Cooking Georgian sauces: recipes for Russian realities

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

Do you want to eat tasty and varied? Then pay attention not only to the main dish, but also to appetizers, sauce and drinks. You don’t need to get carried away with ketchup, mayonnaise and other store-bought counterparts. It is better to adopt Georgian sauces. Recipes can be adapted and even slightly improved. All you need is a bit of imagination and a love of cooking. Can a modern housewife prepare a truly delicious sauce and how will she do it? Let's check it out!

Oh, that taste

What associations does the average Russian have when mentioning Georgian cuisine? First, meat and greens. Secondly, adjika, so spicy that your eyes water. Thirdly, of course, dances and songs. But far from everyone thinks about how to cook Georgian sauces. The recipes seem too specific. But is it? Of course, in a colorful national atmosphere, tasting such culinary masterpieces is much more interesting and tastier, but many dishes, such as tobacco chicken, kharcho and khachapuri, have actually become international.

Ideology for preparing meals

Georgian sauces are a contrast of spicy and spicy. Recipes, by the way, are not at all difficult, but, of course, specific. Vegetables are used very abundantly, both as an independent dish and as an addition to meat. There are differences between the traditional cuisines of the west and east of Georgia. For the West, love for mchadi or chumiza corn cakes is relevant. Instead of bread, they often eat porridge - gomi. Here meat is replaced by poultry. These are turkeys and chickens. Geese and ducks are rare here, but all residents are very fond of spicy chili adjika. Strong alcoholic drinks are served with churchkhela and fruit.

Wheat bread is relevant for the eastern part of Georgia, but real meat-eaters live here, who cannot imagine life without beef and lamb. Pickled and s alted vegetables are held in high esteem. Here people are actively experimenting with fruits and berries, and therefore Georgian sauces are very original. The recipes are original and flavorful. For the most part, they resemble the same soups that are prepared almost without thick, but with a dense texture, which is achieved by adding eggs or egg yolks. To prevent curdling, the eggs are mixed with an acidic medium. The latter is often represented by tkemali plum puree.

Sharpness and acid

Georgian cuisine is rich in sauces based on juices and pulp of plums. Baji sauce is served on holidays. This is a spicy gravy of crushed walnuts with garlic and wine vinegar. Juices for sauces are boiled downat least a third or a half. Greens and spices are added to the fragrant pulp, flavoring the result with cilantro, garlic and walnuts. Thus, not only tkemali sauce is prepared. The recipe for (Georgian) tklapi sauce is essentially the same, but has a different cooking technology. This is a dried pancake of small thickness, which, if necessary, is diluted in hot water or broth. By the way, it is an indispensable element of kharcho soup. White fish in Georgia is served with kindz-dzmari sauce, made from cilantro and vinegar, respectively.

Do it yourself

Let's try to cook the popular Tkemali sauce on our own. We take the Georgian original recipe as a basis, but variations are not prohibited. First, boil the plums until soft. After we wipe them through a sieve and stir with water, where they were cooked. To the resulting gruel, add chopped herbs, garlic, pepper and s alt. Put on fire and bring to a boil. The result is a surprisingly tasty and thick sauce with an amazing sweet and sour taste. Tkemali goes well with fish, meat, poultry, as well as potatoes and pasta.

Using variations

Let's move on to the promised cooking options. We replace plums with a more familiar turn or cherry plum. How to make tkemali sauce from cherry plum? The Georgian recipe is only slightly adaptable, and it will taste even more tart than the original. For a large portion of the sauce, you will need about 500 grams of cherry plum, one capsicum, a small bunch of cilantro, parsley and dill, a couple of clovesgarlic and half a teaspoon of s alt. Cherry plum perfectly absorbs spices and acquires an unusual taste.

Second most popular

If you think about how to cook Georgian sauces, recipes for the winter will not do without satsebeli. What is it? Why should you try this delicacy? Firstly, it is a nut sauce on meat broth. It will be appreciated by real male meat-eaters who love dishes with piquancy and peppercorns. Secondly, red ground pepper is included in the sauce, which means that the throat can burn out of habit. Mint and cilantro in the composition of the ingredients add sweetness and aroma, and s alt balances the taste. Depending on the preferred base, you can choose the broth for the sauce. Meat broth is relevant for meat, and fish broth for fish. The recipe for (Georgian) satsivi is very similar to satsebeli sauce. It is also based on walnuts, but onions, yolks and cloves, as well as saffron and cinnamon are added to them. Onions and garlic need to be sautéed in butter, which gives tenderness. For density, add flour.

And for those who are not at all a fan of spicy and sour, Caucasian quartz sauce will be pleasant, which is offered as a compromise in many local cafes. It is based on tomato juice, herbs, garlic and bell pepper. This is the perfect choice for a barbecue. And of course, do not forget about the traditional adjika, which is deadly spicy here (so eat with caution). It has a lot of dried hot peppers and spices. Some Russians are wary of eating pure adjika and even dilute it with sour cream ormayonnaise. This option, of course, is softer, but far from tastier!