Dishes of Georgian cuisine have an unusual and refined taste.
This is especially true for Tkemali sauce, with which any dish becomes a real masterpiece.
We have collected the best recipes of Georgian Tkemali sauce from different varieties of plums.
Plum tkemali - basic cooking principles
The main ingredient of the sauce is tkemali plums, better known to us as cherry plum.
Thanks to this plum sauce got its name and unique sour taste.
Real Georgian tkemali sauce from plums is prepared only from green, sour cherry plum, which is not yet ripe.
In addition, you will also need marsh mint - this is a herb that is used as seasoning, and it grows only in Georgia. Also, garlic and spices are used to make the sauce: cilantro, salt, dill, hot red pepper and ground coriander.
Plums are thoroughly washed, spread in a pan, poured with water and boiled for forty minutes. Then boiled plums grind through a sieve. Bones and peels are thrown away. You should get a puree mass, which is boiled to the consistency of thick sour cream. Fresh herbs, garlic and seasonings are thoroughly ground and added to the sauce. Mix and bring to a boil. Turn off and lay out hot over prepared cans. If you want hot sauce, add more hot peppers and garlic. Conversely, lovers of tender sauce should emphasize aromatic herbs.
Of course, in our latitudes it is difficult to make a real Tkemali from plums, but the recipe can be adapted by preparing it from any sort of plums. Swamp mint can be replaced with the usual lemon balm or thyme. With seasonings and herbs, you can experiment to your taste. In any case, the sauce always turns out to be incredibly tasty, and is indispensable as a seasoning for almost any dish.
Recipe 1. Classic yellow cherry plum tkemali
Ingredients
a kilogram of ripe yellow cherry plum;
5 g of ground coriander;
50 g of sugar;
60 g of fresh dill;
three heads of garlic;
50 g of fresh cilantro;
salt;
hot pepper pod.
Cooking method
1. Wash ripe cherry plum under running water, put on paper towels and dry. Take out the bones.
2. Grind the plums through a meat grinder.
3. Add sugar and salt to the plum puree. Stir and put in a pan. Put on low heat and cook for about nine minutes.
4. To sort garlic on teeth, to clear it of a husk. Remove the stalk with seeds from the pepper pod. Rinse and dry the greens. Put everything in a blender bowl, add spices and grind until smooth.
5. Add the aromatic mixture to boiling plum sauce, mix well and cook for another couple of minutes.
6. Wash and sterilize glass bottles with tin caps. Arrange the prepared Tkemali sauce in bottles and tightly wrap the lids.
Recipe 2. Plum Tkemali with Lemon Juice
Ingredients
700 g of plum tkemali;
25 ml of vegetable oil;
a bunch of fresh cilantro;
salt;
five cloves of garlic;
half a glass of lemon juice;
3 g of crushed coriander;
3 g ground fenugreek;
2 g of red hot ground pepper.
Cooking method
1. Wash the plums well and put them in a large enameled pan. Fill with drinking water so that it completely covers the fruit.
2. Put the dishes on the fire and bring the mass to a boil. Reduce the heat to a minimum, cover with a lid and cook another ten minutes.
3. Drain the water, cool the plums to a warm state and take out the bones. Wipe the plums through a fine sieve.
4. Rinse cilantro and finely crumble.
5. Peel the garlic and chop it through a garlic squeezer.
6. Plum puree is put back into the pan, add cilantro, crushed garlic and spices. Pour in lemon juice and salt. Mix and bring the mixture to a boil over low heat. Cook the sauce for a couple of minutes, and remove from heat.
7. Tkemali sauce is cooled to a warm state and transferred to a clean sterile jar. Pour oil from above and close the lid tightly. Put the sauce in the refrigerator. Six hours later, the sauce is ready. Keep in the refrigerator for no more than two months.
Recipe 3. Plum Tkemali in a slow cooker
Ingredients
a kilogram of slightly greenish plums;
75 g seasoning "hops-suneli";
a bunch of parsley and dill;
hot red pepper pod;
salt;
six cloves of garlic;
sugar;
5 ml of 70% vinegar per liter of sauce.
Cooking method
1. Peel the garlic. Wash greens, plums and garlic under running water and put in a colander to make glass water.
2. Cut each plum and take out the seeds.
3. Fold the plums, garlic and herbs in a blender bowl and beat until smooth.
4. Put the mashed potatoes in the multicooker bowl, add sugar and salt. Stir and taste. If necessary, add salt, or add more sugar.
5. Place the container in the multicooker, close the lid and start the "Extinguishing" mode. Cook the sauce in this mode for an hour and a half.
6. Arrange the hot sauce in sterile dry jars and tightly roll up with iron lids. Store in a cool place for up to three years.
