Meskharian dishes

Meskharian cuisine

I know that tasting different and delicious dishes is an integral part of traveling, and you probably agree with me, and you are probably eagerly awaiting what a Georgian man might discover in Georgia that you have not yet tasted, let alone heard of.

From the title, you can clearly understand that today, in this article, I want to talk to you about Meskhetian dishes.

Meskheti is a southwestern part of Georgia where travel is an interesting landscape, places that are still not very well known, and traditional Meskheti cuisine that is unique to this region.

Meskharian cuisine is precisely that gold that deserves greater recognition, brilliance, and popularity.

Meskhetian cuisine is not just Meskhetian kada and Tatarberagi. Meskhetian cuisine is: nakhicho, batmaz, katmari, zirbayti, gulambo and many more!

Unfortunately, I was unable to visit Meskheti to write this article, however, I did find the indigenous people who still live there, one by one, who told me word for word the variety of Meskheti dishes and the customs of their preparation.

My guide is a gentle aunt from the village of Khizabavra in the Aspindza district, who tries to make and prepare everything traditional according to old Meskhetian customs so that we don't forget it and keep it pure.

The old Meskhetian village of Khizabavra has existed since the 4th century, where the 5th and 12th centuries Orthodox churches and temples have survived to this day. There are also old underground hiding places, the so-called Darnebi, where the villagers would go with food and provisions during enemy invasions and hide for a long time. It is interesting that these hiding places are still being explored and are still of great interest today. It is 12 kilometers from the village to the Mtkvari River, and these hiding places went right up to that point. There is even a legend that when the enemy invaded the village, they were met by freshly baked hot bread and boiled fish at the spring, and there was no Katsishvili feast in the village. This clearly indicates that the provisions were freshly prepared, and the people were hiding in the aforementioned Darnebi at that moment.

I'm sure you're very interested in the stories of this village, so now follow me below, where I'll tell you about the unknown pearls of Meskhetian cuisine:

I divided Meskhetian cuisine into 4 parts:

• Flour products
• Dairy products
• Meskhetian traditional dishes
• Only Meskhetian.

Flour products

Meskhetian bread and Meskhetian kada are notable and famous in Pkvilovani.

Meskhetian bread!

Grain crops were quite well developed in Meskheti, and therefore they have quite a variety of flour products. They grew many types of wheat and had many types of bread as well. The Meskheti call wheat doli, and wheat bread doli bread. The best type of wheat is dika, and there are different types of wheat: shavpkha, asli, rye, barley and flax. They baked bread with it. Many types of bread are baked in Meskheti, these are: lavash, shoti, kokora (bread with a hole in the core), long lavash and somini (round bread).

Baking different types of bread has its own rules and sequence, because while one type requires a well-heated oven, another needs a slightly cooled one. Once the oven is heated, they first bake small batches of lavash, which doesn't even take half an hour, and then long lavash, the dough of which is stretched lengthwise by hand, and that's it.

Cocora bread is characterized by a dough that is pulled out in the middle, which helps the bread dry well. In addition, children really like Cocora bread, and at the end, the somin is baked, which will burn in a very hot oven and requires a slightly cooled oven, as well as much more time, about an hour and a half.

It is worth noting that Meskheti use well-sifted wheat flour for their baked goods. A sieve is a wooden utensil that sifts the flour cleanly, separating wheat residues and stones from the flour.

It is noteworthy that in Meskheti, they do not use store-bought yeast to rise the dough; they have their own bread yeast. When kneading the dough, they put a handful of dough in a clay pot, add salt, and leave it for 1 week so that it ferments and has the ability to rise. The day before baking the bread, they take it out, knead the dough in a small bowl, and say, “Tsavadideo Puri.” This dough is left in the heat all night to rise, and in the morning, they add flour, knead the dough to the desired size, and bake Meskheti delicacies.

Baslama

Meskheti also have their own types of bread to bake. One of them is bazlama, which is baked not in an oven but on a saj. The saj is a large, round iron pan that is heated well and the risen dough is placed on it, and it is baked in a round shape. Before the dough is kneaded, flour is first sprinkled on the saj, if the flour does not burn, i.e. the saj is a good temperature for baking bread. The dough is kneaded and it turns out thin, as they say in Meskheti; a flat moon-shaped bread.

