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TASTES | Georgia: Wine and Walnut Chicken in Tbilisi

 

Tastes  |  Travis Reiser, Dec-Feb 2010

Georgia is an incredibly diverse country so it is only fitting that it has an imaginative collection of local culinary specialties. “Georgia” includes the high mountains of Tusheti (see our cover photo), Kazbegi, Tskhinvali, Swanetia, and Abkhazia, as well as the rolling green lowlands of Mskhetia, Adjaria, and central Kartvelo. While the high mountains raise sheep, swine, nuts, and some of the best black cherries in the world, the sea breeze hills offer the perfect soils for just about anything, namely tomatoes and wine grapes.

The city of Tbilisi managed to survive the Soviet period and Second World Wars relatively intact. A castle and several cathedrals glow over the wooden balconies of old town mansions. Its people are incredibly proud, and they love, absolutely love to hold feasts and host people. If you haven’t had Georgian cuisine before you need to plan an event at the next available opportunity. It’s not like Russian or Middle Eastern. Perhaps it’s somewhere between Greek, Armenian, and Persian, with a healthy dose of walnuts.

For starters, take a stroll through this compendium of hot eateries in Tbilisi to get a sense of the style. In New York, you can try Restaurant Tbilisi. If you like wine, here’s some background as well as a blog of updates.

Without further distraction, here are some recipes from the cookbook of Besiki Sisauri for you to try at home. For breakfast, I recommend the Adjaruli khachapuri butter pies with sweet black tea. The khinkali dumplings may go well with a red beet pkhali served with cherry compote for lunch. The khinkali go well plain, with a dollop of sour cream, or any tangy red pepper sauce.

For dinner, well, it would be best to have a real feast with a Georgian family. They will serve many courses and give you very long, dramatic, and sweet toasts with wine, mulberry liquor, or vodka.

To cook for yourself, I recommend mitsvadi roasted mutton with tkemali plum sauce on the side. The satsivi walnut chicken would make a fine second dish or alternative main course. Serve this with red beans pkhali, lobio, and/or adjapsandal of eggplant with plov rice as the starch. Choose a wine of the Telavi family. Enjoy ourself. You only live once.

KHACHAPURI (NORMAL*) “Ingredients: sour milk – 200 ml or yoghurt. whey 2 eggs. plain flour for the filling. cheese – 0,5 kg. egg – 1. butter – 25-50 gr. Beat 2 eggs add sour milk and salt and mix with plain flour to make a soft not sticky dough. Divide it in four. Roll each quarter about half a finger thick. Make the filling by crumbling the cheese and mixing it with egg and butter, Put ready cheese filling on each quarter, twist them and press, rolling lightly. Fry ready Khachapuri in a heavy-bottomed pan in butter top side down. When the underside is brown turn the pie. Brush on top with butter and serve immediately.” *For “Adjaruli” Khachapuri, simply prepare above without cheese, slice an opening down the middle of the freshly baked pie, and fill with fresh butter and a fresh raw egg which will begin to cook into the top of the pie.”

KHINKALI.“Ingredients: Pork-100 gr. Onions-3. Flour-500 gr. Salt and pepper to taste. Cut the meat into pieces and mince with onions in a bowl. Season the minced meat with pepper and salt, adding 1/2 glass of warm water and mix thoroughly. Sift the wheat flour, heap it up and make a dip in the middle of the heap. Pour a glass of water into it , add some salt and knead the dough. Roll out the dough to a thin layer and cut out round pieces using a glass or a cup for a cutter. Put a spoon full of the meat mixture in the centre of the dough circle. Gather the edges together into a bunch and twist the top. Press on them slight to create a form similar to a bulb. Drop the khinkali into boiling salt water. They tend to drop to the bottom and then rise to the top of the water. Stir occasionally to prevent from sticking. Allow to boil for a few minutes. Serve hot.”

RED BEET PKHALI. “Ingredients: Walnuts-200 gr. Beets- 1 kg. Garlic- 4 cloves. Celery-1 bunch. Parsley-11 bunch. Coriander- 1 bunch. Salt, pepper and vinegar to taste. Wash and boil the red beet with leaves. While boiling add celery and parsley. Chill, strain and put this through the meat grinder or food processor. Then add minced walnut, garlic, new and dry coriander, salt, pepper and wine vinegar to taste. Mix the ingredients well and serve.”

