Chakapuli: recipe with step-by-step description, specific features and reviews

I have an older friend with whom we often start various culinary events: we’ll roll dolma together in grape leaves, we’ll bake pies, or we’ll make jam in industrial quantities. Usually, areas of responsibility are determined quite simply: a comrade is responsible for meat and other brutal dishes, for salads, baked goods and the like.” insignificant

» affairs - me.
But there was one dish about which we have irreconcilable differences. This is Georgian chakapuli
.

The composition of chakapuli is simple and delicious in a summer way: young meat, green cherry plum, tarragon, cilantro, dill, parsley, onions, hot green peppers, garlic and white wine. For me, this is where the list ends, but my friend has one more important ingredient - fat tail. However, the main difference is the preparation method.

As my Georgian colleagues, descendants of Kakheti shepherds, taught me, this is one of the few traditional dishes that is prepared according to the “ set it and forget it”

" That is, all products go into a pot or pan, put on fire and left without attention or intervention until ready. This is very convenient, especially considering that chakapuli is prepared for about an hour, maximum - one and a half.

No, my friend tells me, it’s not like that at all! You must first render the fat from the fat tail, fry the onion in it until transparent and the meat until white, then add half the greens, pour in wine and simmer for about an hour. Then add cherry plum, garlic, hot pepper and continue cooking for another half hour. At the end, the second half of the greens is added to the finished dish. It also seems to be nothing complicated, but there are several approaches to the stove.

Two questions bother me the most. Why is there fat tail in such a light, fresh dish and is it worth frying the meat? Perhaps to enhance the meaty spirit - indeed, young meat, be it lamb or veal, does not have a distinct taste of its own. But, to be honest, the main character in this dish is tarragon and its all-conquering aroma. And the acidity of the cherry plum, aggravated by white wine, makes chakapuli

a completely low-fat dish.

But I completely agree with adding greens in two stages - at the beginning of cooking and at the end. You can even do it at three: sprinkle on top of the already prepared dish. What remains is the cherry plum: should I put it at the beginning or at the end? If you put it in at the beginning of cooking, it will boil so much that the bones will float in the finished dish. This is not good - it is both inconvenient and ugly to eat. Removing the pits from cherry plums is not at all authentic and, frankly, a chore. I came to a compromise option: I peel half the cherry plum and add it along with the first portion of greens and all other ingredients. The second part, with the seeds, goes into the dish 15-20 minutes before it’s ready. Thus, half of the cherry plum is boiled, transferring acidity to the sauce and thickening it a little, and half remains whole and nice.

Apparently lamb for chakapuli

more traditional than veal. It is only important that the meat is young and from cuts suitable for stewing. That is, premium cuts such as loin and tenderloin can be reserved for more refined dishes. Although chakapuli, which combines the most tender meat, the aroma of herbs and fresh sourness, cannot be called simple!

Anticipating questions about what to do if you can’t buy or pick green cherry plum, I dare to suggest replacing it with rhubarb or green gooseberries or, at worst, tamarind or green tkemali. Let it not be chakapuli, but “ based on

" Still delicious!

Chakapuli from Kakheti shepherds
4 servings
What you need:

700 g lamb or veal pulp
250-300 g green cherry plum
2 bunches tarragon
1 bunch of cilantro
1 bunch of dill
1 green hot pepper
2 onions
1 garlic or 4-5 shoots of young garlic
500 ml dry white wine
salt to taste

What to do:

Cut the meat into pieces the size of a walnut. Cut the onion, but not into thin feathers - in half and then lengthwise. Separate the garlic into cloves. If using garlic shoots, cut them into 2-3cm pieces.

Wash the greens, remove the leaves from the tarragon branches, coarsely chop the cilantro and dill, but without the coarse stems. Remove the pits from half the cherry plum.

Place the onion and meat in a pot or pan with a thick bottom, add salt and stir. Add half the herbs and garlic, peeled cherry plum, pepper and wine. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and cook for about an hour.

Check the meat for doneness - it should already be soft. Add salt if necessary. Add the unpeeled cherry plum, remaining garlic and half of the remaining herbs. Cook covered for another 15-20 minutes.