The Meskhets know another bread that is baked immediately, which is called ukha . Ukha is a thin, flat bread, similar to the so-called Armenian lavash. They kneaded the dough quickly and, without proofing, they immediately rolled out the dough and covered it with this dough. Thanks to the thin dough, the ukha quickly baked and the bread was ready!

The next masterpiece of flour products is this Meskhetian kada!

Meskhetian Qada

In the old days, kada was baked on more festive days, such as: Sunday, wedding, Easter, etc. The wonder of Meskhetian kada is its layered dough, which requires quick and expert processing. The flour for kada and khachapuri must first be sifted through a fine-mesh sieve, in a mortar. The balls of firm dough, kneaded with salt, are left to rest for a while, then rolled out and rolled out to about the size of a chair seat and laid out on a floured surface. Melted and cooled pork fat is spread over these thin layers of dough so that it is distributed throughout the dough, and then this fatty dough needs to be stretched out again, that is, this flattened and fatty layer of dough must be stretched out with the fingers of the hand from all sides. After that, this stretched dough must be folded. It is first folded lengthwise from the transverse side, that is, from the sides. It is folded, folded and takes the shape of an elongated stick in a horizontal position, can you imagine? Yes, exactly like that. After that, the same thing is done but from the side side and finally we get a brick shape, which we will slightly flatten with our hands in width and adjust the shape beautifully. We will do the same with the remaining dough balls and let them rest for an hour. Then we will spread this rested dough well with our fingers on a rectangular-square shape so that the dough mass remains of medium thickness, brush the top with a beaten egg and bake in the oven.

The dough for the kadi is made like this: they spread the dough on a wooden stick (a wooden stick is a clean stick about a meter or a meter long, slightly thicker in the middle). They fold the thinned or pork-coated dough, unfold it, and roll it around their hands, probably at least 10 times. They roll it around their left hands with the help of their right hands, then take it out of their hands, tie it off, spread the kadi with their fingers, brush it with an egg mixed with sour cream, and bake it in the oven.

The kadi gulika is prepared as follows. They heat a few spoons of erbo well and add flour, knead it, and add a little salt. They then dry it in this erbo for a while. The mass should not stick together, it should be loose.

They put the heart of a goat in the dough, then wrap it up like khachapuri, and bake both the goat and the khachapuri on a charcoal grill, directly on a brick.

Meskhetian delicacy

In Meskheti, after the Qadi, they knew how to bake nazuk, although nazuk was mainly baked for Easter or some other holiday. It had the shape of a round loaf and was glazed with an egg on top for shine. The main ingredients were milk, a little egg, lard, sugar and yeast. Now they also make raisins, although the old Meskhian nazuk is only what I described above. You would have heard of Meskhian bread, qadi and nazuk, which I cannot say about the Pasal.

Fasal

It's like a loaf of bread that, after being coated with butter, is folded over and over like an envelope, rolled out, and baked without any filling. I don't know about you, but I really wanted to try all of this.

Meskharian khachapuri.

When you hear khachapuri, please don't imagine anything out of the ordinary. Baking Meskhetian khachapuri requires a lot of work, and the dough needs to be processed for a long time. First, the dough is rolled out like a log and softened with hand-held butter is spread on top, then this butter-covered dough is rolled out like a roll. The more times this butter-covered dough is rolled out and re-rolled, the more sheets it will have. Finally, they fold it over to make the dough layer smaller and put in a cheese filling.

For your information, the dough is fermented in citric acid to make it loose with the pastry. Only the egg is applied on top.

Before I finish talking about flour products, I should mention that deep-fried dough products are very popular in Meskheti. These are the foods that you can't taste anywhere else, and I think anyone who comes to Meskheti shouldn't leave without trying them.

Only Meskhetian

Bish

In Meskheti, bish is not prepared every day. It is more often prepared when guests are expected or when they themselves are visiting. Bish is a dough fried in fat. A soft, puffed dough ball is gently rolled out with fingers, rounded and placed in a wide-bottomed pan with boiling lard or oil. There should be enough fat so that the dough can be easily fried in it. When the dough layer is well browned on both sides, it is ready. It is served with honey, powdered sugar, as well as cheese and pickles. However, the Meskheti told me that the one dipped in honey is the best.

