Georgian Cuisine

I love food and I LOVE to cook! I also enjoy learning about and preparing food from around the world.  I collect cookbooks from other cultures, so I was thrilled when I received a Georgian cookbook from a member of my daughter’s “Georgian Family” 

Rachel is serving in the Peace Corps in the region of Imereti, we visited her in July of 2019. During our time in Georgia, we traveled to several areas and met many people who shared their food with us. Rachel’s “Gori family” were excited to share Georgian culture with us, explaining traditions and gifting us with books- one of which is a cookbook.

I, of course, practiced some of the recipes as soon I as come home. We especially like the Shkmeruli which is a creamy garlic chicken. Georgian food heavily features garlic and that is fine with me!  This month Rachel asked if I would prepare a few of the recipes from my book and review them, so I chose Shkmeruli as my first dish.  

I love this because of its simplicity, there are only 3 main ingredients.

I did have a few regrets about our trip to Georgia, the first being that we should have stayed longer- there was more to see. The second is that I did not buy a Ketsi, the clay pan that is used for cooking.  In the pictures you will see that I have used my Italian terracotta pots and they worked well.

As I said, this is a simple recipe: peel a head of garlic and crush it to a paste (or chop it in a food processor), cut up chicken and brown pieces in a skillet. Boil whole milk until it reduces by 1/3, add garlic and butter then pour over browned chicken pieces. Bake in the oven until chicken is cooked through and sauce is bubbly.

Though I have made the Shkmeruli several times, this was my first attempt at Chanakhi- a mutton and vegetable dish.

I did make a few alterations to this on: First, we don’t really find mutton in the States so I substituted with lamb. Second, Georgian food is not at all spicy, so I couldn’t resist adding a little jalapeño- it calls for cilantro, and in Texas we always have jalapeño with cilantro!

 

Other than chopping the vegetables, there is not much prep for this. Mix the chopped vegetables with the meat, season and put into a buttered dish- I had to use 2 because my pot wasn’t large enough. Bake in hot oven (350*).

I thought the dish was very tasty, however my husband (who is not a fan of lamb) didn’t like it as well as the Shkmeruli.  There is vegetable dish in my book called Ajapsandali and it is almost the same as the Chanakhi just without the meat. I think that will be my next attempt at Georgian cooking. For the advanced cook, I would suggest trying the Khachapuri- a delicious cheese bread that is a specialty of Imereti. The recipe is readily available online.

written by Stephanie, my mother.