Serve chakapuli in soup bowls or deep plates, sprinkled with herbs, with fresh bread. Yes, and don’t forget about the return of Georgian wine to Russia - wash it down with chakapuli.

The season of homemade preparations begins, and our editor and culinary blogger Alena Spirina begins to fill her “Magic Pot”, putting...

The basis of Caucasian cuisine is the right choice of products. For Georgian lamb chakapuli, they take freshly chilled meat, and not one that has been deep frozen for six months. Spices need to be fresh and aromatic. Cilantro and tarragon are preferable from the garden, not from the greenhouse.

A special feature of Georgian cuisine is its love for fruit sauces. For this dish you will need fresh, preferably green plums, cherry plums or plum sauce - tkemali. Spicy sourness will make the taste more expressive, and the meat fibers will be softer.

When you are planning to cook lamb chakapuli, you first figure out what products you can actually buy - in extreme cases, you can take beef, fresh plums or a sauce made from them. Particular attention is paid to spices: you will need tarragon, coriander, cilantro or something else. Not every supermarket sells them. Therefore, you need to buy components that are available at this time of year, and in large quantities.

In Georgia, chakapuli is most often prepared in April-May, when there is a lot of young greens and lamb. The leading spice is tarragon, also known as tarragon; as you can see in the photo, it is added in large quantities. It is its fresh aroma, associated with spring and green fields, that is the main feature of this meat delicacy.

Advice. “High-quality spices already ensure three-quarters of success in preparing chakapuli.”

Basic recipe

In this dish, the quantities of ingredients are approximate; they are taken as a starting point and guided by your taste. Products: lamb or veal meat - a kilogram or one and a half, you can have brisket with ribs, tarragon - half a kilo, a glass of dry white wine, 2 onions, several cloves of garlic, one hundred grams of cilantro, half a kilogram of green cherry plum, two hundred grams of onion, parsley, dill. Cooking steps:

Cut the lamb into pieces and place in a saucepan.
Add wine, if necessary, a little water.
Simmer until half cooked, the time depends on the type of meat and part of the carcass.
Then add almost all the chopped greens, except green onions, along with the plums.
Keep on the stove until done, then add the remaining chopped herbs along with chopped green onions.
At the very end of cooking, add salt and pepper.

Advice: “The lamb should not be allowed to be fried; it should be boiled in a small amount of water or stewed. Otherwise, the aroma of greenery will not change for the better.”

Recipe with tkemali sauce

In the middle of winter it is difficult to find green cherry plum or tkemali. Then fresh fruits for the Georgian dish chakapuli are replaced with ready-made Tkemali sauce, which can be purchased at any chain store. It is not advisable to replace the component with lemon or citric acid; in extreme cases, plum juice or unripe plums will come in handy.

To prepare the dish, take one and a half kilograms of lamb, preferably with fat. You will need a bottle of tkemali sauce, or half a liter of sour plum juice, half a glass of white wine. Prepare at least half a kilo of tarragon, two heads of garlic, dill, parsley, 100 grams of leeks. If tarragon is replaced with dried tarragon, take into account that shrinkage occurs at least 10 times. Salt, white, red and black pepper to taste. The recipe is given below:

Chop the pulp into pieces with a knife and place in a patch or cauldron.
To prepare this dish in any version, thick-walled dishes are important for long simmering over low heat. Place chopped herbs, garlic, salt, pepper in a cauldron, pour in wine and sauce or juice.
Mix with your hands so that the meat is saturated with additives.
Simmer on the stove or in the oven for about three hours, at the end add leeks and green onions, tarragon leaves.

If the meat is lean, you can put about a hundred grams of butter on top or pour in odorless vegetable oil. The cooking time of the dish is always individual, depending on the age of the animal and the part of the carcass. The leg of an old lamb takes much longer to cook than a young one; the brisket will soften faster than the back. The neck cutlets are the softest part and should not be simmered for more than an hour.