Recipe 4. Hungarian plum tkemali
Ingredients
three kilograms of Hungarian plum;
15 ml of vegetable oil;
two glasses of drinking water;
50 g of salt;
300 g of fresh cilantro;
25 g of sugar;
200 g of parsley;
15 g of ground coriander;
two heads of garlic;
3 g ground red pepper;
two pods of hot red pepper.
Cooking method
1. We sort out the drain and mine. We spread the fruct in a large pot, fill it with water and put on fire. As soon as the water boils, we twist the fire and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes, so that the plum boils.
2. Green cilantro and my parsley. Cut ponytails from pods of hot pepper, clean seeds and mine. Peel the garlic.
3. Rub the plum mass through a colander to separate the peel and seeds.
4. Pour the puree into the pan, add sugar and salt. Season with coriander and ground pepper. Cook over low heat for half an hour.
5. Hot pepper, garlic and herbs are twisted in a meat grinder. Add the resulting mixture to the sauce, mix and cook for another ten minutes.
6. We lay out the hot sauce in sterilized jars. Pour refined vegetable oil from above and hermetically roll up with sterile lids.
Recipe 5. Tkemali from plums with thorns
Ingredients
kilogram of wild small plums;
head of garlic;
200 g of ripe thorns;
mint;
hot pepper pod;
basil;
two sweet peppers;
salt;
hops-suneli seasoning;
granulated sugar.
Cooking method
1. Wash and plum green plums. We do the same with the turn.
2. Rinse sweet pepper, wipe and cut in half. Remove the tail with the seeds. Cut the stem from the hot pepper and scrub the seeds. Rinse the greens and dry them slightly.
3. Put everything in a blender bowl, add spices and chop everything to a state of mashed potatoes or grind with a meat grinder.
4. Transfer the resulting mass to a saucepan, add sugar and suneli hop seasoning. Salt and add to the mass a mixture of pepper, herbs and garlic. Stir and place the container on fire. Bring the sauce to a boil, roll the fire and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Arrange the hot sauce in sterile bottles and tightly tighten the caps.
Recipe 6. Plum Tkemali with Walnuts
Ingredients
three walnuts;
a kilogram of cherry plum;
5 g of Imereti saffron;
head of garlic;
greens of dill, mint and cilantro;
10 g of salt;
hot pepper pod;
15 g of sugar;
5 g of coriander.
Cooking method
1. Put the washed cherry plum in a pan, fill it with water so that it covers the fruit. We put the pan on the fire and cook for about 15 minutes. Then we cool to a warm state and grind the plum through a sieve. Bones and peel are removed. We do not pour out the water in which the plum was brewed.
2. Peel the garlic. Cut the tail from the hot pepper pod and clean the seeds. We put garlic, walnuts, hot pepper and herbs in the blender's container. Salt and add sugar. We interrupt everything in a pulsating mode until smooth.
3. Add the cherry plum puree to this mixture and interrupt again until a homogeneous mass is obtained.
4. The resulting mass is transferred to the pan, pour a little water in which the plum was cooked, and put the container with the plum mass on the fire. Cook over low heat since boiling for ten minutes.
5. We put the hot sauce in sterile jars, tightly close them with lids and completely cool. Store the sauce in a cool dark place.
Recipe 7. Plum Tkemali with Basil
Ingredients
80 ml of olive oil;
a kilogram of cherry plum;
50 ml of drinking water;
5 g of red ground pepper;
100 g of sugar;
60 g of cilantro, parsley, basil and dill;
25 g of salt.
Cooking method
1. Wash greens and cherry plum thoroughly. Put the cherry plum in a large pan, add water so that it completely covers the fruit. Boil cherry plum until it becomes soft.
2. Put boiled cherry plum in a sieve, and grind with a wooden spatula. Throw skins and bones.
3. Pour the resulting mashed potatoes back into the pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
4. Add washed and finely chopped greens, crushed garlic and chopped very finely ground pepper to the plum puree. Salt and mix thoroughly. Boil the sauce from the moment of boiling for 20 minutes until the mass thickens.
5. Pour hot Tkemali sauce into jars or bottles. Pour refined oil on top. Roll up tightly and leave to cool completely. Put the sauce in the basement or pantry for storage.
Tkemali from plums - tips and tricks
- For the sauce, take moderately ripe yellow, blue, or red plums.
- Do not cook the sauce for too long so that it does not lose its palatability and benefits.
- Tkemali sauce can be prepared from different types of cherry plum.
- While cooking, stir the sauce constantly so that it does not burn. It is better to do this with a wooden spatula.
- To facilitate the cooking process, remove the peel from the drain, pour the fruit with boiling water for five minutes.
- Spices and herbs can be selected based on your preferences.
After adding all the spices to the sauce, taste it. If necessary, adjust it by adding those or other spices.
