Tkemali sauce: a classic recipe

Tkemali is a Georgian dish that is a sauce made from plums, garlic and spices. This is a great addition to meat, poultry and fish. You can cook tkemali for the winter at home. After heat treatment, plums can be stored for 3 years.

The benefits of tkemali

The composition of tkemali includes plums and various spices. It does not require oil during its preparation, so the sauce does not add fat to the main dishes. Spices contain substances that increase appetite and promote digestion.

When cooked in tkemali, vitamins E, P, B1 and B2, ascorbic acid are preserved. When they affect the body, the work of the heart, the condition of the hair and skin improves, oxygen is supplied to the cells faster, brain activity is stimulated.

Plums are a source of pectin, which helps cleanse the intestines. Therefore, tkemali contributes to the functioning of the digestive system. When adding sauce, even heavy dishes are digested much easier.

Basic principles

To cook tkemali according to the classic recipe, you need to follow certain rules:

• be sure to choose a plum of sour varieties, it is best to use cherry plum;
• plums should remain slightly unripe;
• in the cooking process, it is allowed to use different varieties of plums;
• during cooking, the sauce is constantly stirred to avoid burning;
• for cooking, you will need enameled dishes, and a wooden spoon will help to stir the tkemali;
• you can first dip the fruits in boiling water to remove the skin;
• for cooking you will need salt, dill, hot pepper, cilantro and coriander;

  

• after cooking, the plum volume will decrease four times, which must be considered before buying ingredients;
• the choice of spices is unlimited and depends only on personal preferences;
• periodically the sauce needs to be tasted in order to adjust it in a timely manner;
• fresh herbs are not added to hot sauce, you need to give it time to cool.

How to cook classic tkemali

Modern recipes suggest preparing a sauce from various sour berries – gooseberries, currants, etc. However, the classic version of tkemali cannot be obtained without sour plums.

Another important component of this sauce is the use of ombalo – marsh mint, which acts as a spice. With its help, tkemali acquires its unique taste.

Ombalo has preservative properties that allow you to extend the shelf life of blanks. If it is quite difficult to get the spice, then it is replaced with ordinary mint, thyme or lemon balm.

Cherry plum tkemali

To prepare a traditional Georgian sauce, you need to use the following step-by-step instructions:

1. For a traditional recipe, you need 1 kg of cherry plum. Rinse the fruits well, then put them in a saucepan. Damaged fruits are not recommended. According to the classic recipe, there is no need to separate the skin and bones from the pulp.
2. Cherry plum is placed in a saucepan and about 0,1 l of water is poured. The fruits should be boiled over low heat until the peel and stone are separated.
3. The resulting mass must be transferred to a colander or a sieve with small cells. As a result, the puree will separate from the skin and bones.
4. Cherry plum is again placed in a saucepan and put on a slow fire.
5. When the mass boils, you need to remove it from the stove and add sugar (25 g), salt (10 g), dry suneli and coriander (6 g each).
6. Now start preparing the greens. For tkemali, you need to take one bunch of cilantro and dill. The greens are thoroughly washed, dried with a towel and finely chopped.
7. To add spiciness to the sauce, you need chili peppers. It is enough to take one pod, which is cleaned of seeds and stalks. Wear gloves when handling peppers to avoid skin irritation. If desired, the amount of hot pepper can be reduced or increased.
8. Chili peppers are crushed and added to the sauce.
9. The last step is to prepare the garlic. Three medium cloves need to be crushed and added to tkemali.
10. Tkemali is laid out in jars for the winter.

plum recipe

In the absence of cherry plum, it is successfully replaced by an ordinary plum. When choosing it, you need to be guided by the general rules: the use of unripe fruits that are sour in taste.

