Caucasian tkemali sauce is one of the most popular in the world. It is ideally suited to many dishes of Caucasian cuisine, but, strangely enough, it is combined with those products that were not born in the historical homeland of Tkemali - in Georgia. An expressive taste, in which the severity of oriental spices, the aroma of fragrant spices and the freshness of ripe fruit intertwined. What do we eat tkemali with? There are many answers to this question.
Taste Features
Many people know that the juicy shade of tkemali is due to the plum base. Sweet and sour plums are ideal for the sauce. They themselves are quite expressive, so neither vinegar, nor lemon juice, nor sweeteners are added to the sauce.
When thinking about what tkemali eat with, take into account not only taste characteristics, but also biochemistry. The tannins and pectin contained in the plums help to assimilate and digest meat and fish. It significantly reduces the severity that sometimes occurs after a hearty dinner, which served fatty dishes. Of course, such food should not form the basis of the diet, but if on a holiday you decide to please the guests with baked chicken thighs or pork belly roll - serve this sauce to the table. It will not only make the taste harmonious, but also smooth out the influence of fatty foods.
Easy way to cook
If, preparing for the solemn feast and knowing what tkemali sauce is eaten with, you decide to cook it yourself, take care first of all of the necessary products. Ripe plums of sweet-sour varieties or slightly unripe sweet ones are suitable. The presence of rotten plums is unacceptable, this will spoil not only the taste, but also the texture. To prepare the sauce you will need a kilogram of fruit. Rinse them under water, remove the tails and bones. Fold them in a saucepan, add a little water (about 0.5 tbsp.). Put on a small fire and take care of the rest of the products.
Pepper pod must be finely chopped or chopped in a mortar. Pass the garlic (4-5 cloves) through a crush. A half-cilantro can be simply chopped finely with a knife.
If the peel begins to separate from the drain , then it's time to proceed to the next stage. Grind the mass through a fine sieve, helping with a ladle or pestle. Add the remaining ingredients to the mass and boil again over low heat. To prevent the sauce from burning, stir with a spatula. You can serve such a sauce of your own to many dishes.
Tkemali with side dishes
Fragrant sauce can brighten up even a simple everyday dinner. Various types of pasta, boiled potato slices, stewed cabbage and cereal porridge go well with tkemali.
What is this sauce at a festive dinner? Even more sophisticated side dishes harmonize with it. Serve tkemali with mashed broccoli or green peas, green or white steamed asparagus, gratin or grilled vegetables.
Combination with meat and fish dishes
Do you know what they eat tkemali from plums in Georgia? Of course, with lamb! For example, without it it is impossible to imagine chakapuli - a fragrant dish of young meat stewed in herbs and seasonings. In the Caucasus, this sauce is served with almost all meat dishes: kebab and kebab, fried chicken and chop.
You can take advantage of the experience of the creators of tkemali and feel free to decide on any experiments. However, there are some minor limitations. If the meat is cooked according to a complex recipe, which already contains active tastes, tkemali may be completely inappropriate.
You should be careful when you serve dishes made from products that have their own interesting taste. For example, salmon and other types of noble red fish are not customary to combine with saturated seasonings, spicy sauces, garlic. Tkemali is simply eclipsed by an exquisite treat. The combination of this sauce with wild mushrooms is controversial.
But tkemali is able to give a truly festive taste to ordinary boiled chicken or turkey pork, fried pork undercuts, smoked ribs and many other meat dishes.
Tkemali as a part of recipes
When thinking about what to eat with tkemali sauce, do not be afraid of experiments. Often it is served not as an independent sauce, but added to other dishes during cooking. A couple of spoons of this product will add softness and piquancy to the kharcho if you replace it with tomato paste during cooking. This sauce is used for dolma, stew, meatballs, chops. They do this, not only to make the taste deeper and more expressive. The bright plum color of the sauce is easily transmitted to other products stewed in it. The chicken is especially beautiful - the meat takes on a raspberry hue.
Marinade preparation
Plums contain a lot of organic acids, which means that the aromatic sauce can be used for pre-marinating products before heat treatment. Grate slices of pork with tkemali sauce, add a little pomegranate juice or narsharab sauce and leave for several hours. By the way, if before a picnic you are trying to find interesting answers to the question about what tkemali eat with, be sure to grab a jar of nature. With kebabs, it harmonizes perfectly. But you can make a completely new sauce from the remaining marinade - simmer it to a boil, add fresh herbs and a little ketchup.
Serving to the table
It is important not only what we eat tkemali, but also how to bring it to the table. For these purposes, a saucepan with a narrow nose or a cup with a spoon is suitable. Dipping pieces of food into it is unacceptable, usually the sauce is gradually added to individual dishes. At the most solemn receptions, each guest is served a small bowl in which the sauce is either added immediately, or it must be added independently from a common gravy boat.