Fatir-Bish

There are also pieces of dough fried in fat, which are made from unleavened, unleavened dough. The dough is kneaded in water and rolled out like a log, cut into small cubes and placed in boiling oil. They are taken out and ready. They are seasoned according to taste.

Katmar

There are many layers of dough, which were called 9 sheets. It is rolled up in the hand like a kadis, they gather this erbo-tsamuli dough and roll it, roll it in the hand. They do not add anything to the dough, these are just the fatty layers of the dough, nothing more. They bake it both on a pan and on a griddle, and in the oven.

It was a mess.

Chirikhta dough is kneaded only with warm water and salt. Baking soda/vinegar is necessary because the dough must rise. They also make it with milk and water. The dough should be of such a consistency that it can be scooped out with a spoon.

They make it in a high-bottomed pan or pot. The lard or pork fat should be thick. The prepared mass is scooped out with a spoon and poured into this hot, boiling lard (or pork fat) and fried into small balls.

You'll be surprised and it goes well with vegetables, sour cream, jam, jam, etc.

It is also very delicious with a cup of sugared tea.

Dough and fat, mostly erbo, as well as lard, are quite characteristic of the dishes of this region. You will hardly find a dish that does not use one of them, so we will encounter such a mixture many more times below, but I think I am more or less finished talking about flour products and it is time to move on to dairy products.

Meskhetian dairy products

In Meskheti, as in all of Georgia, cattle breeding is practiced, so Meskheti cheese, dairy products, and various dishes made from these products are common, diverse, and characteristic of this region.

The wonders of Meskheti cuisine are the types of cheese: Chechili and Tenili cheese, which are the wealth of not only Meskheti but also the whole of Georgia!

There is a lot of information available about Chechili and Tenili cheeses, but I will give you my own, homely idea and tell you straight from my sweet aunt how Chechili and Tenili cheeses are made in Meskheti.

Chechil cheese

It is made from curdled milk, which is stored in a clay pot. When the milk is churned in the morning, it is left until noon so that the milk can slightly sour. Then it is put on the stove and heated. When the cheese is made, that is, the milk has curdled like curd and the whey has separated, it is removed from the heat and the whey is drained off. They leave enough so that the cheese can be grated. They knead it with a wooden spoon for about half an hour so that the cheese becomes well-curdled, pliable and soft. Since it is not easy to knead cheese in hot whey, sometimes it is transferred to cooled whey (which is previously removed from the pot) and continued to knead it there. When transferring the cheese from the whey to the hands, it needs to be processed, its sides are folded from the outside inward many times to stretch and stretch the cheese cover. At the same time, they are dipped in the hot whey, which they have removed from their hands, and then they are dipped back into the whey. When they no longer stick to each other, they are twisted in their hands like a rope and squeezed. The squeezed cheese is hung on a stick to be squeezed from the whey. The next day, the ready, squeezed cheese is placed in brine for storage.

Tenille cheese

Tenili cheese is an extended version of the Chechili cheese preparation process, the final form of which takes on a completely different taste and appearance.

Tenili cheese is a treasure trove of Meskheti that needs to be preserved, passed down through generations, and preserved. Unfortunately, there are not many people left who remember, know, and follow the traditional method of making it.

Curd cheese is made from cream, that is, from the fatty layer that the milk that is churned in the morning will cover until the evening, and the milk that is churned in the evening will cover the morning. The curdled milk is left to rest for a day. Curd cheese is not made from all milk, so it is necessary to check the milk before making it. The milk is slightly warmed over a heat source and when the curd-like composition, which is almost like cheese, is stretched slightly with a fork. If it has stretched, this milk is suitable for curd cheese, otherwise it will be made into cheese. Milk suitable for curd cheese is put on the fire/heat and slowly added with the liquid of the dvrita. In Meskheti, the liquid of the dvrita is used to thicken the milk, which is made from the stomach itself. For those who don't know, I will tell you that the stomach of some animals is first salted, then dried and used to make cheese. Salting is done as follows; They pour whey into a jar or other container and add a little rock salt. This is the dvrita. It will be ready in a few days.

The curdled cheese is pressed with a wooden spoon on top of the curd to remove the whey from the cheese and is removed from the hot milk, first in a rounded shape to collect the entire mass of cheese in the hand, then this cheese is given a circular shape and the hot cheese is rolled in the hand to stretch it and take the shape of a long, knotted thread. This work is quite laborious, and it also requires agility and flexibility. In parallel, this thread-like cheese is rolled into the hot whey and rolled to remove the cheese. During these moments of cheese crushing, the whey must be constantly hot, so it is necessary to add hot whey to the pot. This process of soaking the cheese in hot whey continues for at least 20-25 minutes without stopping. When the cheese is the size of a strand of hair, it is transferred from the hot whey to cold water, squeezed like a washcloth, and squeezed. It is important that the cheese sticks do not stick together. In this state, they are soaked in brine for 10-15 minutes and finally squeezed, they are hung on a wooden pole to dry. The next day, the cheese that has been squeezed overnight is cut into pieces about one meter long and left to dry on gauze for another 1-2 days until completely dry. When the cheese is well dried, they are taken out in pieces and the cream that we have skimmed off the top is spread on both sides of the milk and placed on a separate wooden rack at an angle so that it can finally be squeezed off the whey.

The next stage of cheese making is the cheese fermentation, for which a clay pot is used in Meskheti. The length, width, and height of the pot depend on how much cheese the family is making. The cheese must be pressed and pressed well by hand so that no air is trapped. This is where its name comes from: cheese fermentation. This pressed pot with cheese is turned upside down on a board covered with ash so that the whey can drain. The cheese, placed in an upside-down pot, ripens for about 2 months.

Tenil cheese is made more for the winter. It is not an everyday food as such. It is eaten more at Easter and on holidays, it is also associated with the strength of the family, there is even a saying in Meskheti: "There was also tenil cheese at the wedding," which meant the strength of the family and the richness of the table.

Tenili cheese is a dairy delicacy that was granted the status of an Intangible Cultural Heritage Site in 2013.

Meskharian sheep cheese

The process of making sheep cheese is different in that the milk does not need to be heated. Fresh milk is given to the cheese mother or machinist and squeezed through a wooden strainer called a cheese grater. It is triangular in shape. It is placed, tightly closed, rolled in the hands and turned upside down, a weight is placed on top to give it roundness and flatten it, and it is left until morning. It is cut into quarters, salted and stored in brine.

Do

You've probably heard of do from dairy products, but for those who don't know, I'll tell you how they make it in Meskheti. They take the warmed whey off the heat to let it ferment a little. The white, curd-like mass separates out. They strain it and hang it upside down, after it has been squeezed, do will remain. They add salt and it's ready. They spread it on bread and eat it deliciously!

In Meskheti, dos is of no small importance. Meskheti people collect dos, salt them, and store them in a pot. They take them out when needed, dissolve them in water, and in the winter they make tutmaj, dos shechamandi, and kaladosh.

Dairy products are so popular in Meskheti that you might even come across a poem like this:

"The king sat down on the throne"

Sometimes he would eat sourdough bread, sometimes dosa.

In Calado

The next dish made from dairy products is kaladosh. Kaladosh is a Meskheti soup. When the butter is melted, a liquid called dozhuzhuna remains. It is taken out, put in hot water, seasoned with salt, and it is ready. It turns out a sour-tasting soup. By the way, dozhuzhuna is also served cold. In Meskheti, they also serve strained sour cream, which is drained of excess whey during straining and is much tastier this way.

I know you don't know exactly what I'm going to teach you now. This is kuruti. (dried, rolled, parched do). They mix the squeezed do stored for the winter with salt and make small, chadis-like balls from do. They stack these balls on a clean board and dry them in the sun. They add a little more salt during drying, cover them with a clean cloth and leave them to dry for a few more days. They store them in cloth bags so that they can breathe. The do stored in this way, that is, the kuruti, is already opened in water and made do, matsovni, and kuruti.

You ate it.

In winter, when there is a lot of meat and families mainly prepare meat and hearty dishes, cool, sour-tasting soups are popular. This is exactly the category that such dishes belong to. First, they fry the green onions and pour boiling water over them. Separately, they dissolve the dosas in the water and stir them constantly so that they do not break. Mint and karazendzi go well with it. Karazendzi is as savory as a rock, it is green in spring, and the dosas soup prepared at this time is especially delicious.

The Kuruti Shechamandi

They roast the fennel and onion, boil the water, dissolve the cornstarch in the warm water, and add it along with the fennel and onion.

Grated cheese in a Meskharian style.

