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 home can do. This versatile sauce goes well with almost any dish except dessert.
As every Russian housewife has her own recipe for pickling cucumbers, so every Georgian family has her 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, therefore, most often they do not adhere to a clear recipe. Only the set of basic ingredients remains unchanged, the proportions can vary in each case. The main criterion for cooking is the taste of the product, so they try it many times, adding components as necessary.
Let's try to cook real Georgian tkemali using recipes from this southern country. Tkemali is made from green cherry plum for immediate consumption. This plum is suitable for workpieces already at the end of spring. Different varieties make it possible to prepare the Georgian green plum tkemali sauce throughout the summer.
How to cook cherry plum tkemali sauce according to a Georgian recipe.
Georgian green tkemali sauce
It is characterized by a considerable amount of spices and a sour taste, which is provided by green cherry plum.
Required products:
- sour plums - 1.5 kg;
- garlic - medium-sized head;
- cilantro - 75 g;
- dill - 125 g. You can take stalks of cilantro and dill with seeds.
- Ombalo - 30 g. If you cannot find an ombalo or flea, swamp mint, it can be replaced by an ordinary analogue - peppermint, but you need less of it. The required amount of mint is determined empirically, when the product is added in small portions.
- garden savory - 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 plums;
- Salt the dish to taste.
Tear off the leaves from the mint and set aside. We do not discard 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. Put plums on top of them, add half a glass of water and cook over low heat until soft. We discard the finished cherry plum fruits in a colander or sieve and rub through them with our hands or a wooden spoon.
Add it to the puree, season with salt, sugar and chopped hot pepper. At this stage, we correct the consistency of the tkemali. It should look like liquid sour cream. Slightly dilute the thick sauce, and boil the liquid sauce a little.
Chop the herbs and garlic and add to the prepared sauce. We try for salt and sugar. Boil for another minute and bottle. It is better to store summer tkemali in the refrigerator.
You can make a 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 tsp;
- salt - 2 tbsp. spoons.
Fill the plums with water by half and boil for 10 minutes.
Rub it through a colander with a wooden spoon.
Chop greens, grind garlic with salt, grind hot pepper. Combine them in the bowl of a food processor with grated plums and ground coriander, dilute with broth to the desired consistency and mix well. If the dish looks sour, you can season it with sugar.
If the sauce is prepared for quick consumption, you can stop boiling it, bottle it and refrigerate it.
Tkemali for the winter needs to be boiled for another 5-7 minutes. It is poured into a sterile container and hermetically sealed.
For the winter, Georgian tkemali sauce is often harvested 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, hops-suneli - 4 tbsp. spoons.
Cherry plum is freed from seeds and sprinkled with salt so that it gives juice. When there is enough of it, 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.
Trying the dish. If nothing needs to be added, it remains to boil the sauce for another quarter of an hour and put it in a sterile dish, sealing it tightly.
Tkemali is stored well.
Opening a jar of Georgian sauce in winter, you seem to be returning to summer with its abundance of herbs. This wonderful smell and extraordinary taste will mentally take you to distant Georgia, allow you to feel all the richness of the cuisine of this southern country.
