This product of the national Georgian cuisine tastes and looks different from the more subtle Armenian counterpart. Georgian pita - speech, of course, about him! This national dish is a peculiar visiting card of the Caucasus. Skillfully prepared, Georgian pita bread turns out to be lush and thick, with a crisp and fragrant crumb. Will we try?
How to cook by the rules?
Proper Georgian pita bread is baked in an oven called tone. This special oven is a huge clay pot, lined with brick and located obliquely, at an angle of about thirty degrees. Tone is usually melted with sawdust. In the process of cooking, fire is constantly maintained. Pita bread, fashioned from dough, is located (sticks) to the back of the oven and baked for about ten minutes. To get a crisp, it is necessary to constantly spray the prepared pita bread with water. Real Georgian pita bread is just a jumble! It is customary to eat it freshly prepared with cheese, milk, herbs, wine. So that the bread does not wind off, it is wrapped in a towel - so it lasts longer. Georgian pita bread can also be used as the basis for other dishes. For example, bake with meat or cheese filling - it will be even tastier! By the way, some Georgians consider the word “lavash” Armenian and prefer to call national flat cakes “puri” (tonis puri), which means “bread” in Georgian.
Georgian pita bread at home
Of course, it is best to build a tane oven for baking Georgian dishes in the courtyard of a private house. But if you live in a high-rise building, do not be discouraged: good bread can be obtained both in the oven and in the electric mini-bakery. You just need to knead the dough correctly and choose the temperature and baking mode.
Georgian pita bread: recipe
In order to knead the dough, we take half a kilogram of flour, about half a glass of water, 30 grams of fresh yeast, salt, sugar.
We dissolve the yeast in warm water, add a little flour and sugar, let stand to come. Sift the flour, mix it with salt and yeast. Knead a homogeneous dough (like pies). Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and leave to approach for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Sprinkle a baking sheet with flour. From the dough we roll out cakes of a characteristic shape, put on a baking sheet and bake in the oven from 20 to 30 minutes until cooked. Spray the hot pita bread with water, wrap it in a towel so that it sweats a little and becomes soft.
With cornmeal
How to cook Georgian pita bread with cornmeal and egg? We need: a kilogram of wheat flour, five large tablespoons of corn, 80 grams of yeast, two small tablespoons of salt, one egg, vegetable oil.
Georgian pita (the recipe in front of you) we begin to cook by sifting flour and mixing it with salt. Next, dissolve the yeast in half a liter of warm water, let them stand for a while. Combine the yeast and flour. Knead the soft dough. We put it in a warm place for half an hour. Meanwhile, thoroughly heat the oven, grease the baking sheets with oil. We form cakes, slightly crumbling them in corn flour, we flatten them to the required size (they turn out to be oblong and quite thick). Beat the egg with vegetable oil (it is better to take olive) and sugar. Lubricate the pita with the mixture. Put on a baking sheet in the oven. Cakes are baked for 15-20 minutes at the very top in the oven until cooked. Several times during cooking, sprinkle pita bread with water. So the crust will turn out crispy, but not hard.
Ancient recipe
How to cook Georgian pita bread (recipe without yeast)? Ancient Georgian cakes were prepared, of course, without the use of this product. Like without eggs. We used as a sourdough the so-called old dough, which remained from previous batches and soured. It was the bakers who added it to the new, just cooked. So, nothing but flour, salt and water! All piquancy just lies in the method of cooking in a special oven tane (or tone).
Madauri
This variety of Georgian pita bread is an oblong flat cake of ruddy, golden hue. On one side, the cake is round and thickened. On the other - thin and pointed. When preparing the dough, yeast is not used: only flour, salt and water. This type of pita bread is baked very quickly (three to four minutes). In various places of Georgia, there are variants of madauri. It is possible to use eggs and vegetable oil. A tortilla with butter, sour cream, herbs, cheese is used.
Khachapuri
This word can be literally translated: "curd bread." There is no uniformity in the preparation of this dish. Megrelian - round, topped with suluguni cheese. Adjarian - in the form of a boat, egg-flooded on top. Rachinsky - with beans. The classics of the filling are Imereti cheese. The dough is used, cooked on yogurt or kefir (where the yeast is replaced with a lactic acid product). Khachapuri is fried in a pan or baked in the oven.
Shoti Lavash
To prepare it, you will need: 300 grams of flour, a glass of water, 10 grams of fresh yeast, a spoonful of honey (molasses can be), salt, olive oil.
Dissolve the yeast stick in warm water. Add two large tablespoons of flour and set aside in a warm place for 15 minutes. Combine the flour with salt and mix with molasses and yeast. Set aside again for 10 minutes. Knead the dough with olive oil. When the dough increases in volume by about two times, we form small loaves, scrolling them in the air and stretching the edges. Lay on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Spray with water and let stand until the volume increases. Bake in a well-heated oven for 15 minutes. Before use, lightly sprinkle pita bread with flour. You can eat instead of regular bread with cheese, milk, butter.
Try to cook this delicious Georgian bread with or without filling according to one of the above recipes - and you will surely remain a fan of Caucasian cuisine forever! Bon appetit to everyone!