Georgian cuisine has long stepped over the borders of its small country. Spicy dishes with nuts, cornmeal, herbs and spices were liked by Siberians, residents of the Arctic, Muscovites, Ukrainians and many other representatives of various nationalities.
Georgian cuisine is famous for a certain set of spices that give a specific taste to national dishes. Unfortunately, far from all Georgian spices are found in other regions. Those sold in stores are usually a “lite” version of spicy mixtures. So, for example, hops-suneli (a mixture of 12 herbs) you can’t do without when cooking kharcho (from beef, lamb, chicken) in the store version includes only 6 components.
But what to do to those lovers of Georgian cuisine who cannot get the genuine ingredients for Georgian dishes? Is it possible and how to cook beef kharcho or any other dish?
Each housewife independently decides how to cook kharcho from beef or any other meat, bringing its taste as close to classic as possible. Here is one of the recipes that will help prepare a soup very similar to kharcho. In the middle lane it is quite popular.
Beef (fatty, this is important) is thoroughly washed, cut into portions in small pieces and set to cook until soft. There should be a lot of water, so that after two or three hours of cooking, you do not have to add a new one.
While the meat is being cooked, 2 cups of walnuts mixed with salt and hot pepper are pounded in a mortar. When the meat is soft, crushed nuts, a spoonful of suneli hops, seeds or cilantro are added to the beef kharcho. Boil for 10 minutes, then add cornmeal, diluted with cold water, and again boil for a short time. Ready soup should be a little infused under the lid.
In the south, for example, in Rostov or Krasnodar, beef kharcho is rarely cooked using another technology.
First, the beef, sliced into portioned, rather large pieces, is fried to a lacquer shine, and only then put to cook. While it is boiling, they are preparing a dressing. For her, walnuts are slightly fried, then chopped. Today, they increasingly use a blender, but for a real kharcho, it is better to grind nuts manually.
Separately, fry the onions until golden, then add tomato or, better, Georgian-style sauce to the pan, warm it slightly, set it aside.
On another, already dry pan, rice is fried. It should be a little more transparent.
When the meat is ready, rice, nuts, ground and black pepper, salt, two cloves of garlic, and suni hops from 12 components are added to the broth. The soup is ready when the rice is soft.
Serve it immediately, sprinkled with chopped garlic, herbs (cilantro, parsley). Kharcho soup should be very thick, scorching, spicy.
The proportions are chosen by the hostess, but they should be something like this:
• Beef - 500g
• Rice - half a glass
• Garlic - a large head
• Nuts - 2 tbsp.
• Onion - 1 large
• Georgian sauce - 2-3 tablespoons
• Hops - suneli - table. the spoon
• Cilantro, parsley - in a large bunch
• Salt, ground black pepper
• Cayenne pepper - 1
There is another option for cooking beef kharcho.
It takes the least time, it does not require a large number of products.
Cut beef, set to cook. When it is half ready, add potatoes, diced, rice, previously laid in water, sautéed onions. As soon as the potatoes become soft, the soup is seasoned with tomato puree, cilantro, dry spices, bay leaf and salt. Cook for about ten minutes. Before serving, season with fresh herbs, crushed garlic and ground red pepper.
Such a soup, of course, is not a classic kharcho, but it is very similar to it in taste.
In all of these recipes, beef can be replaced with lamb. Then kharcho will turn out really fragrant.