Georgia is famous for its cuisine. There are many dishes that have gained worldwide fame. Among them is tkemali sauce, without which not a single meal in a Georgian house can do. This versatile sauce is suitable for almost any dish, except for dessert.
Just like every housewife has her own recipe for pickling cucumbers, so every Georgian family has its own recipe for tkemali. Moreover, it is prepared not only by women, but also by men. At the same time, freedom of creativity is welcomed, so a clear recipe is most often not followed. Only the set of basic ingredients remains unchanged, the proportions can change in each case. The main criterion for cooking is the taste of the product, so they try it many times, adding ingredients if necessary.
Let’s try to cook a real Georgian tkemali using recipes from this southern country. For immediate consumption, tkemali is made from green cherry plum. This plum is suitable for harvesting at the end of spring. Different varieties allow you to cook Georgian green plum tkemali sauce throughout the summer.
How to cook cherry plum tkemali sauce according to Georgian recipe.
Georgian green tkemali sauce
It is characterized by a considerable amount of spices and a sour taste, which provides green cherry plum.
Ingredients:
- sour plums – 1,5 kg;
- garlic – a medium-sized head;
- cilantro – 75 g;
- dill – 125 g. You can take the stems of cilantro and dill with seeds.
- Ombalo – 30 g. If you can not find ombalo or flea, marsh mint, it can be replaced by an ordinary analogue – peppermint, but it needs less. The required amount of mint is determined empirically, by adding the product in small portions.
- savory garden – 30 g. Do not confuse savory and thyme. Savory is an annual garden plant.
- hot pepper – 2 pods;
- sugar 25-40 g, the amount is determined empirically and depends on the acid of the drain;
- Salt the dish to taste.
Strip the leaves from the pennyroyal and set aside. We do not throw away the stems. We put them, together with the stalks of dill, cilantro, savory, on the bottom of the pan, in which we will prepare the Georgian sauce. We fall asleep on top of them plums, add half a glass of water and cook over low heat until soft. We discard the finished fruits of cherry plum in a colander or sieve and wipe through them with our hands or a wooden spoon.
Add it to the puree, season with salt, sugar and crushed hot pepper. At this stage, we adjust the consistency of tkemali. It should be similar to liquid sour cream. Thick sauce is slightly diluted, liquid – boil a little.
Grind the herbs and garlic and add to the prepared sauce. We test for salt and sugar. Boil for another minute and bottle. It is better to store summer tkemali in the refrigerator.
You can cook green sauce for the winter. The following recipe will do.
Products:
- green plums – 2 kg;
- garlic – 2 small heads or one large;
- hot pepper – 2 pods;
- 2 bunches of cilantro, basil and ombalo;
- ground coriander – 2 teaspoons;
- salt – 2 tbsp. spoons.
Plums are half-filled with water and boiled for 10 minutes.
Rub through a colander with a wooden spoon.
We chop the greens, rub the garlic with salt, chop the hot pepper. Combine them in a combine bowl with grated plums and ground coriander, dilute with broth to the desired consistency and mix well. If the dish seems sour, it can be seasoned with sugar.
If the sauce is prepared for quick consumption, it can no longer be boiled, bottled and refrigerated.
Tkemali for the winter should be boiled for another 5-7 minutes. Pour it into a sterile container and seal tightly.
For the winter, Georgian tkemali sauce is often prepared in the fall, when the cherry plum ripens.
Georgian tkemali from red cherry plum
We need:
- ripe red cherry plum – 4 kg;
- cilantro – 2 bunches;
- garlic – 20 cloves;
- sugar, salt, suneli hops – 4 tbsp. spoons.
Cherry plum is freed from stones and sprinkled with salt so that it gives juice. When it is enough, cook the fruits over low heat until soft. Grind the finished cherry plum in a blender. Add chopped herbs and garlic, suneli hops and sugar to the puree, mix well.
Let’s try the dish. If you don’t need to add anything, it remains to boil the sauce for another quarter of an hour and decompose it into a sterile container, sealed tightly.
Tkemali keeps well.
Opening a jar of Georgian sauce in winter, you seem to be returning to summer again with its abundance of spicy herbs. This wonderful smell and unusual taste will mentally take you to distant Georgia, will allow you to feel all the richness of the cuisine of this southern country.
