Tkemali sauce: recipe

Georgian cuisine has such iconic dishes,which are highly valued by culinary gurus. Tkemali sauce can be attributed to them with full responsibility. This unique seasoning has such an amazing aroma and rich flavor palette that even the most bland food turns into exquisite dishes with it. In Georgia, tkemali sauce is served with, for example, corn flour porridge, which in Moldova and Bukovina (this is the Chernivtsi region, Ukraine) is called mamalyga, and famous Italian gourmets call this porridge polenta. Mamalyga, like polenta, has an absolutely neutral taste, and all kinds of additives become bright accents for the dish. Ukrainians and Moldovans season it with feta cheese, cracklings, Italians cannot imagine polenta without parmesan, but Georgians will definitely offer to decorate corn flour dishes with tkemali sauce. And it turns out fantastically delicious. How to properly prepare tkemali sauce and which recipe can be considered classic? The question is far from idle. Every Georgian family has its own secrets, and the preparation of tkemali sauce is akin to some kind of ritual act. We offer you several options for this sauce, and you will only have to choose the recipe that seems most acceptable and prepare this original seasoning. As you can see, it is quite easy to do.

Tkemali sauce

Ingredients:

2 kg of plum
150 milliliters of water
2 heads of garlic
2 tablespoons dried dill
3 tablespoons coriander
1 tablespoon of hot red pepper
1 tablespoon of dried mint (any kind, except peppery)
salt to taste

Method of preparation:Place the washed plums in an enamel bowl, add water and cook over low heat until the skin and pits are completely removed. Rub the fruit mass through a sieve and boil the puree over low heat until it reaches the consistency of thick sour cream. Combine all the spices and grind into a homogeneous mass, add to the puree and cook for another 5 minutes. Pour into bottles (for better preservation, pour a layer of oil), keep in a cool place. The recipe is quite simple, all the spices are available. Apple mint or curly mint can be replaced with lemon balm, in a word, any housewife can make such a sauce.

Cherry plum sauce

Ingredients:

2 kg of a plum (yellow or red)
150 milliliters of water
2 heads of garlic
250 grams of finished Adjika

Method of preparation:Prepare plum puree (see the previous recipe). Add chopped garlic and ready adjika, boil everything together for 5-7 minutes. Salt is not needed, since adjika is quite salty. Spices are not needed either, since adjika contains all the herbs and seasonings necessary for tkemali. Making such a sauce is not difficult, the main thing is to find good Georgian adjika. What is sold in our markets under this name has nothing in common with the Georgian seasoning, and you can’t count on improving the taste of any dish (and tkemali is eaten with meat, fish, poultry). In general, in order to prepare real tkemali, you will definitely need such a spice as ombalo - marsh mint. It is this that gives the sauce that very piquant taste that makes Georgian dishes so memorable. Moreover, this amazing herb also has wonderful preservative properties. This is precisely why real tkemali, which Georgian housewives prepare, does not spoil. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find here. However, the sauce, prepared with love, even without some important components, will have an excellent taste. Cook and enjoy! We recommend reading: