Plum tkemali: a classic recipe for the winter

Content

1 The benefits of tkemali
2 Basic principles
3 How to cook classic tkemali
4 Conclusion

Tkemali is a dish of Georgian cuisine, which is a sauce made from plums, garlic and spices. This is a great addition to meat, poultry and fish. You can prepare tkemali for the winter at home. After heat treatment, plums can be stored for 3 years.

The benefits of tkemali

Tkemali contains plums and various spices. No oil is required during its preparation, so the sauce does not add fat to the main dishes. Spices contain substances that increase appetite and promote digestion.

When cooked, tkemali retains vitamins E, P, B1 and B2, and ascorbic acid. Their effect on the body improves heart function, the condition of hair and skin, oxygen is supplied to cells faster, and brain activity is stimulated.

Plums are a source of pectin, which helps cleanse the intestines. Therefore, tkemali promotes the functioning of the digestive system. By adding sauce, even heavy dishes are much easier to digest.

Basic principles

To prepare tkemali according to the classic recipe, you need to adhere to certain rules:

sour plum varieties must be selected; it is best to use cherry plum;
plums should remain slightly unripe;
During the cooking process, it is allowed to use different varieties of plums;
During cooking, the sauce is constantly stirred to avoid burning;
For cooking you will need enamel dishes, and a wooden spoon will help to stir the tkemali;
You can first put the fruits in boiling water to remove the skin;
for cooking you will need salt, dill, hot pepper, cilantro and coriander;
after cooking, the volume of the plum will decrease by four times, which must be taken into account before purchasing ingredients;
the choice of spices is unlimited and depends only on personal preferences;
periodically you need to taste the sauce in order to adjust it in a timely manner;
fresh herbs are not added to hot sauce; you need to give it time to cool.

How to cook classic tkemali

Modern recipes suggest preparing a sauce from various sour berries - gooseberries, currants, etc. However, the classic version of tkemali cannot be obtained without sour plums.

Another important component of this sauce is the use of ombalo - swamp mint, which acts as a spice. With its help, tkemali acquires its unique taste.

Ombalo has preservative properties that allow you to extend the storage time of the preparations. If it is quite difficult to get the spice, then it is replaced with ordinary mint, thyme or lemon balm.

Tkemali from cherry plum

To prepare traditional Georgian sauce, you need to use the following step-by-step instructions:

For the traditional recipe you will need 1 kg of cherry plum. The fruits need to be washed well, then placed in a pan. Damaged fruits are not recommended for use. According to the classic recipe, there is no need to separate the skin and seeds from the pulp.
The cherry plum is placed in a pan and about 0.1 liters of water is poured.The fruits should be simmered over low heat until the peel and seeds separate.
The resulting mass must be transferred to a colander or fine-mesh sieve. As a result, the puree will separate from the skin and seeds.
The cherry plum is again placed in the pan and placed on low heat.
When the mass boils, you need to remove it from the stove and add sugar (25 g), salt (10 g), suneli and dry coriander (6 g each).
Now we begin to prepare the greens. For tkemali you need to take one bunch of cilantro and dill. The greens are thoroughly washed, dried with a towel and finely chopped.
To add heat to the sauce, you will need chili pepper. It is enough to take one pod, which is cleared of seeds and stalks. When working with pepper, you should wear gloves to avoid skin irritation. If desired, the amount of hot pepper can be reduced or increased.
Chili pepper is crushed and added to the sauce.
The last step is preparing the garlic. Three medium cloves need to be chopped and added to tkemali.
Tkemali is placed in jars for the winter.

Plum recipe

In the absence of cherry plum, it can be successfully replaced by ordinary plum. When choosing it, you need to be guided by the general rules: use unripe fruits that taste sour.

