Gooseberry tkemali sauce 

Tkemali sauce is a dish of Georgian cuisine. For its preparation, a wild plum of the same name is used. In Our Country, it is almost impossible to get such a plum. Therefore, housewives find various options for replacing this ingredient.

The original tkemali must be sour. An unripe gooseberry is just the way. We suggest you cook gooseberry tkemali sauce for the winter at home. Despite the replacement, the ready-made sauce according to the recipe is not much different in taste from real Georgian tkemali.

It’s important to know

The taste of tkemali sauce is achieved due to the presence of appropriate ingredients. But since it is difficult to purchase many of them in the open spaces, the hostesses make a replacement.

1. Instead of wild plums, gooseberries are used in tkemali. It just has enough acid. Choose sour unripe berries for the sauce to get the taste of the original tkemali.

   

2. Flea mint or ombalo is also not available. Melissa or thyme will completely replace it.
3. Georgian cuisine in most recipes suggests the presence of a large amount of spices and herbs in tkemali. They give the finished sauce an unusual aroma and piquancy.
4. To prepare gooseberry tkemali, use coarse salt. If not found, take ordinary table salt.

Interesting options for tkemali

Recipes for tkemali with gooseberries may vary in ingredients, but the essence of cooking is almost the same. Unless you can add your own raisins to them when cooking.

Recipe 1

In order to prepare a delicious sauce at home, stock up on the following products:

• a kilogram of gooseberries;
• 70 grams of garlic;
• 70 grams of parsley leaves, dill, cilantro and basil;
• 60 ml of wine or apple cider vinegar;
• 3,5 tablespoons of granulated sugar;
• 20 or 30 grams of suneli hops;
• ground black pepper, depending on taste;
• 2 teaspoons of salt;
• 500 ml of clean water.

Step-by-step recipe

Step one. We wash the berries and cut off the tails and stalks from each. This is easy to do with scissors.

Step two. We put the dried berries in a container and fill it with clean water. There is no need to add salt yet. From the moment of boiling, cook for no more than five minutes.

Step three. Let the gooseberries cool down, drain the broth, but you don’t need to pour it out, it will still come in handy for us.

Step four. We wipe the boiled gooseberries through a sieve to separate the seeds.

Step five. We wash the greens in several waters, peel the garlic and chop them with a blender.

Step six. We mix the prepared ingredients, add granulated sugar, salt and, if necessary, gooseberry broth.

Step seven. We put the mass on the fire, bring it to a boil again and cook for 10 minutes with constant stirring. Add vinegar and boil a little more.

That’s all, gooseberry tkemali is ready for the winter. You can store it in closed jars in a cool place.

Recipe 2

The preparation of gooseberry sauces is available even to a novice hostess. To have something to serve with meat or fish in winter, purchase the following ingredients:

• gooseberries – 0,9 kg;
• cilantro with flowers, parsley, dill – 1 bunch each;
• lemon balm or thyme, ground coriander – 1 tablespoon each;
• red hot pepper – a third of the pod;
• garlic – 1 head;
• salt – ¼ part of a teaspoon;
• sugar – ½ teaspoon.

If some spices are not to your liking, you can always make changes to the recipes. But spicy herbs are an essential component of tkemali.

Features of cooking

1. We prepare the ingredients. After cleaning and washing the gooseberries, we throw it in a colander so that the water is glass. Then we grind the berry for tkemali for the winter in a blender to make puree. If you want to make gooseberry tkemali sauce with small pieces, use a blender for 3-4 seconds. Add washed and peeled hot peppers, chopped greens and garlic. We interrupt again in a blender. The recipe states that the hot pepper pod is not fully used. If you want it spicier, you can add another piece.
2. Cooking process. It is best to cook gooseberry tkemali sauce in a saucepan with a thick bottom. At the very beginning of the mass boiling (the appearance of bubbles), sugar, salt, add lemon balm or savory, coriander and simmer for another 10 minutes. Make sure the boil doesn’t stop.
3. To check if our tkemali has enough salt, sugar and pepper, put a spoon on a saucer and let it cool. In a cold sauce, the taste is more pronounced. Add spices if needed. But in this case, you will have to boil the mass again. During cooking, you need to constantly stir the sauce.

After spreading the tkemali into jars, seal them hermetically and wrap them up for 24 hours. Such sauce is stored for a whole year (if there is something to store!). After all, tkemali turns out to be amazingly tasty.

Recipe 3

In this tkemali from unripe gooseberries for the winter, unlike the previous options, vegetable oil and vinegar are present.

So, we need:

• gooseberries – 3 kg;
• salt – 50 g;
• granulated sugar – 100 g;
• table vinegar and vegetable oil – 40 ml each;
• garlic – 1 head;
• ground black pepper and suneli hops – 2 teaspoons each;
• clean water (not from the tap) – 250 ml.

Cooking Rules

The preparation of the ingredients is identical to the first two recipes.

First, add salt to the boiled mass, then granulated sugar, hot chili pepper and suneli hops.

Cook for at least 10 minutes, then add the garlic. After another 10 minutes, vinegar. Boil for another 3 minutes and remove. Store in sterilized jars in a cool place.

Another recipe option:

Instead of a conclusion

Gooseberry tkemali is a delicious seasoning for meat or fish dishes. If you have never cooked such a sour and spicy seasoning, reduce the rates and make tkemali in several jars. This will allow you to choose the option that your family will like. Do not forget that in your kitchen you can always experiment.