Simple recipe

Degramming is not difficult, the quantities of ingredients can be easily memorized. The main components are a kilogram of lamb meat and plums, a bottle of wine, a bunch of tarragon, about 50 grams of garlic. Basil, onions and green onions, leeks, cilantro, hot pepper to taste. During cooking, the following sequence of actions is observed:

Cut the lamb into rectangular pieces, pour in wine, salt and pepper, and put on fire.
While it is stewing, boil the plums, then strain through a colander.
Chop a bunch of greens, onion, and garlic with a knife. Half an hour before readiness, add to the lamb along with the plum puree.
The recipe is simple, but there are nuances. If the herbs are dried, they are added a little earlier so that they boil and impart flavor to the meat. It is more convenient to cook chakapuli in a saucepan with a glass lid so that you can see when to add water.

Quick cooking option

This simple chakapuli recipe is used by Georgian shepherds in the mountains, who have no time to stand at the stove for a long time. You need to cook according to the “set everything and forget it” principle. But this doesn’t make the dish any less flavorful. The following products are placed in a 3-liter cast iron casserole:

chopped lamb in the amount of 800 grams;
300 grams of tarragon;
salt;
parsley, dill, leaf celery, onion, leek, cilantro - medium bunch;
pepper;
one and a half glasses of unripe plums or a bottle of plum sauce.

All this is stewed together with wine until the lamb is ready. Sprinkle the dish with green onions at the end, otherwise it will lose color and aroma. A little mint and basil will be needed for decoration.

The Chakapuli recipe allows you to prepare not a soup, but a stew.

If desired, before cooking it is fried in fat tail fat. There should not be too much liquid; when serving, the sauce along with the herbs is poured into a plate. If guests consider themselves to be against eating food of animal origin, the lamb is replaced with champignons, resulting in a vegetarian dish.

Video: Recipe for chakapuli over the fire

Chakapuli belongs to the category of traditional spring dishes of Georgian cuisine. Typically, Georgian housewives prepare it for the Easter holiday, but this aromatic hot dish made from lamb or veal can become a decoration for the festive table at any celebration. Just try it - it's perfect for a family lunch or dinner!

The taste of meat is ideally complemented by spices, herbs, herbs and the aroma of dry white wine. An important role in shaping the taste of a dish is played by the spice utskho-suneli - a Georgian seasoning based on blue fenugreek, which gives the meat an interesting nutty taste, so it is not recommended to replace it with other spices.

Name:	Chakapuli in Georgian
Date added:	09.01.2017
Cooking time:	90 min.
Recipe servings:	10
Rating:	( 1 , avg. 5.00 out of 5)

Ingredients

Product	Quantity
Lamb (veal) on the bone	4 kg
Bulb onions	900 g
Tarragon	190 g
Green onion	3 bundles
Cilantro	3 bundles
Garlic shoots	1 bunch
Cherry plum	15 pcs.
Chilli	1 PC.
Wine (white dry)	300 ml
Utskho-suneli	1/2 tsp.
Coriander (ground)	1/2 tsp.
Red hot pepper	1 tsp
Black pepper	1 tsp
Salt	taste
Butter	110 g

Serving the dish

Traditionally, cooked chakapuli is served together with Georgian lavash or mamaliga - corn porridge. Place meat on a plate, pour in broth, pieces of herbs and plums, it turns out similar to soup. Pieces of lavash are dipped into the broth. Photos of table setting will help you set the table beautifully.

Advice. “If Georgians come to a dinner party, chakapuli should be served with Georgian lavash, not Armenian or Azerbaijani.”

Having mastered the technology for preparing chakapuli, you can serve this dish again at any season, selecting the ingredients accordingly. The advantages of Georgian-style chakapuli are low calorie content, excellent taste, and many vitamins due to the large amount of greens. Lamb can be replaced with beef or veal.

Now the time has come for the last story about the June trip to Georgia. We went to Tbilisi at the invitation of friends, and therefore we were actively entertained, fed and watered all day. The main event of the entire trip was scheduled for Saturday - lunch, smoothly turning into dinner, the main dish of which was stated to be chakapuli.

1. Chakapuli is one of the most famous dishes of Georgian cuisine, which is prepared in late spring and early summer. Its main ingredients are young lamb, tkemali and aromatic herbs.

2. For chakapuli you need fresh tarragon, parsley, cilantro, green onions. Tarragon needs 5 bunches per kg of meat, and parsley, cilantro, green onions - about 2-3 bunches each. Our friends cooked for us and allowed me to film the whole process.