This is a dish that can be prepared quickly. They boil the erbo in a pan and add the grated cheese to the hot erbo. The cheese should be fresh or removed from brine. It should be boiled for a while and then kneaded with a wooden spoon until it becomes a uniform mass. Salt and finely chopped mint are also added.

And finally, we have the strangest and only Meskhetian thing for you. This is Gulambo.

Gulambo

Gulambo is made from freshly squeezed cow's milk, which is curdled like cheese in a hot pan. Once it has curdled, which has a consistency thicker than sour cream, it is cut into square pieces and served. The mass of Gulambo is so thick that you can even eat it while holding it in your hand. It is eaten sprinkled with sugar, and it crunches pleasantly.

Gulambo is also coated with eggs and flour, just enough to make a thin batter, and then baked in a pan. It tastes like balsamic.

I think this concludes the list of dishes made from dairy products typical of this region, and if we follow the sequence set out in the title, it's time for the hearty, Meskhian dishes. So, the real wonders are still waiting for you.

Meskhetian, famous and, most importantly, typical dishes of this region are: goose khinkali, tatarberagi, makarlama, apokhti, tutmaji, etc.

Goose khinkali

I think you've heard of goose khinkali, but I didn't really know how it was made, and I'll be happy to share everything I learned about it with you below.

The goose is usually slaughtered at the end of winter, in November. After being cleaned, each goose is carefully salted and placed in the Big Gobi for a week.

The salted goose is thoroughly washed, first in warm water, then in cold water, and hung by its legs to air dry. In this condition, the goose must be thoroughly dried and cured, which takes about a month.

When a goose is slaughtered, the neck, wings, legs, and stomach are boiled and eaten. As the people of Khizabavre say, it is a very delicious dish. And they make korkot from the boiled goose head and legs.

Khinkali is mainly made from dried goose, that is, the goose is completely boned and cut into very small pieces of meat, which are placed inside the khinkali. Since the meat is boned, you have to be careful when eating it so that you don't get a bone stuck in it.

Meskhets roll out the dough for khinkali with a rolling pin until it is about one millimeter thick and cut it first lengthwise and then into small, rectangular pieces. They put dried goose meat in the center and wrap it so that one side is left open or they fold the dough and only the tips are stuffed, leaving the sides open. It is through this opening that the juice should enter to cook the meat. Unlike standard khinkali, khinkali are not boiled in water, but are simmered in a small amount of water. They pour a little water into a pot, add erbo or goose fat, and place the khinkali one by one so that the water covers them. When the khinkali are cooked, they do not take them out one by one on a plate, but rather turn them upside down on a tray with the utensil. It goes well with garlic water.

Rarely, however, goose khinkali is also made from fresh goose meat. In such cases, the meat is first grilled and then served as a side dish.

Apokhti

It is salted and dried meat. When an animal is slaughtered, whether it is a cow or a pig, the Meskheti people set aside the soft, large pieces to make apokhti. They are first salted well in a gobi or some other container and left for four days, after which they are taken out, drained of water and hung outside in the air to dry and ripen well. When it finally takes the form of apokhti, it is eaten as follows: cut into small, thin, slices and eaten with or without bread. Also for breakfast.

Apokhi's khinkali

You probably know that Apokhti khinkali is made from this dried meat, the dough is standard khinkali dough, and the filling is already prepared Apokhi, they put it in khinkali molds and cook it. The cooked khinkali is topped with chopped onions and garlic, and of course, black pepper.

In Meskheti, they also make goose flav. It's made with boiled rice and goose meat.

Tatarberag

They are pieces of cooked dough, which are cut from a well-kneaded dough and boiled in salt water. Before that, a medium-firm dough is kneaded with sifted wheat flour. They spread it out on a floured surface and, imagine rolling paper on a pencil, they roll this dough all the way to the end and cut the rolled dough in half. The dough layer should be of medium thickness. Once cooked and drained on a frying pan, they pour burnt erbo-onion on top. It is eaten with sour cream and garlic.

Tutmaji

The dough for the tutmaji is also rolled out and cut in the same way, only not in half but lengthwise, long and thin. It requires less water when cooking. In a separate pot, they dissolve the dosa, or sourdough, and beat it. They add the egg.

When the tutmaji is cooked, this juicy mass is added to the tutmaji dish. Also, burnt erbo-onion and the dish is ready. For those of you who have not tried tutmaji yet, I will tell you that yes, it is such a dish; the dough and juice are eaten together.

