In the Christian country of Georgia there is no ban on the use of pork. But still, the attitude to this type of meat is ambiguous and contradictory there. In ancient times, in some regions of Georgia (Svaneti, Kartli, Guria) a pig was sacrificed to pagan gods. Therefore, in the early centuries of Christianity, the meat of this animal was considered "unprofitable saints." Compared with lamb, chicken, and beef, pork is not used very often in Georgian national cuisine. This is primarily due to the small number of livestock. Highlanders rarely raise these animals. But even if Georgians make pork dishes, they cook them in a special way. The canons of national cuisine prescribe serving meat with a lot of seasonings and herbs. In this article we have collected the most famous Georgian pork dishes. We hope that using these recipes, you will make your table more diverse.
Satsivi
Wash a kilogram of fatty meat and cut into large pieces. We clean and chop seven onions in half rings. We put everything in a cauldron and carefully fry. Two hundred grams of walnuts pass through a meat grinder. In a mortar we crush six branches of cilantro, three cloves of garlic, a few pinches of salt and capsicum. Mix this greens with nuts first. Pour 75 grams of cornmeal there. Pour some water, stir. Pour the fried pork with onions. Cook for about twenty minutes. When the pork in Georgian becomes soft, add a tablespoon of seasoning of hops-suneli and dry coriander, a pinch of cinnamon and cloves. Pour wine vinegar and add as needed. Cook the dish for another five minutes. Serve chilled, generously sprinkling meat with fresh chopped herbs.
Pork in the oven
We put soaked a handful of dried pitted dogwood. For this dish, you need to choose a kilogram piece with bone and a layer of fat (scapula or ham). Three large onions shred rings. Preheat the oven. Salt a piece of pork and put it on a baking sheet so that the layer of fat is on top. We place onion rings next to the meat. Add half a glass of water. We put the baking sheet in the oven for two and a half or even three hours, until the pork in Georgian is completely ready. From time to time, you need to open the oven door and pour a piece of meat with the allocated juice. In the baking process, it will evaporate completely. Therefore, you need to have a teapot with hot water ready, because if you pour the meat cold, it will become very hard. After about two hours, when the pork is half cooked, peeled, chopped and salted potatoes should be placed on a baking sheet. Dogwood must be thrown into a colander, allowed to drain and also sent to the oven. The finished dish is cut into portions and served with a side dish (potatoes and onions). From above, the meat is poured with juice, sprinkled with dogwood and fresh chopped herbs.
Baked pork
A kilogram of boneless meat is cut into medium-sized pieces. Cooking a mixture of spices. It must have black allspice, salt, dried cilantro, rosemary, basil, parsley and dill. "Rain" pour this mixture of spices for meat. We use our hands to season all the pieces. Add to the meat a large spoonful of honey and lemon juice. Stir so that all the pieces are in the marinade.
For at least three hours, Georgian pork should stand in the refrigerator. The recipe prescribes to put it together with the marinade on a greased baking sheet with vegetable oil. Add another soup spoon of sour cream, stir and send to the preheated oven. Pickled meat, cut into pieces, bakes faster. In an hour and a half you will have a finished dish. Serve it with a side dish of vegetables.
Georgian pork chakhokhbili
For this delicious dish you need to take 600 grams of fatty meat. After washing, you need to thoroughly dry the piece with napkins so that there is no liquid left. Cut the pork into small pieces. We put a stewpan or a cauldron on fire. When it warms up well, put the meat there. Cover and simmer over low heat for about twenty minutes. As the juice is allocated, it needs to be poured into a bowl. We clean four bulbs and shred them in half rings. Add them when the pork is almost ready. We also put 250 g of tomato sauce. Mix and simmer for another quarter of an hour. If the meat starts to burn, add juice from the bowl. Grind three to four garlic cloves. We cut fresh herbs of parsley, savory, basil and cilantro. When the onion becomes soft, add the garlic. We season the chakhokhbili with black pepper, salt and sun hop. Stir. Enter the cut greens. Immediately cover the cauldron and turn off the fire. Serve chakhokhbili should be twenty minutes later, so that herbs and spices have time to reveal their aroma.
Mtsvadi and bitches - what is the difference?
Georgian pork kebab recipes are quite numerous in Georgian. But, contrary to our ideas about this Caucasian dish, meat is not pickled for him. Georgians believe that this way kebab will retain its flavor and will be more delicious. There are mtsvadi and bitches. The first dish is a pork neck barbecue. Bitches are made from tenderloin. In any case, use only fresh, not thawed meat. For the barbecue they do not take coals, but old vines. They give a lot of heat. Often, pieces of barbecue are not planted on metal skewers, but on thin grape bars. And they put them very close to the heat.
Georgian pork skewers
Now we will describe in more detail all the stages of preparing a delicious mtsvadi. Cut the pork neck into medallions. Dry the meat. Each medallion is divided into three pieces. The main secret of delicious Georgian kebab is that the meat is not pickled. Pieces need to be wrinkled with hands for a long time until they become sticky. So pork retains its juiciness and aroma. We chop the pieces on the skewers. We kindle the barbecue. When the coals or firewood burns out, we expose the skewers, placing them quite low over the heat. Then we salt - the upper side. Turn skewers rarely. The meat should be covered with a fried crust. Turning over, salt again. Separately, you need to prepare the tkemali sauce and pickle the onions.
Kaurma
We cut in medium slices a half-kilogram piece of pork tenderloin. Put the meat in a saucepan and simmer for a quarter of an hour. Three onions are cleaned and cut into circles. Add to the meat, simmer for about eight minutes. We dilute half a glass of tomato paste in water in a proportion of one to two. You can use fresh tomatoes (400 grams) - so pork in Georgian (kaurma) will be even tastier. But the tomatoes should first be boiled and rubbed through a sieve. Salt the dish and continue to simmer until the meat is ready. At the end we put in the stew-pan traditional Georgian spices and seasonings: black pepper, suneli hops, finely chopped parsley and cilantro.
Georgian meat in ketsi clay pan
If you do not have this extremely useful kitchen utensils, you can do with a pot. Or use an ordinary pan. Half a kilo of meat, cut into small pieces, chic onion. We fry both ingredients in a mixture of vegetable and butter. Cut a small carrot. Add to the pan. We clean the eggplant, cut into washers. Sweet peppers get rid of the stalk and seeds, chopped with straws. Add vegetables to the pan. Three three tomatoes. This puree is also added to the meat. Season with salt, garlic (2-3 cloves), hot red and black pepper.
From an ordinary frying pan, transfer all the contents to a ketsi or a pot. Put in the oven for an hour. Georgian pork served with pita bread and lots of fresh herbs.