3. I don’t know if the scale is clear from the photo, but the huge tray was completely filled with greens. Probably the most important part of the work is to rinse and finely chop each bunch.

4. The meat also needs to be chopped into small pieces.

5. When both the meat and herbs are ready, place them in layers in a pan. First - a layer of meat.

6. Then - a layer of greens and a few tkemali, and so on until the pan is filled. Per kg of meat you will need a maximum of one kg of tkemali.

7. Each layer must also be salted! When the pan is filled, dry white wine is poured over the meat and herbs. In our case, it took about a liter. Don't be surprised, the wine is on tap;)

8. Place the pan on the fire, close the lid and forget about it for about an hour and a half.

9. Chanakhi was prepared from the second part of the meat ordered the day before from the butcher. The first step is to trim the fat from the meat, but there is no need to throw it away, we will need it later.

10. Make deep cross cuts in the meat.

11. Chanakhi also requires tomatoes, potatoes, hot peppers and eggplants.

13. Eggplants need to be washed, cut off the ends, and cut lengthwise.

14. These are the eggplants you should get.

15. The cut is needed to stuff the eggplant with fat trimmed from the meat (those on a diet, step away from the screen!) and herbs.

16. The meat should be salted and rubbed with red adjika. Some of the fat cut from the meat should be placed on the bottom of a deep baking dish.

17. On top we place washed, peeled and cut into slices potatoes and more strips of fat cut from the meat.

18. And right on top - tomatoes. In this form, the canakhs also go into the oven for about an hour and a half.

19. Well, while everything is getting ready, there is time for a drink and a snack. Since there were a lot of people, they took wine by the box. Next to the wine in a bowl is fresh suluguni.

20. Draft rosé, which turned out to be very worthy! I haven't drunk bottled wine in a million years.

21. I would like to show you this whole wonderful Georgian house, but I will protect the comfort of our friends’ family from many eyes. I can only say that it is a pleasure to visit such hospitable and warm houses! I dream that someday the square will allow us to receive many guests at once.

22. And I would also like to tell you how the house shook when the guests sang, played the piano and danced, how the Tbilisi summer smelled through the window and how delicious the meat was, but at some point I had to switch from blogger mode to guest mode. So just trust me!

And I can’t wait for September and a new trip. They promised us a special program! According to the host, not a single blogger has ever been to the places where we will be taken.

Chakapuli is a national dish of Georgian cuisine made from young meat, which is stewed with herbs and spices. Its name means “meat in foam”. Lamb or veal is often used in cooking, and for holidays - lamb. Fresh tarragon (tarragon) adds a special piquancy to the dish. Tkemali is also used for cooking. All this adds a delicate aroma and slight sourness to the meat.

The calorie content of the dish is 130 kcal per 100 g. Let’s look at the photo on how to prepare chakapuli step by step using several recipes.

Georgian lamb chakapuli: recipe with photos

Chakapuli is a national dish of Georgian cuisine made from young meat, which is stewed with herbs and spices. Its name means “meat in foam”.

Lamb or veal is often used in cooking, and for holidays - lamb. Fresh tarragon (tarragon) adds a special piquancy to the dish. Tkemali is also used for cooking.

All this adds a delicate aroma and slight sourness to the meat.

The calorie content of the dish is 130 kcal per 100 g. Let’s look at the photo on how to prepare chakapuli step by step using several recipes.

Georgian lamb chakapuli step by step recipe with photos

Lamb - in the east it is respected and appreciated. Almost all dishes are prepared with it. Its taste is unusual and differs from almost any type of meat.

It is saturated with a huge complex of vitamins and microelements that are so necessary for the human body. Lamb has a beneficial effect on the nervous system, digestion, and strengthens the immune system.

In addition, on a diet it is permissible to eat lean lamb.

One of the best ways to preserve the taste and beneficial properties of a dish is to cook it by stewing. This is how Chakapuli, the national Georgian dish, is prepared. Only the lamb is not stewed in water as usual, but in wine.

Wine selection for Chakapuli.

