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Tkemali sauce is a Georgian cuisine dish. For its preparation, use the wild plum of the same name. It is almost impossible to get such a plum in Russia. Therefore, housewives find various options for replacing this ingredient.
The original tkemali should be sour. Unripe gooseberries come in handy. We suggest you make gooseberry tkemali sauce at home for the winter. Despite the replacement, the ready-made sauce according to the recipe does not differ much in taste from the real Georgian tkemali.
It is important to know
The taste of tkemali sauce is achieved through the presence of the appropriate ingredients. But since many of them are difficult to acquire in the Russian open spaces, the hostesses make a replacement.
- Instead of wild plum, 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.
- Flea mint or ombalo are also not available. Lemon balm or thyme will completely replace it.
- In most recipes, Georgian cuisine presupposes the presence of a large amount of spices and herbs in tkemali. They give the finished sauce an extraordinary aroma and piquancy.
- Use coarse salt to make gooseberry tkemali. If not found, take ordinary table salt.
Interesting tkemali options
Recipes for tkemali with gooseberries may differ in ingredients, and the essence of the preparation is almost the same. Unless you can add your own zest to them when cooking.
Recipe 1
In order to make 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 wine or apple cider vinegar;
- 3.5 tablespoons granulated sugar;
- 20 or 30 grams of suneli hops;
- ground black pepper, depending on taste;
- 2 teaspoons of salt;
- 500 ml of pure water.
Step by step recipe
Step one. Wash the berries and cut off the tails and stalks from each. It is convenient to do this with scissors.
Step two. Put the dried berries in a container and fill them 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, drain the broth, but you do not need to pour it out, it will still be useful to us.
Step four. Wipe the boiled gooseberries through a sieve to separate the seeds.
Step five. We wash the herbs in several waters, peel the garlic and grind 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 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
Even a novice housewife can make gooseberry sauces. To have something to serve with meat or fish in winter, purchase the following ingredients:
- gooseberry - 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 you don't like some spices, you can always make changes to the recipes. But spicy herbs are an indispensable component of tkemali.
Cooking features
- Cooking ingredients. Having cleaned and rinsed the gooseberries, we put them in a colander so that the water glass. Then we grind the berry for tkemali for the winter in a blender to make a puree. If you want to learn 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 on the blender. The recipe states that the hot pepper pod is not fully used. If you want something spicier, you can add another slice.
- The cooking process. Cooking gooseberry tkemali sauce is best in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. At the very beginning of the boil of the mass (the appearance of bubbles), sugar, salt, add lemon balm or savory, coriander and simmer for another 10 minutes. Make sure that the boil does not stop.
- To check if our tkemali has enough salt, sugar and pepper, place a spoon on a saucer and let cool. In cold sauce, the taste is more pronounced. Add spices if necessary. But in this case, you will have to boil the mass again. Stir the sauce constantly during the cooking process.
After spreading the tkemali into jars, we seal them tightly and wrap them up for 24 hours. Such sauce is stored for a whole year (if you have something to store!). After all, tkemali turns out to be awesomely tasty.
Recipe 3
This tkemali from unripe gooseberries for the winter is present, in contrast to the previous options, vegetable oil and vinegar.
So, we need:
- gooseberry berries - 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, burning chilli and hops-suneli.
Cook for at least 10 minutes, then add the garlic. After another 10 minutes, vinegar. We 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 norms and make tkemali in several jars. This will allow you to choose the option that suits your family's taste. Don't forget that you can always experiment in your kitchen.
