Georgian kharcho soup: a secret recipe. Video
Kharcho is one of the most famous Georgian dishes. This soup is prepared on a special sour base – tklapi. The spicy herbs and tkemali plums included in its composition give kharcho a characteristic, very recognizable flavor, contrasting with the richness of meat broth, the aroma of walnuts and unleavened rice. The process of making real kharcho is laborious, but it is quite possible to cook this soup in your home kitchen.
Although modern kharcho soup is often made with lamb broth, beef appears in the real classic recipe at the direction of a number of Georgian cuisine experts.
You will need: – 800 g of beef on the bone; – 4-5 large tomatoes; – 150 g of long grain rice; – 1/2 pod of hot red pepper; – 3 medium onions; – 300 g of walnuts; – 3-4 st. l. Georgian tkemali sauce; – 6-7 cloves of garlic; – 1,5 tsp. seasonings hops-suneli; – a bunch of greens (parsley, cilantro); – vegetable oil; – Bay leaf; – a few peas of black and white pepper; – salt.
Go ahead and prepare the broth. Rinse the beef, put in a saucepan and pour in 2,5 liters of water. Add a bay leaf, a few peas of black pepper and an onion, peeled and cut in half, there. Put the saucepan on the fire, bring the water to a boil, and then cook the broth for 2–2,5 hours, periodically skimming off the foam that appears. Strain the finished broth, discard the onion and bay leaf, and separate the meat from the bone, chop and return back to the broth.
Chop the walnuts, peel and peel the hard films, put in a coffee grinder or food processor and grind to a powder. Peel and chop the garlic. Grind hot peppers as well.
Wear rubber gloves when cutting hot peppers to avoid skin irritation.
Wash the herbs, towel dry and chop. Add nuts, spices and herbs to the broth. Rinse the rice in running water and add there. Salt broth and put on fire. Cook for 10 minutes.
Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and remove the skin from them, and cut the pulp into slices. Peel the onion, chop and fry in vegetable oil for 4-5 minutes. Add the vegetables to the soup along with the remaining seasonings and tkemali sauce. Cook the kharcho for another 10 minutes. Serve this Georgian dish with fresh wheat flatbread.
Kharcho soup with red fish
You will need: – 600 g of salmon; – 2 medium onions; – 100 g of tklapi; – 1 small carrot; – Bay leaf; – 200 g of walnuts; – 1 tsp. seasonings hops-suneli; – 4-5 cloves of garlic; – a few peas of black pepper; – greens to taste (parsley, cilantro, celery); – vegetable oil; – salt.
Tklapi are plums dried using a special technology. If you were unable to purchase this ingredient, you can replace it with tkemali sauce, made from the same variety of plums.
Place a few peppercorns, a bay leaf and half a peeled onion in a saucepan. Wash the salmon, defrost if necessary, remove the bones from the fish, but leave the skin. Place the fish in a saucepan and add 3 liters of cold water there. Cook the broth over medium heat for 1-1,5 hours. Skim off any emerging foam regularly. Take out the onion and bay leaf from the finished broth, divide the fish into several small pieces.
Peel the remaining onion and chop it into cubes. Fry it in oil for 4-5 minutes. Cut the carrots into strips or grate for Korean carrots and also sauté in oil. Let the tklapi soak in a little warm water and add to the soup along with the suneli hops and vegetables. Cook for 5 minutes.
At this time, chop the nuts and chop them in a food processor. Peel and finely chop the garlic and hot red pepper. Add these ingredients along with the chopped herbs to the soup, season with salt and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Leave the finished soup covered for a few minutes to infuse, and then serve.