Dry white wine is suitable for Chakapuli. Georgian wines are varied. They are rich in many tones and aromas. A tart wine with a slight bitterness is best for stewing lamb. Chakapuli has quite a lot of herbs that, together with wine, make the dish unique. A floral taste or tones of pineapple or orange will be unnecessary and can spoil the dish.

Ingredients for Chakapuli.

Once the wine has been selected, you can decide on the meat. The lamb is chosen fresh. The back is best. You can choose lamb; the young, tender meat will please the most demanding gourmets. For Chakapuli you will need half a kilogram. Lamb should be lean. And therefore the dish is suitable for those who watch their figure.

Herbs that add flavor to the dish. Tarragon, cilantro and green onions. You will need one large bunch. Fresh and aromatic greens, which are used to prepare almost all Georgian dishes.

The dish also includes one pod of red hot pepper and a head of garlic. They will add an exotic spice. A tablespoon of unusual tkemali sauce made from the plum variety of the same name, which is also often found in Georgian dishes. And of course a glass of excellent dry white wine.

Source: https://gruzzia.ru/dostoprimechatelnosti/chakapuli-iz-baraniny-po-gruzinski-retsept-s-foto.html

Original chakapuli recipe

The classic recipe for a traditional spring dish from Eastern Georgian cuisine includes young lamb and a huge amount of aromatic herbs.

Product composition:

Green onions, tarragon, cilantro - a large bunch;
Garlic – 6 cloves;
Lean lamb - half a kilo;
Dry white wine and water – 150 ml each;
One hot pepper;
Tkemali – big spoon;
Salt - to taste.

The process of preparing chakapuli in Georgian:

Cut the lamb into small pieces and place in a pan;
Wash, dry and chop the herbs. First we put tarragon on the meat, then onion, cilantro and garlic passed through a garlic press or press;
Add chopped hot pepper, add water and wine, cook for half an hour. Salt, pepper, add tkemali sauce (can be replaced with plums). We prepare the food for another 30 minutes, testing the readiness of the meat.

Georgian lamb chakapuli is served as an independent dish without a side dish. It turns out very aromatic and tasty, especially if you serve a wine drink with the dish.

Features of the Caucasian dish

Georgian dish of lamb with tarragon, the original name is lamb chakapuli. This is truly a wonderful example of a traditional Caucasian dish. This dish has an incredibly rich taste. Special notes of tarragon spice give it a unique aroma.

Chakapuli is an ideal culinary solution for the housewife. This dish is ideal as both a first and second course. The spring aroma of tkemali - wild green plum and the most tender meat of a young sheep. Spicy tarragon goes well with the above ingredients.

Traditionally, this Georgian dish with tarragon is made from lamb. However, lamb ribs and veal are ideal. Green tarragon, cilantro and parsley give the meat a truly noble taste.

Those who like a spicy kick can also use garlic and chili peppers in this recipe. Notes of white Georgian wine will complete this exquisite composition.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that all ingredients must be fresh. And, of course, it is better to purchase them on the market. Instead of tkemali plums, you can use cherry plum. The main thing is that the plum tastes sweet and sour.

Recipe with veal and cherry plum

Thanks to the cherry plum, the dish acquires unique flavor notes.

Ingredients:

Onion – kilogram;
Young garlic with shoots – 100 g;
Chili pepper – not very hot;
Veal on the bone - 4 kilograms;
Cilantro, tarragon, chives - 200 g each;
Dry white wine – 250-300 ml;
Cherry plum fruits – 12-15 pieces;
Butter – 100 g;
Black pepper – 0.5 teaspoon;
Salt - a tablespoon;
A mixture of ground coriander, utskho-suneli, hot red pepper - a teaspoon.

Scheme for preparing chakapuli with cherry plum at home:

Chop the meat into pieces with a bone approximately the size of a matchbox. If you took a high-quality bone-in loin, you need to cut the meat between the bones;
Wash the greens thoroughly with running water, dry them and chop them finely (we also use the stems). Peel the onion and cut into very small cubes;
Place all the prepared ingredients in a thick-walled pan, cauldron or cauldron in this order: meat, onion, herbs, spices, salt, pepper until all the ingredients are gone. Add about 2/3 of the wine;
Put it on a high flame, let it boil, reduce the heat to medium, remove the foam using a slotted spoon. Cook for 40 minutes over low heat;
Add the remaining wine, add cherry plum, butter and chili. Once it boils, close the lid and keep on low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, until cooked.