GEORGIAN PLOV. “Ingredients: 2 cupful rice. 150 g raisins. 150 g honey. ½ cupful boiled butter. Prepare the plov as directed. Mix the honey with an equal amount of hot water and add the raisins. Pour this sauce over the plov and cook for 10 minutes.”

RED BEANS PKHALI. “Ingredients: Red beans- 500 gr. Walnuts- 1 cup. Garlic- 4 cloves. Coriander and celery- 3 shoots. Savory-3 shoots. Fenugreek-1/3 teaspoon. Pomegranate-1. Sort and wash beans under running water. Put them into a saucepan and boil on a medium flame. And some water several times to prevent the beans from burning. When the beans are ready, pour the juice off into another bowl. Pound the walnuts and then garlic, fresh coriander, celery, and savory together. Add the dry coriander and spices, then dilute with the bean juice. Put this mix into the saucepan with the beans and carefully mix with a spoon. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds for garnish. Add salt and pepper to taste.”

LOBIO, BEANS AND WALNUTS (Georgian manner). “Ingredients: 1 cupful beans. 50 shelled walnuts. Salt and pepper to taste. 1 onion or 75 g green onions. Wash and soak the beans in cold water for 3 or 4 hours. Drain, add cold water t cover and cook until tender; add the chopped onion and bring to boiling point. Add crushed walnuts to the beans. Season with salt and pepper. Mix with a wooden spoon. Serve hot or cold sprinkled with chopped greens.”

ADJAPSANDAL OF EGGPLANT. “Ingredients: eggplants – 1,5 kg. oil – 1/2 glass. tomatoes – 500g. coriander, basil, parsley – 1/2 bunch each. Bulgarian pepper – 3, onions – 3 bulbs, garlic – 2 cloves, laurel-leaf – 2. Wash eggplant, peel the skin off, cut each eggplant into four parts lengthwise, and then each part in halves. Put the pieces into a bowl, sprinkle with salt and leave it for half an hour. Squeeze the pieces, avoiding crushing them. Fry finely shredded onions in on aluminum pan using oil. When the onions turn brown put the squeezed eggplants into the pan and stew. Put then a laurel-leaf and Bulgarian pepper cut lengthwise. Add shredded greens and garlic, salt and pepper to taste.”

TKEMALI SAUCE (Tart Plum Sauce). “Ingredients: 200 g dried tart plums. 1 crushed clove of garlic. Chopped kindza (coriander) or dill. Salt and pepper. Wash and stew the plums until soft. Remove the seeds and rub through a strainer. Add plum liquor until the paste is as thick as sour cream. Mix in the seasoning, bring to a boil and then cool. This sauce may also be served with shashlik and other grilled meats.”

SATSIVI (Turkey or Chicken in Walnut Sauce).“Ingredients: 1 turkey ( or chicken). Walnuts -600 gr. Onions- 5. Fenugreek-3 teaspoons. Garlic- 6 or 7 cloves. Saffron -1/2 teaspoon. Cinnamon-1/2 teaspoon. Vinegar, red pepper and salt to taste. Cut up a drawn and thoroughly washed turkey into medium-sliced pieces and put them in a saucepan. Cover it with water and boil. Remove the scum in the process of boiling . Remove the fat from the broth and stew finely chopped onions in it. Mince walnuts through a meat grinder 2 or 3 times. Ground garlic, fenugreek, coriander, red pepper, saffron and cinnamon; dilute with vinegar. Leave 2/3 of the broth in the pan, put the prepared mass and the stewed onions into the pan. Remove it from the stove in about 10 minutes.”

MTSVADI, Shish kebab, Shashlik, Grilled Lamb (Georgian manner). “Ingredients: 500 g best loin of lamb. 2 onions. 1 tblsp  oil. Salt, pepper. 100 g green onions. 200 g tomatoes. 1/2 lemon. 1 tblsp vinegar. Cut the meat into pieces about 5 cm square and mix with salt, pepper, finely sliced onion and vinegar (or teaspoonful lemon juice). Cover with a lid and set aside in a cool place for 2 or 3 hours to marinate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, skewer the pieces of meat, alternating with sliced onion. Grill the shaslik over a charcoal fire turning frequently until tender. Take the meat off the skewer. Pour over butter and garnish with green onions, tomatoes and lemon slices. Pass ground dry barberries or pomegranate juice, and sour plum sauces.”