Kharcho soup is a surprisingly delicious dish, the homeland of which is supposed to be Georgia. Georgian mutton kharcho , like many other dishes from this type of meat, was probably invented by shepherds, who spent a lot of time high in the mountains, grazing sheep. Tasty, flavorful meat could quickly saturate, warm in the cold. Therefore, the main dishes of the shepherds were barbecue, shulum, lamb soup-kharcho. The recipe, simple at first, was constantly improved, became more complex, refined. After all, at home it is much easier to cook a complex dish than at a stake in the mountains.
It is interesting that in our time the reverse process takes place: the recipe is simplified again. Stepping outside the borders of Georgia, the soup has changed very much. Moreover, many people call kharcho ordinary soups with spices cooked on lamb broth. Undoubtedly, such dishes are also tasty, they have the right to life. However, they have nothing to do with the historical dish. Real kharcho requires a lot of products:
- a kilogram of sheep’s brisket, desirable young;
- three large onions;
- a glass of walnuts;
- as many ripe tomatoes;
- a large bunch of cilantro;
- the same bunch of parsley;
- rice
- spicy adjika or tkemali ( cherry plum sauce );
- pomegranate juice;
- Sweet pepper;
- hops suneli.
If you usually make kharcho with walnuts, it’s usually not difficult, then the last ingredient most often is a snag. Usually in stores sold a mixture of "Hops-Suneli", which includes a maximum of six components. While in the present set of spices for kharcho there should be much more. It should include:
- Imereti saffron (which is almost impossible to get outside of Georgia);
- basil;
- fenugreek or fenugreek;
- peppermint;
- marjoram;
- hot peppers;
- dill;
- parsley;
- thyme;
- coriander;
- Bay leaf;
- celery.
Only such a composition of spices will help to prepare a truly delicious, Georgian lamb soup-kharcho .
Recipe
First, chopped lamb fried until golden brown. After that, they begin to cook it over low heat. While the meat is being cooked, the rest of the products are cooked: chop the onion and herbs, peel and chop the vegetables.
The onions are fried in oil until transparent, then spread to the half-cooked meat. Then they add rice, and when it is also half cooked, they throw the peeled tomato, sweet pepper.
Walnuts make lamb soup kharcho especially spicy. The recipe allows for their absence, but without nuts, the bouquet of taste will not be so sophisticated. Therefore, 15 minutes before the end of cooking, put the chopped nuts and greens into the soup. Salt, correct taste with adjika or tkemali, pomegranate juice.
Real kharcho is an amazing celebration of taste. It combines the most unexpected notes of spices, the refined aroma of walnut, the sharpness of seasonings. Sweet and sour, spicy, fragrant lamb soup-kharcho , the recipe of which came from the past centuries, will conquer gourmets forever.
Some culinary experts argue that kharcho was originally made from beef. It is difficult to argue, especially since, as the saying goes, "there are no comrades for the taste and color."
There are options for kharcho made from beef, pork, chicken, turkey and even duck. And everyone who at least once cooked this soup is sure that it is his recipe that is the most correct. All agree on only one thing: a real kharcho is impossible without spices and hot peppers.
Do not waste time in empty arguments. It is better to arm yourself with the necessary products and try to cook all the variations of this soup. Better yet, go to a real Georgian restaurant, where skilled chefs will delight you with a real work of art - kharcho soup cooked in Georgian. Maybe someone is lucky, and Georgian culinary specialists will share with him the recipe for preparing this national masterpiece.