Veal chakapuli resembles something in between, if you take a very thick soup and a second hot dish for comparison. This delicacy is simply divine, especially if eaten with fresh pita bread.

How to cook Georgian dish Chakapuli

Step-by-step recipe with photos

For this dish, I will give the proportions of the ingredients, but they do not need to be followed with apothecary precision. Georgian housewives, however, like most others, take everything “by eye”; the composition is given in order to approximately adhere to it.

Ingredients for chakapuli:

600 g - young lamb, lamb
300 g green onions
2 large bunches - tarragon (tarragon)
1 small bunch - cilantro and parsley
1 stack - tkemali or cherry plum
0.5 glass - dry white wine (rkatsiteli)
pepper and salt to taste

1. Rinse the meat well: lamb or lamb, cut into small pieces. Place in a saucepan or deep frying pan, close with a lid, pour in enough water so that it just covers the bottom and simmer over low heat, since I cooked in an electric grill, heating occurs from above, no water was needed, the meat released its own juice and even a little on top fried (this does not need to be done when preparing chakapuli, just simmer)

2. When the juice released from the meat has boiled away a little, add 2/3 of the chopped onion, salt, wine and continue to simmer with the lid closed. If the juice boils away quickly, you can add broth or boiling water 2-3 tablespoons at a time.

3. Put tkemali or cherry plum in chakapuli and simmer until the fruits turn olive color.

4. Greens: chop the parsley and cilantro finely, and the soft stems and leaves of tarragon - coarsely, add to the saucepan with the meat, leaving a little chopped greens to add at the very end.

5. Simmer Chakapuli until the fruits become soft, then add salt and pepper (alternatively, add finely chopped hot pepper). Add the rest of the onion and herbs, you can add young garlic, but without fanaticism, so that its taste does not interrupt the main aroma of chakapuli, which tarragon gives it. This extraordinary miraculous smell will spread throughout the kitchen!

Details of the step-by-step recipe for chakapuli - a dish of Georgian cuisine, you can see in the photo. This time I cooked chakapuli on an electric grill. I like it better on the stove, but since you have an electric grill, why not use it, in case you have to take it with you to the dacha. By the way, in the photo of the ingredients, in addition to tkemali fruits, you can also see tkemali sauce as an example (oh, and a delicious thing, even if just with bread). The finished chakapuli should consist of well-stewed pieces of meat, herbs, tkemali fruits and have a little thick juice with a spicy sour taste. By the way, the name of the dish cannot be translated in one word, something like “in foam”, we can say that it is stewed in foam. Chakapuli should be served very hot, and eaten by dipping Georgian bread: lavash (not to be confused with Armenian lavash) or shoti, in sour-spicy, moderately spicy juice.

You can also try. but you need to have the basic ingredients: meat, sour plums and tarragon.

It won’t arrive by mail, come to Georgia or maybe you’ll find a Georgian restaurant somewhere and order it. you will not regret.

Recipe with chicken

You will need:

Garlic – 2 cloves;
Half a chicken carcass;
Tarragon – bunch;
Parsley - 3 sprigs;
Fresh cilantro and green onions - half a bunch each;
Dry white wine – 1.5 cups;
Fresh dill – 4 sprigs;
Sunflower oil – 2 large spoons;
Red pepper flakes - a pinch;
Salt - to taste.

Cooking instructions:

Finely chop the greens, add garlic and mix;
We cut the chicken into portions. Take a saucepan with a thick bottom and pour oil into it, add the meat, salt and fry on each side until golden brown;
Cover the bird with herbs, salt and pepper, pour in wine, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the flame and cook for 20-25 minutes.

Chicken chakapuli is a very light and low-calorie dish that is easily digested by our body and turns out juicy and tasty.

Recipe with rack of lamb in a slow cooker

Product composition:

One green hot pepper;
Tarragon and green onions - 30 g each;
Lamb ribs – 8 pieces;
Cherry plum fruits - three pieces;
Water – 400 ml;
Cilantro – 20 g;
Dry white wine – 100 ml;
Salt - to taste.

