delicious only when hot. Cooked with yeast can be eaten the next day either warm or cold.

Matsoni, egg, flour, soda, granulated sugar, fines alt and sunflower oil. Do not add much flour to the dough, it should turn out sticky. After kneading, leave to "rest" under a towel for 15 minutes, and only then shape them into boats.

Yeast dough is prepared with dry yeast and warm milk, it should stand for at least 1 hour.

Filling for khachapuri

In the Caucasus, khachapuri is prepared only with stuffing from young varieties of cheese: feta, mozzarella, Adyghe cheese, brynza, suluguni. You can use two types at once. If the cheese is very s alty, it is soaked in water for 2-6 hours. Old cheeses stretch when hot and harden when cooled.

If only old cheese is at hand, and you are already ready to cook khachapuri, mix it with cottage cheese.

Greens and garlic in the filling - a modern interpretation, but quite acceptable.

You can add a raw egg.

How to properly shape khachapuri

After the dough has risen, knead it and divide it into fist-sized koloboks.

Each ball must be rolled out so that its thickness is no more than 30 cm. It is better to flatten with your hands. The middle should be thinner than the edges.

From the edges, roll up as if wrapping a scarf, form a boat with your palms, let it lie down a bit. Preheat oven to 220 degrees.

Open the middle, put the stuffing there and send it to bake for 25 minutes. Brush the edges with egg. Bake for about 10 minutes, depending on oven specifications. The main thing is that the dough is slightly fried. Take out, beat the egg into the middle so that the yolk remains intact.

When it is covered with a film, khachapuri can be taken out. By the way, they can not only be baked, but also fried in a pan.

Khachapuri with yeast

Ingredients for 10 servings:

Dough:

• 1 kg wheat flour.
• Table spoon of dry yeast.
• Half a cup of warm milk.
• 4 cups of warm water.
• Teaspoon of sugar.
• Vegetable oil.
• Half a teaspoon of fine s alt.
• 20 grams of butter.
• One chicken egg.

Filling:

• 1 kg of suluguni cheese.
• 200g butter.
• 10 chicken eggs.

Cooking process:

1. Pour dry yeast, half granulated sugar and half flour into the already warmed milk. Mix everything a little and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes.

2. Add the remaining flour, beat in the egg and s alt. Mix well and set aside to rise. Pour in vegetable oil. The dough should rise three times.

3. The filling is grated cheese, diluted with water to a pulp.

4. Form boats and fill them with stuffing.

5. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and send the boats to bake for 10 minutes.

6. After the time has elapsed, take them out, drive them into the middle of each khachapuriegg.

7. Bake until the egg is covered with a thin film. After this, take out the khachapuri and place a piece of butter in the middle of each.

Khachapuri on curdled milk - a recipe for Georgian home cooking from Tinatin Mzhavanadze

Better, of course, to take matsoni.

Ingredients for dough:

• 200g butter.
• A glass of matsoni or any curdled milk.
• Pinch of s alt.
• Half a teaspoon of s alt.
• 300 g flour.
• Chicken egg.

Ingredients for filling:

• Chicken egg.
• 250 g Adyghe cheese.

Cooking process:

1. Melt the butter in a water bath.
2. Mix with curdled milk. S alt. Mix everything with a mixer or whisk
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour and soda.
4. Mix two doughs gradually, without ceasing to beat.
5. The dough should be elastic.
6. Divide it into 4 parts and form boats.
7. Bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees, pre-greasing the sides with an egg.
8. Fill the middle with broken cheese.
9. Bake for 15 minutes. Don't forget to beat in the egg a few minutes before turning it off.
10. Put a piece of butter into the finished boats.

Khachapuri cooking secrets

If you decide to cook traditional Georgian khachapuri, make yogurt at home.

To do this, mix one and a half liters of milk with a glass of kefir and wrap well. Put in a warm place for 6 hours, and then send the mass to the refrigerator. It should thicken.

After kneading, let the dough “rest”: it will become more elastic, make it easy to form boats, and khachapuri will turn out soft and melt in your mouth.

If you put s alty cheese in the filling, cut it into small pieces before soaking. That way he will get better. A large piece in the middle can remain s alty and spoil the taste of the dish.

It is better not to grate the cheese in the filling, but to crush it with your hands.