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Guria is one of the regions of Georgia. Amazing Georgian cuisine in every small region is represented by original dishes unique to it. Traditionally, in this country, in addition to delicious meat dishes, there are also vegetable dishes. The Gurians also make preparations for the winter. One of them is cabbage marinated in Gurian style. In Georgian it sounds mzhave kombosto, where the word mzhave can have several meanings that relate to the technology of preparing the product: fermentation, salting and pickling. They are the ones used to prepare this delicious preparation.
What is Gurian cabbage made from?
The set of products for preparing this dish has also been verified over more than one century.
- The cabbage should be firm, medium in size, and fully ripe.
- Beets must contain a lot of coloring pigments so that the pieces of cabbage have an appetizing pink color.
- It is necessary to add hot capsicums; they are cut lengthwise or into rings; for a spicy dish, the seeds do not need to be removed.
- Garlic - add whole cloves, removing only the hard skin.
- Celery - traditionally it is leafy, but if you don’t have it, long-term stored roots will do.
- Only salt is added to the brine for classic sauerkraut Gurian cabbage. Vinegar and sugar are the prerogative of pickled cabbage.
It is allowed to add carrots and kohlrabi cabbage to the preparation. Spices may be present: ground pepper, red and black, horseradish roots, parsley, bay leaf.
And if it is undesirable to experiment with the composition of the workpiece, then the quantity of ingredients is not only possible, but also necessary. This is how you will find the very recipe that will become your favorite for many years. The only thing that should not be changed is the amount of salt. An under-salted or over-salted dish will not give the desired result. One to two tablespoons of salt per liter of water will be sufficient.
Classic Gurian cabbage
Ingredients:
- cabbage heads – 3 kg;
- sweet beets of rich color - 1.5 kg;
- 2-3 pods of hot pepper;
- a couple of large heads of garlic;
- celery greens – 0.2 kg;
- water – 2 l;
- salt – 4 tbsp. spoons.
Prepare the brine: boil water with added salt, let cool. We cut the heads of cabbage into sectors.
Washed and cleaned beets cut into rings. It is convenient to do this with a special grater. Peel the garlic. Leave small cloves whole; large ones are better cut in half. Cut the pepper into rings.
We place the vegetables in a fermentation bowl in layers: place the beets on the bottom, put the cabbage on it, and on top of it the garlic and celery greens, mashed by hand. On top is another layer of beets. Fill the fermentation with brine and place a weight on top.
After 72 hours, pour out part of the brine, dissolve another 1 tbsp in it. a spoonful of salt and return the brine, stirring as well as possible. Sauerkraut with beets a couple more days.Then we take it out into the cold. Actually, the cabbage is already ready to eat. But if it sits for some more time, it will become much tastier.
Cabbage, pickled in Gurian style
This recipe can rightfully also claim to be a classic. Initially, the preparation was made using the fermentation method. We modernized the recipe and started adding vinegar not so long ago, real Gurian acute cabbage is well fermented, so it contains a lot of acid. The amount of ingredients is given for a ten-liter bucket of the finished product.
Ingredients:
- 8 kg of cabbage heads;
- 3-4 large dark beets;
- 100 g each of garlic and horseradish;
- 2-4 pods of hot pepper;
- a bunch of parsley;
- 200 g each of sugar and salt;
- spices.
We cut the cabbage into slices without cutting out the stalk. Three horseradish on a grater, beets can be chopped into strips or cut into thin rings, like hot peppers.
Prepare the brine: dissolve salt and sugar in 4 liters of water, add spices and boil, cool.
As spices we use cloves, allspice peas, laurel leaves, and cumin.
We lay out the vegetables in layers, fill them with warm brine, and place the load. The fermentation process takes 2-3 days.
We take the finished fermentation out into the cold.
Gurian pickled cabbage
There is also a classic recipe for Gurian-style pickled cabbage. It is also prepared with beets, but it is poured with a hot marinade, adding sugar and vinegar. This preparation is ready in three days.
Ingredients:
- cabbage heads – 1 pc. weighing up to 3 kg;
- garlic, carrots, beets – 300 g each;
- celery greens, cilantro, parsley;
Marinade:
- water - 2 l;
- sugar - ¾ cup;
- salt - 3 tbsp. spoons;
- a glass of 6% vinegar;
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns, 3 bay leaves.
Place beets, carrots, and large pieces of cabbage cut into rings into a bowl, layering everything with garlic cloves and herbs. Prepare the marinade: boil water, adding salt, spices, sugar. After 5 minutes, add vinegar and turn off. Fill the workpiece with hot marinade. We put the plate down and place the weight. After three days, transfer the finished pickled cabbage into a glass container and put it in the refrigerator.
You can marinate cabbage in Gurian style in another way.
Cabbage marinated in Gurian style with herbs
Ingredients:
- 3 heads of cabbage and large beets each;
- head of garlic;
- a small bunch of parsley, dill, celery.
For the marinade:
- Art. spoon of salt;
- a glass and a quarter of 9% vinegar;
- 0.5 l of water;
- ½ cup sugar;
- 10 peas each of allspice, as well as black pepper, bay leaf.
We cut the cabbage into slices along with the stump, the beets into slices, and simply peel the garlic. We lay out layers of vegetables, interlayering them with sprigs of herbs and garlic. Prepare the marinade: boil water along with spices, salt, sugar. Let the marinade cool for about 10 minutes, add vinegar and pour over the vegetables.
Let it sit in a warm place for three days. Transfer to a glass container and refrigerate.
Surprisingly tasty Gurian-style cabbage, sharp as fire, red like the famous Georgian wine with a pleasant sourness, will come in handy with barbecue or other Georgian meat dishes. And it will be an excellent snack with traditional strong alcoholic drinks. Try preparing this unusual preparation to plunge briefly into the wonderful world of Georgian cuisine.