Step by step recipe:

Cut the rack of lamb into individual ribs. Grind tarragon, onion, hot pepper and cilantro. Place everything in the multicooker bowl. We also add the whole cherry plum, water and wine, add salt, and cover with a lid;
Select the “Extinguishing” program, set the time to 25 minutes, press the “Start” button;
We serve the Georgian dish chakapuli to the table, garnishing it with fresh tarragon leaves and hot capsicum rings.

Georgian Pork Chakapuli

Using pork will help reduce the cooking time, and the taste will be a little different.

Ingredients:

pork – 800 gr.;
tkemali sauce – 200 gr.;
tarragon - 200 gr.;
onions – 2-3 pcs.;
greens – 1 bunch;
dry wine – 300 ml;
garlic – 80 gr.;
hot pepper – 1-2 pcs.;
salt.

Preparation:

Wash the pork loin on the bones and cut into portions.
Place in a bowl with thick walls.
Peel the onion and cut into thin half rings.
Place on top of the meat.
Cut the hot pepper along the fruit, remove the seeds and chop into strips.
Wash the tarragon, parsley and green onions, dry on a towel and chop as desired.
Peel the garlic and squeeze it out using a press.
Pour in wine and add fresh tkemali, or use a sauce made from these plums.
After boiling, reduce heat, add salt and simmer for another half hour.

Lamb chakapuli

This recipe contains a large number of different herbs and spices, so the dish is very aromatic.

Ingredients:

Onions – 4 heads;
Lamb – 1.5 kg;
Fresh mint – 20 g;
Butter – 40 g;
Fresh cilantro and parsley - 100 g each;
Garlic – 7-8 cloves;
Celery stalk – 100 g;
Thyme sprig – 2 pieces;
Water – 0.5 l;
One hot red pepper;
Salt and spices - to taste;
Cherry plum – 300 g (can be replaced);
Green onions – 150 g;
Fresh tarragon – 30 g.

Cooking process yourself:

Cut 750 g of meat into cubes measuring three by three centimeters and place in a cauldron;
We cut the onion into quarters, divide the slices in half, add one half to the meat;
Next, we wash and chop the entire green component, divide it into two halves and place one half on the onion, add salt and pepper;
Cut the remaining meat into larger pieces and lay it out in the next layer, add the washed cherry plum fruits. Salt again and sprinkle with pepper;
Cover with another part of the greens, then with onions;
Fill all layers with water;
Peel and finely chop the garlic, red pepper, celery and place on top of the resulting layers;
Place the cauldron on the fire, bring to a boil and add butter;
Cover the cauldron with a lid and simmer the contents for 2 hours over a very low flame. Serve hot.

How to cook chakapuli

Ideally, you should cook in a cauldron over a fire. At home, any thick-walled dish with a lid will do (I cooked in a duck cooker). Choose young, pinkish, pleasant-smelling lamb, without any foreign odors. Rinse the meat, cut into small portions along the ribs, sprinkle with a mixture of salt and utskho-suneli. Place in a preheated cauldron, cover with a lid and simmer over low heat. No need to add oil.

After about 20-30 minutes, the juice released by the meat will begin to boil away. Now add finely chopped green onions to the cauldron - there should be a lot of it, both the white root part and the feathers are used. Immediately pour in dry white wine. Continue to simmer covered for another 30 minutes.

Next, add finely chopped greens: cilantro, tarragon, mint, a head of garlic, hot pepper. The must-haves on this list are cilantro, tarragon and chili. But mint and garlic are added as desired. By the way, it is best to use green hot peppers, but if you don’t have them, then red ones will do. I used dried ones, cut them with kitchen scissors and threw them into the cauldron. Continue to simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes over low heat. To prevent the meat from burning, you need to look under the lid from time to time and add a little boiling water - 2-3 tablespoons at a time, adjusting the desired thickness (some people like it when there is a lot of liquid, others prefer a thick sauce at the bottom, so choose what suits you best like).

