Kveri (Cheese pirogi)
Ingredients (for 20 large pirogi):
- 1.5 kg bread flour
- water, salt
- soft and salty cheese
Knead a thick dough from flour, water and salt. Make (or roll) small pancakes, fill with crumbled soft cheese and close. There are three ways to close them:
- from all sides into the center and flatten them afterwards
- folding in half, in essence creating a half-circle
- covering it with another pancake on top and pressing it
Boil for 15 minutes in unsalted water (the dough and the cheese are salty enough).
Adjabsandali (Georgian take on ratatouille)
Ingredients (for a big pot):
- 1 kg eggplants (aubergines, if you're from the UK :-)
- 1 kg beans (something in between green beans and beans – big, but still fresh and soft, not dried)
- 1 kg potatoes
- ½ kg paprika
- 2 spicy paprikas (jalapenos etc...). Can be substituted with ground sweet or spicy red paprika
- 400 ml tomato puree or juice
- 5 cloves garlic (don't be afraid to add more if you like)
- oil, salt
Method:
It's similar to German Eintopf or even more so to French Ratatouille, meaning the method is - mix all together and cook until vegetables are soft and tender (15 - 20 min, or longer, usually governed by potatoes, which should be put in first) If using dry beans, soak them overnight and pre-cook in advance.
Lobio
Lobio means 'beans' in Georgian, but a very important ingredient is parsley. Loads of it.
Ingredients (for a small-to-medium pot):
- 300 g beans
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- heaps of parsley
- a lot of celery
- ½ spicy paprika (jalapeno; or ground sweet or spicy red paprika)
- season by taste coriander and fenugreek
- water
Method:
Prepare beans (soak them overnight and cook them for about 1 - 2 hours, depending on the kind, until soft). Add the rest of the ingredients (you can use the same water you used for cooking the beans, but you don't have to). Manage water content according to how thick you want it (normally it is sligtly thicker than a stew).
Satsivi
Satsivi is traditional western Georgian nut sauce, which is usually eaten on New Year's Eve with turkey meat. However, it can be done with chicken as well as fish! This meal is very healthy and extremely expensive. See for yourself.
Ingredients:
- 50 ml packed dry coriander
- 100 ml packed fenugreek
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 big onion
- 1 kg walnuts (alternatively, hazelnuts)
- seeds of 2 - 3 spicy red paprikas (or equivalent amount of ground sweet red paprika)
- meat from 1 turkey or equivalent amount of chicken meat (breasts or fillets recommended)
- 2 l turkey / chicken stock
Method:
Cook the meat in advance. Mix all the sauce ingredients (grind the nuts). Cook only for short time.
Filled paprika
This is a cold treat very similar to satsivi. It makes for a beautiful decoration, so use it in small amounts for honorable guests (it is, like satsivi, very expensive)
Ingredients:- Red, yellow and green capsicums
- 100 g Megrelian spice paste (dry coriander and fenugreek bound together by water)
- 300 - 400 g walnuts (or hazelnuts)
- 1 medium-to-big onion
- 1 small head garlic
- ginger root (optional)
Method:
Pound the garlic and onion together. Deep fry the paste for short time while adding the spice paste. If using ginger, cut down on spices, especially fenugreek can be left out. Take off the stove, mix with ground nuts and leave to cool.
Cut out seed pods from capsicums and fry (or boil) them until they're soft. Fill them with the mix and serve cold.
Note:The ginger is my own improvement. Traditionally it's done with the fenugreek & coriander spice paste.
