Georgian eggplant satsivi: recipe and cooking features

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

Georgian cuisine is so diverse, fragrant and unforgettable that once you try kharcho soup or khachapuri, you fall in love with it forever. Many dishes have become everyday for people who have never visited Georgia.

The main feature of Georgian cuisine is not the dish itself, but spices and, in particular, sauces, of which there are a huge number. Thanks to them, meat, vegetables, fish or pastries acquire unprecedented shades and open up new horizons of taste for the consumer.

What is Satsivi

This is the name of a special sauce, in the preparation of which the main component is used - nuts, to which spices, sour juices or vinegar are added. It is served with fish, meat and vegetables. Considered a truly Georgian dish.

The indisputable advantage of this sauce is its versatility. As a rule, satsivi is served with chicken according to the classic recipe, but today you can find it in a wonderful tandem with turkey, fish, and vegetables. And such a dish will be called "turkey satsivi","satsivi vegetables", or, for example, "satsivi eggplant". In Georgian, satsivi is a cold appetizer, because the sauce is served only cold. And what's a sauce without spices?! The main spice in this dish is saffron, which gives the peanut sauce an unforgettable taste.

Cooking Features

As in any other national cuisine, satsivi sauce can be prepared according to various recipes. After all, each housewife prepares her “own” satsivi sauce, with the addition of her favorite spices. But the main ingredients are still there. In a classic satsivi sauce, walnuts must be without fail, which are carefully chopped. At the same time, you can grind nuts in a meat grinder or in a blender, as well as in a mortar or even on a stone, as Georgian housewives have done for many centuries.

Spices are used almost unchanged, but you can add some seasoning at your discretion. The classic satsivi recipe uses saffron, garlic, hot peppers, an acidifier, which can be in the form of sour pomegranate or lemon juice, or wine vinegar can be used. Due to the fact that natural fruits are present in the recipe, the sauce acquires not only sourness, but also aroma. Fresh herbs also play an important role in satsivi, which can be added to taste. The most commonly used are cilantro, basil and parsley. To make the sauce thick and silky, flour is added to it.

Satsivi Sauce: Necessary Ingredients

Since the sauce can be used to prepare various dishes, today you can deviate from the rulesand cook it with eggplant. In order to make it tasty, we will take the classic sauce as an ideal and make a Georgian eggplant satsivi recipe based on it.

This will require: eight onions, walnuts, previously peeled - three or four glasses, wheat flour - two tablespoons, chopped garlic - three teaspoons, coriander and ground pepper - ten each grams, cinnamon and suneli - five grams each, dried clove inflorescences - five pieces, wine vinegar - ten grams, or sour juice - fifteen grams, two grams of hot pepper, five grams of saffron, half a glass of melted chicken fat and chicken broth - half a liters.

Sauce preparation technology

Melt half of the chicken fat in a frying pan. Finely chop the onion and fry until golden brown. Set aside. Using the other half of the chicken fat, sauté the flour until golden, then add it to the chilled chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, chop the walnuts in a convenient way, adding garlic, pepper, coriander and s alt to them. Then the mixture is thoroughly mixed and diluted with broth, to which fried onions are added. Stew the sauce for a quarter of an hour. At the end, add the remaining spices, pour in vinegar or sour juice, finely chopped greens and boil over low heat for five minutes. Now you can serve eggplantgeorgian with satsivi sauce.

Eggplant Satsivi

Today, more and more people are switching to a he althy diet and eating mostly plant foods, which is why Satsivi, so beloved by all, can be cooked with vegetables. So, for lovers of dietary, tasty and he althy Caucasian dishes, a recipe for Georgian eggplant satsivi.

"Why eggplant?" - a natural question arises. The fact is that this vegetable is rich in useful microelements, and cooking it is much faster and easier than, say, chicken or turkey, besides, such a dish contains much fewer calories, and gives more strength.

To prepare Georgian eggplant satsivi you will need:

• eggplant - 1 kg;
• fresh herbs (cilantro, basil, parsley) - to taste;
• hot pepper (fresh) - 1 piece;
• peeled walnuts - 1 cup;
• garlic - 4 cloves;
• onion - 3 pieces;
• vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons;
• pomegranate juice - 0.5 cups.

First of all, the peanut sauce is prepared. Grind walnuts, adding s alt, garlic, fresh herbs, capsicum, spices and pomegranate juice to them. Dilute the mixture with water (1.5 cups) and boil for twenty minutes. You can also cook according to the classic recipe, but in this case, more time will be spent, and the dish will no longer be dietary due to the use of chicken fat. If this does not scare, then satsivi fromGeorgian eggplant cooked with a classic sauce will taste better.

When the sauce is ready and cooling, you can proceed to the main recipe. Peel and chop the onion. Fry in a pan with hot vegetable oil for a few minutes. Then the walnut sauce is added, the whole mixture is brought to a boil and boiled for fifteen minutes.

The eggplant, which is the main ingredient in the Georgian eggplant satsivi dish, is cut into centimeter-thick slices, s alt is added, and the vegetable is left at room temperature for half an hour to “rest”. As soon as the time is up, rinse the chopped eggplant with water and transfer to a sieve to drain the water. Now it remains to fry the slices on each side for five minutes. Put the prepared vegetables in a pile, sprinkle with herbs and pour over the sauce.

The greens are washed and thoroughly chopped, and then poured into the boiling sauce. Just before serving, the cold sauce is sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.

Result

Not many people have tried this divine dish, but if you cook it according to the recipe, no matter what it will be, classic chicken with sauce or Georgian eggplant with satsivi sauce. Reviews that this is an incomparable and tasty dish will accompany the hostess for many more years. Do not be afraid to experiment, you need to cook satsivi with love, adding your own personality to each dish, and only then you can talk about your own recipe for satsivi sauce.