They still know Tsero Khinkali in Meskheti

The dough is rolled out like a log and cut into long, thin strips with a knife. The dough sticks, which are cut into thin strips like crane legs, are rolled out with the palms of the hands to flatten the dough, then the dough is cut into small pillow-like candies and baked. Before that, crushed walnuts are sprinkled on a baking sheet and the finished crane khinkali is removed from the baking sheet with the walnuts. The crushed walnuts are also sprinkled on top and the onion and garlic are sprinkled. Unlike Tatarberag, the pieces of dough for crane khinkali are small and slightly thicker.

Meskheti people have many dishes and foods that are made from dough. For example, these are the same pillow candy-like dough slices that they bake for children in the oven. They bake them and take them out with a slotted spoon. They mainly delight children with these baked goods.

Macaralama

They are long pieces of cooked dough with cheese sprinkled on top. They are prepared as follows: they knead the hard dough, cut it into thin sticks and boil it in salt water. Once cooked, they are necessarily rinsed with cold water and placed on a platter, sprinkled with grated cheese, then they add layers of freshly rolled out hot dough again, again with cheese on top, and the cheese melted in this hot mass gives this dish an amazing aroma! It goes well with sour cream and garlic.

In Meskheti, they also know cheese khinkali . The filling is freshly squeezed cheese mixed with egg or butter. The finished khinkali is topped with burnt herbs and onions. It is also served with sour cream and sour cream.

Crack

In Meskheti, when slaughtering any animal, their fat is necessarily melted, stored, and used as needed, whether it be pork fat, goose fat, or something else.

The pig is rendered on the same day it is slaughtered. The pig fat is cut into small, rectangular pieces that same day, placed in cold water, 1-2 cups of water is changed, and boiled in a large pot, salt is added. It takes at least 3 hours to render the fat. When the foam boils away, the fat is ready. The pig fat is drained through a strainer and the clean fat drains down, while the residue, called scum, remains on the strainer.

Nakhitcho is used in many ways in Meskheti. It is a fatty part that adds fat to various dishes, while also giving them a unique, exotic and delicious flavor.

In Meskheti, you will hear the famous "chadi", "khinkali", and "vezeli".

A thorny bush

They put the carcass through a meat grinder, mix it with cornmeal, and bake it into a stew. The result is a stew with a truly unique flavor.

Nakhichho khinkli

They also make khinkali from lard (fried lard), drain it and store it in a covered container.

It's made like goose khinkali. They don't boil it, they dry it.

Mashed potato pies are also popular in Meskhetian.

Only Meskhetian!

In Meskheti, as well as in Racha, many herbs grow that are edible. Herbs are harvested green and eaten just like vegetables, for example, peppers. Now we will find out what and how they grow in Meskheti.

It mainly grows in wheat fields. Get to know them, here they are:

• Pampara is a leek-like plant and has a sweet stem.
• The buds grow out of the ground in a cluster. They have flat, green leaves. They are picked like tea leaves until they become rough. They are served with bread and salt, and I am told they are the most delicious.
• It is made from a single stem, and it is the stem that is eaten, and it has a bitter taste.
• It is a shrub that produces small, fine berries, and its branches are eaten like herbs. The leaves are edible before they bear fruit.
• It has a thick, tube-like stem. The plant is harvested in the spring, boiled in a little water, stored in brine, and made into pickles.
• When the gimi emerges from the ground, a white stem remains in the ground, and this stem is very tasty. It is boiled in boiling water, drained and preserved as a pickle. Most of the time, it is pickled. They also make a dish from gimi. Like green beans with eggs, as well as satatsuri. It reminded me of satatsuri. Satatsuri is called svintri in Meskheti.
• Cornflower is a grass that grows on the ground and forms round, cone-like heads. These small cones are eaten raw.
• It's like a smiley face, but this one has clover-like leaves and is mostly made into pickles. It crunches like a cucumber.
• In addition to eating them raw, they also make pickles from all these herbs.

The next thing you will only hear about and, of course, taste in Meskheti is the keerdze, made from tklapi, a dish unique to this region.

Tklapi, made from various fruits, is one of the treasures of Meskhetian cuisine, from which dishes are also prepared.