Then the classic recipe for plum tkemali for the winter takes on the following form:

For preparation, take 1 kg of plums of the “Hungarian” variety or any other. The fruits must be washed well, cut into two parts and the seeds removed.
To make the sauce a rich red color, you will need bell peppers (5 pcs.). It needs to be cut into several parts, cleaned of stalks and seeds.
Chili pepper (1 pc.) is cleaned of stalks and seeds.
Two heads of garlic need to be peeled.
After preparation, the ingredients are turned through a meat grinder.
Add 0.5 tsp to the resulting mass. ground black pepper, 1 tbsp. l. sugar and salt.
Place the mixture in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes.
The finished sauce can be placed in jars and stored.

Yellow Plum Recipe

When using yellow plum, tkemali will only benefit in its taste. When choosing fruits, you need to choose sour varieties. If the plum is too soft or sweet, the result will resemble jam rather than sauce.

The classic recipe for tkemali from yellow plum varieties is as follows:

Plums with a total weight of 1 kg are peeled and pitted.
The fruits are passed through a meat grinder or crushed in a blender.
To the resulting mass you need to add sugar (50 g) and rock salt (30 g).
Place the plum puree on low heat and cook for 7 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat after the allotted time and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
Garlic cloves (6 pieces) must be put through a garlic press.
Finely chop 1 bunch of fresh cilantro and dill.
The chili pepper must be destemmed and seeds removed. Pepper is ground in a blender or meat grinder.
Garlic, herbs, hot pepper, and ground coriander (15 g) are added to tkemali.
The finished sauce is poured into jars until completely cooled. Glass containers are first sterilized with steam.

Recipe with vinegar

Adding vinegar allows you to extend the shelf life of tkemali. The classic recipe in this case is reflected in the following step-by-step instructions:

Sour plums (1.5 kg) need to be washed, cut into two parts and pits removed.
One head of garlic must be peeled.
The plums and garlic are processed in a meat grinder, sugar (10 tbsp), salt (2 tbsp) and suneli hops (1 tsp) are added.
The resulting mass is thoroughly mixed and placed on low heat.
Tkemali is prepared within an hour.
While preparing the sauce, you need to wash and sterilize the jars.
5 minutes before removing from heat, add vinegar (50 ml) to the tkemali.
The finished sauce is poured into jars. The indicated amount of ingredients is enough to fill three 1.5 liter jars.

Quick recipe

If time for preparing homemade preparations is limited, quick recipes come to the rescue. The easiest way to obtain tkemali takes no more than an hour.

In this case, the classic tkemali sauce is prepared according to the following step-by-step guide:

Sour plums (0.75 kg) are peeled and pitted, then crushed in any suitable way.
Add 1 tbsp to the resulting mixture. l. sugar and 1 tsp. salt.
Place the mixture on the fire and bring to a boil.
When the sauce boils, you need to remove it from the heat and cool slightly.
Be sure to add chopped garlic (1 head), suneli hops (3 tbsp.), 2/3 hot pepper. The pepper is first cleaned of seeds and tails, and then minced in a meat grinder.
The sauce with the addition of pepper, garlic and spices needs to be boiled for another 5 minutes.
Tkemali is laid out in jars. To store the sauce over the winter, the containers must be sterilized.

Multicooker recipe

Using a multicooker will simplify the process of preparing tkemali. To obtain the required consistency of the sauce, you need to select the “Stew” mode. At the same time, the plum does not burn and is not digested.

Classic plum tkemali for the winter is prepared according to the following recipe:

Any sour plum in the amount of 1 kg must be washed and pitted.
Then you need to prepare 6 cloves of garlic and one bunch of dill and parsley.
Plums, garlic and herbs are crushed using a blender.
Place the plum puree in a slow cooker, add sugar and salt to taste.
The multicooker is turned on to the “Quenching” mode.
After 1.5 hours, you need to cool the mass a little, add chopped chili pepper (1 pc.) and suneli hops (75 g).
Tkemali are placed in jars for long-term storage.

Conclusion

The classic tkemali recipe includes cherry plum and mint. These ingredients can be replaced with blue and yellow plum varieties, regular mint and other greens. Depending on the components used, the classic recipe is adjusted, however, the general sequence of actions remains unchanged. To simplify the process, you can use a slow cooker.

Tkemali sauce: classic recipe