Tkemali
Traditional Georgian tkemali sauce is served mainly with meat, fish and poultry dishes. However, it also goes well with potatoes and pasta dishes that are not typical for Georgia. Among the huge variety of different recipes, it is quite difficult to single out the only one that is considered original. However, traditional tkemali usually contains the tkemali plum (also known as cherry plum). This type of plum has a pronounced sour taste, which also distinguishes the sauce itself. Often, however, the place of cherry plum in tkemali is taken by another sour product, most often a gooseberry or red currant.
The original sauce has a green color, which is given by the unripe tkemali plum. However, the red color of the sauce is also not uncommon, but in this case it is based on a ripe fruit, the color of which changes to red or yellow.
In addition to the plum itself (or its acidic analogue), tkemali contains garlic, ground pepper, and a number of spicy herbs. As a rule, dill, cilantro and ombalo are added to tkemali - a plant that is a type of mint with characteristic small rounded leaves. It can easily be replaced with lemon balm, saffron or celery.
It is curious that a sauce like tkemali is also made in some countries of the Balkan Peninsula, for example, in Bulgaria.
Cooking tkemali
You can also make this sauce at home. Of course, it is advisable to stock up on 1.5 kg of special tkemali cherry plum, which is not easy due to its rare occurrence on the shelves. With more or less success, sour cherry plum can be replaced with blackthorn plum or a more familiar option - ripe blue or yellow plums.
Ingredients required to make tkemali:
- 1.5 kg of selected plums;
- 1 or 2 heads of garlic;
- celery pod;
- a large bunch of cilantro;
- a small bunch of dill;
- Art. l. ground dried basil;
- ½ tbsp. l. dried and ground parsley;
- ½ tsp. saffron;
- h. l. salt;
- ½ tbsp. l. ground hot pepper;
- Art. l. ground bay leaf
- Art. l. ombalo (if any);
- ½ tsp. coriander.
Before you start preparing tkemali directly, you need to prepare and sterilize the container for storing it. When this point is completed, you can proceed to making the sauce.
Tkemali plums, flooded with water, should be brought to a boil and cook until the skin begins to burst on most of them. As soon as this happened, remove the plums from the heat, remove them from the water and put them on a sieve or colander. You can also remove the seeds from the plums and remove the skins from them, grind the pulp in a blender. Whichever method is chosen, the main task is to turn soft plums into gruel. Greens (garlic, cilantro, dill and celery) should be washed and chopped finely. Add bay leaves and other spices to them.
At this time, the gruel from the plums must be put back on medium heat, for 5-7 minutes.
After this time, add a finely chopped mixture of greens to the already boiling cherry plum, then cook for another 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally and removing the resulting foam. The readiness of the sauce is easy to determine due to the change in its color: it has become brighter and more intense (the color depends on the type of plum used) Remove ready tkemali from the heat and pour into a prepared container. In order to keep the sauce longer, add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to the jar with the already poured tkemali, which will serve as a kind of lid for the tkemali. Don't worry about the oil seeping into the sauce itself - it won't, and when it's time to taste the plum sauce, drain the oil.
You can, of course, taste the ready-made sauce right away, but only infused for 3-4 days tkemali acquires a characteristic spicy aroma and sour taste.
It is best to store tkemali in the refrigerator.
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