Here and now I present to you the eating of the chanchuri tklapi :

The tklapi soup is really good. It's a strange dish. It's hard to imagine how dried fruit juice can be turned into a dish. In Meskheti, they have a lot of meat dishes and sometimes they really miss something cool and light. This is exactly what a soup made from tklapi leaves you with a cool taste. They tear the tklapi into small pieces, dissolve it in a little cold water and add this dissolved mass to boiled brine, add 2-3 spoons of flour, green onions and garlic. It turns out an aromatic soup. Depending on taste, tklapi is sometimes made with just sugar.

Falverdi stew is also made. I'll tell you more about Falverdi a little further down.

Pumpkin dish.

In Meskheti, they also know a pumpkin dish. When pumpkin pieces are boiled in water, mashed into a puree and mixed with milk, the result is a one-inch pumpkin pie.

Gingerbread man in Meskheta

"The gingerbread is harvested before it starts to wilt," they say in Meskheti. This means that the gingerbread is harvested as soon as it sprouts, before the rains arrive and make it wet. They are harvested as soon as the small, red buds open, after separating and washing them, they are soaked in a little water, squeezed through a sieve, and crushed with a knife.

In another pot, they fry the onion and erbo, oil is best, they add the crushed nettle and after frying, they pour their boiled juice back into it, they add flour to the first glass of juice, beat the egg, beat it and add it to the nettle soup. The soup will thicken and it is ready.

Chimburi

It is a delicious dish. Meskhets boil erbo, crush the kernels of dried bread, mix well, and when the erbo is ready to fry, they take it out and eat it.

Jifua

It is an emergency meal for children. They boil water and milk, slowly add wheat flour to it so that it becomes a thin porridge. They feed the children a piece of bread.

Fushruk - food for the poor.

In the old days, if they had nothing else to do, they would soak flour in boiling water and add it to the yeast.

As I mentioned above, grain cultivation was quite well developed in Meskheti and they had many varieties of wheat.

Accordingly, there are many different types of cork making.

Korkot

In Meskheti, they know a thick korkoti, similar to flavia. They make it by boiling goose heads and feet. They add a little more juice and add the separated korkoti to this broth, which they wash beforehand, grind the wet korkoti in a stone mortar and dry it. They put it in a bowl, cook it like rice flavia, cold. It's meat and korkoti.

Built-in corkscrew

They boil it in water, make a hole in the middle and add erbos-honey. They also make a milky korkot, to which they add milk halfway through cooking.

Ambazi Korkoti.

It is a fasting food. It is cooked in water and seasoned only with flaxseed oil. It is eaten with bread.

Meskhetian sweets

Meskhetian sweets are characterized by a mixture of erbo-honey and bakmaz, and I will try to give you a clear idea of some of them. One of them is hasuta.

Hasuta

They mix the erbo and bakmaz, bring it to a boil in an open pan, slowly add the flour to this boiling mixture and stir it quickly with a wooden spoon so that it doesn't curdle. When it thickens like porridge, they knead it for a little longer so that it doesn't taste like flour, and then add the bread.

Erbo and Bakmaz are very healthy and nutritious foods.

Halva

In Meskheti, New Year's Eve is a rarity without halva. Meskheti halva is truly amazing and different, and I'll try to tell you a little more about it.

Carefully sifted flour is poured into a pan and stirred until it turns a light brown color. 2 tablespoons of erbo are added, it is stirred slowly, it takes almost a whole day. The erbo should be completely absorbed by the flour, it is taken out, cooled and sieved again. In a separate pan, a little water is poured, 1 part water, 2 parts baking powder and a little sugar to taste. This is boiled separately. When it boils into a single mass, the sifted and boiled flour is poured into this boiling mass, poured with one hand and stirred with the other until it becomes a thick mass, that is, such that it can be held together in the hand as a dense mass.

They make it like a kumel, or they roll out the dough and cut it into slices, and if desired, they put bakmaz on top.

Cumulus

To make kumeli, you need toasted wheat. It is ground in a mill or hand grinder, dissolved in water with honey or yeast, and kneaded into a stiff dough. The kumeli is ready.

Zvirbait

It is a dessert that is served to guests and guests. Zvirbait is made with erbo and bakmaz, or erbo and honey. This mixture is simply boiled and when it cools down, it is ready. It is served spread on bread or spread on bread. It was served to guests because honey and erbo were not available in every family and were only served to guests. By the way, it also had medicinal properties.