At the very end, season with pepper crushed in a mortar and throw whole fresh cherry plum fruits into the cauldron (or add a spoonful of tkemali green sauce). Attention! Add cherry plum only when the lamb is ready. If you overcook plums, they will disintegrate and turn into puree, as a result your chakapuli will be spoiled and turn out incredibly sour. Take the amount of cherry plum to taste; it should add only a light and pleasant sourness to the lamb. If you are cooking for the first time, then limit yourself to 50 g of fruit per 500-600 g of lamb (that’s 7-8 pieces). The second time, you will adjust the quantity based on the taste preferences of your household. Georgians add 100 grams for this amount of meat, but everyone’s plums have different degrees of ripeness, so don’t overdo it.

Continue simmering for about 15-20 minutes, over low heat, covered. The consistency should be something between a very thick soup and a second hot dish. In general, the stewing process from start to finish takes 2 hours if the lamb is young (or 3 hours if older).

Chakapuli is usually served with fresh pita bread, exclusively hot! Enjoy your meal!

If you get to Tbilisi at the height of spring, which is around the first half of April, then you will be whirled by a snowstorm of white tkemali and cherry plum petals. These types of plums grow literally everywhere here: on the crooked streets of old Tbilisi, climbing the steep slopes of Mtatsminda, in the Italian courtyards of Avlabar and at the entrances of high-rise buildings built in the last 20-30 years, not to mention gardens and parks. And after a couple of weeks on the tkemali you can see small, slightly larger than a bean or the size of an olive, fruits with a pit that has not yet completely hardened.

They are sour in taste, even slightly bitter, but children love to pick them, and many adults are not averse to eating green tkemali. Spring is the time when Tbilisi housewives at the market buy not just one or two bunches of greens for borscht or broth, no, the greens are very diverse: parsley, dill, cilantro, mint, lettuce, reyhani, all this is bought in large quantities, in armfuls, baskets, and is eaten in the same quantities at one sitting in the form of salads, various dishes and just like that, with bread and cheese. I would like to note that Georgian cuisine is characterized by a pronounced seasonality, not that a spring dish cannot be prepared in the fall or winter, but it will not have quite the same taste, and the body does not seem to want to accept it, for example, in the summer, but because - in winter.

So, today we are preparing a real spring dish! Because it’s spring, and I’m taking part in a competition for the best spring recipe, held on Alexei Onegin’s blog www.arborio.ru. A blog that I constantly read with pleasure and I recommend to you, those who love to cook and learn something new about cooking. Chakapuli, and in Georgian it looks like this: ჩაქაფული - especially tasty, aromatic in the spring. This is a dish of Georgian cuisine: real chakapuli

can only be prepared in the spring for three reasons; at this time of year there are:

young lamb - lamb,
green, unripe fruits of tkemali or cherry plum,
fresh, young, tender tarragon greens.

Yes, instead of lamb you can take lamb, veal, beef, instead of green tkemali or cherry plum you can take ripened, pickled, dried fruits, frozen plums, the same canned tkemali and even tkemali sauce, and instead of young tarragon - dried, but, alas, the taste it won't be exactly the same. Although you will get a rough idea of the dish of Georgian cuisine itself - chakapuli.

In April-May, young lambs have already fattened up enough meat, but have not acquired the specific taste of lamb. Lean meat is perfect for chakapuli; ribs are best suited for this.

Chakapuli soup

Components:

Plum (any variety) – kilogram;
Garlic – head;
Lamb ham – kilogram;
White wine – bottle;
Tarragon – 200 g;
Mint;
Basil - a bunch;
Water, salt;
A bunch of green onions, cilantro;
Red hot pepper - three pods.

Cooking instructions:

Cut the meat into pieces measuring 3*3 cm and place in a large container. Pour in water - it should cover the entire lamb completely, let it boil and add wine. Add some salt and start simmering;
Wash the plums, separate the stalks, put the berries in a saucepan and pour a glass of water. Let's cook them over medium heat. Then we will prepare the plum puree. To do this, you need to rub the fruits through a sieve;
Finely chop the basil, mint, cilantro, onion and tarragon;
Cut the hot pepper pods and garlic into medium slices and add to the almost finished meat. Also add all the greens, mix well and simmer for 30 minutes over medium heat;
Add plum puree to taste, bring to a boil and simmer for another 10 minutes. The greens should give off all their color.

Pour chakapuli soup into bowls and enjoy the taste.