Then the classic plum tkemali recipe for the winter takes on the following form:

1. For cooking, 1 kg of Hungarian plum or any other is taken. The fruits should be washed well, cut into two parts and the seeds removed.
2. For the sauce to get a rich red color, you need bell pepper (5 pcs.). It must be cut into several parts, cleaned of stalks and seeds.
3. Chili pepper (1 pc.) is cleaned from the stalks and seeds.
4. Two heads of garlic need to be peeled.
5. After preparation, the ingredients are turned through a meat grinder.
6. Add 0,5 tsp to the resulting mass. ground black pepper, 1 tbsp. l. sugar and salt.
7. The mixture is placed in a saucepan, brought to a boil and boiled for 15 minutes.
8. The finished sauce can be laid out in jars and sent for storage.

yellow plum recipe

When using yellow plum, tkemali will only benefit in its taste. When choosing fruits, you need to choose sour varieties. If the plum is too soft or sweet, then the result will resemble jam, not sauce.

The classic recipe for yellow plum tkemali is as follows:

1. Plums with a total weight of 1 kg are peeled and pitted.
2. The fruits are passed through a meat grinder or crushed in a blender.
3. Sugar (50 g) and rock salt (30 g) must be added to the resulting mass.
4. Plum puree is put on a slow fire and boiled for 7 minutes.
5. The pan is removed from the heat after the allotted time and left to cool for 10 minutes.
6. Garlic cloves (6 pcs.) Must be passed through a garlic press.
7. Finely chop 1 bunch of fresh cilantro and dill.
8. The chili pepper must be de-stemmed and seeds removed. Peppers are ground in a blender or meat grinder.
9. Garlic, greens, hot pepper, ground coriander (15 g) are added to tkemali.
10. The finished sauce is poured into jars until completely cooled. Pre-glass containers are steam sterilized.

Vinegar Recipe

Adding vinegar allows you to extend the shelf life of tkemali. The classic recipe in this case reflects the following step-by-step instructions:

1. Sour plum (1,5 kg) should be washed, cut into two parts and pitted.
2. One head of garlic must be peeled.
3. Plums and garlic are processed in a meat grinder, sugar (10 tablespoons), salt (2 tablespoons) and suneli hops (1 teaspoon) are added.
4. The resulting mass is thoroughly mixed and put on a slow fire.
5. Tkemali is cooked within an hour.
6. During the preparation of the sauce, you need to wash and sterilize the jars.
7. Vinegar (5 ml) is added to tkemali 50 minutes before removing from heat.
8. The finished sauce is poured into jars. The indicated amount of ingredients is enough to fill three jars with a volume of 1,5 liters.

Quick recipe

If time for cooking homemade preparations is limited, quick recipes come to the rescue. The easiest way to get tkemali takes no more than an hour.

In this case, the classic tkemali sauce is prepared according to the following step-by-step guide:

1.  Sour plums (0,75 kg) are peeled and pitted, then crushed in any suitable way.
2. In the resulting mixture add 1 tbsp. l. sugar and 1 tsp. salt.
3. The mass is put on fire and brought to a boil.
4. When the sauce boils, you need to remove it from the heat and cool a little.
5. Be sure to add chopped garlic (1 head), suneli hops (3 tablespoons), 2/3 hot peppers. Pre-pepper is cleaned of seeds and tail, and then cranked in a meat grinder.
6. Boil the sauce with the addition of pepper, garlic and spices for another 5 minutes.
7. Tkemali is laid out in banks. To store the sauce over the winter, the containers must be sterilized.

Recipe for Multivariate

The use of a multicooker will simplify the process of preparing tkemali. To get the desired consistency of the sauce, you need to select the “Extinguishing” mode. At the same time, the plum does not burn and is not digested.

Classic plum tkemali for the winter is prepared according to the recipe:

1. Any sour plum in the amount of 1 kg must be washed and pitted.
2. Then you need to prepare 6 cloves of garlic and one bunch of dill and parsley.
3. Plums, garlic and greens are crushed using a blender.
4. Plum puree is transferred to a slow cooker, sugar and salt are added to taste.
5. The slow cooker is switched on to the “Extinguishing” mode.
6. After 1,5 hours, you need to cool the mass a little, add chopped chili pepper (1 pc.) And suneli hops (75 g).
7. Tkemali is laid out in jars for long-term storage.

Conclusion

The classic tkemali recipe includes cherry plum and pennyroyal. These ingredients can be replaced with blue and yellow plums, regular mint and other herbs. Depending on the components used, the classic recipe is adjusted, however, the general sequence of actions remains unchanged. To simplify the process, you can use a slow cooker.