Meskhetian tklapi

You may be surprised because Samtskhe-Javakheti is considered a cold region, but almost all kinds of fruits grow and come from this region: apples, pears, cranberries, cherries, mulberries, grapes, cherries, plums, peaches. They make tklapa and dried fruits from all of these.

Meskheti is famous for all kinds of fruit tklapi. The most distinctive and recognized is mulberry tklapi.

Mulberry leaf.

Mulberry pulp is made during the best period of its ripeness so that it has its sweetness. Mulberries must be harvested in the morning for pulp, by noon the stalk will be firm and will no longer fall off softly. From the ripe mulberries, the best ones are selected and 4-5 buckets are boiled in a pot of water. The cooled mulberry juice is poured into a cloth bag and placed on a wooden rack to be squeezed. A weight is placed on top to drain well. The juice must be squeezed well again so that the mulberry seeds do not stick to it. A little of this juice, at least one bucket, is temporarily set aside. While the mulberry juice is boiling in the pot, up to 4 kg of flour is poured into one bucket and thinned by stirring until it is squeezed through a strainer. Preparing mulberry skin definitely requires a helping hand, because one person cannot handle the dilution and constant stirring. The juice is boiled over low heat. After stirring it 2-3 times, it is ready. They take it out, pour the hot juice onto a large piece of ardali, which is first covered with a layer of jejim or soganga material on the ground. The layer is leveled with a spatula to a single level. It is dried in the air, in the sun. The dried skin is first cleaned with a wet, wrung-out cloth, then turned over and the piece is thoroughly moistened with the other side. It should be so soft that it can be easily removed. Storing the skin also has its own rules: first, the head and sides are wrapped around it so that they do not dry out, then folded.

Bakmaz

Mulberry juice is a very important product in Meskheti and is used in many ways. Carefully selected mulberries are boiled for a long time in a special copper vessel with a wide base. It needs to be stirred periodically and foamed. The fermentation takes so long that about 4 cups of juice are used to boil one cup of bakmaz.. When you take out the ready bakmaz juice with a spoon, it should drip like fresh honey.. Bakmaz can be stored for up to 7-8 years. It is used in many foods, and is also used as an ointment. In Meskheti, for example, bakmaz is applied to a rash along with a piece of cranberry.

Dried mulberry

Dried mulberries are a very famous and distinctive item in Meskhetian cuisine. They pick fallen mulberries, spread them on a sieve, and dry them. They are sweet and delicious. They are eaten as fruit in winter. Dried mulberries are also mixed with apple juice and made into a tklapa in winter. They are dried in the air on nice sunny days.

Falverda

It is a thick fruit juice. Like povidlo. For example: chanchuri falverda. They shake it, pour it on a plate, and squeeze it by hand.

Linear

The same dried fruit, only with a twist. The chanchuri is cut on three sides and dried on a skewer to make a kurkiana. The skewer is a string woven with willow or thin hazelnut stems. It is dried and eaten in the winter. Unlike standard dried fruit, dried in a kurkiana has a unique, different taste.

Churchkhela

Nothing is strange, but I doubt many people know that in Meskheti they make churchkhela with apple juice, and this is the first time I've heard of walnut churchkhela soaked in apple juice! It's definitely worth trying!

Finally, I want to end my article on Meskharian dishes with a sweet treat, and for that, I have prepared a Meskharian cake for you.

Badamburi

Badamburi is a Meskhetian cake. Its main trump card is a layered dough and a walnut filling mixed with sugar. It is also made with a flour filling and is called “steamed sweet.” It is made with standard ingredients: eggs, salt, water, sour cream, citric acid, and a little sugar.

Round pieces of thin buttered or buttered dough are folded and rolled to absorb the fat, then stuffed with filling and shaped into boats or cigarettes. Before baking, they are brushed with a little beaten egg and sprinkled with sugar. It turns out crispy and delicious. They are sprinkled with powdered sugar on top.

I don't know about you, but I was very impressed by the article I wrote, because to my shame I have neither tasted nor heard of most of these dishes, and the desire to taste them is so great that I am already making summer plans to travel to this region.

I really hope that you learned a lot of interesting information and that your trip to Meskheti will be more fruitful and filled with pleasant emotions.