Georgian eggplant - general principles and methods of preparation
Eggplant is given a place of honor in Georgian cuisine, and there are no ways to cook them. They are fried, baked, marinated, stewed or salted. Prepared separately, with garlic and nuts, and in combination with other vegetables or meat. Very often, white wine vinegar and garlic are added to eggplant snacks, which give them a spicy and pungent taste.
It is difficult to imagine Georgian cuisine without an abundance of greens. Cilantro, basil, green onions, parsley are present in almost every dish made from eggplant, which gives the food a unique taste, additionally enriching it with vitamins and minerals.
Not the last place in Georgian cuisine is occupied by nuts. The favorites of which are undoubtedly the walnuts. Numerous sauces and seasonings are prepared with them, which go well with meat, fish and vegetables. Especially often add nuts to eggplant, in the form of a crushed mass with herbs and garlic.
Georgian eggplant - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Georgian Eggplant Bohlama
This is a delicious national Georgian dish, although its variety can be found in other oriental cuisines, such as Azerbaijan. It is not difficult to prepare it in the sense that you do not need to stand over it and constantly stir. Vegetables only need to be cut and put into dishes. While they cook on the stove, you can do other things. Buglama refers to the first dishes, but it is prepared with the addition of a small amount of water. It can be cooked on a stove in a casserole or oven in portioned pots. The recipe includes uzo-suneli - these are powdered blue fenugreek seeds that add a touch of light and pleasant nutty flavor to the dish. If you do not find uchi-suneli, add any other spices as you wish. This is not quite right, but still better than nothing.
Ingredients: 4 pcs. fairly large eggplant and potatoes, 600 g of meat (lamb or any other), 2 pcs. bell pepper, tomato and onion, 1 little carrot and hot pepper, cilantro, dill and basil (or other, to your taste), 3 cloves of garlic, salt, uchi-suneli.
Cooking method
Put the meat, cut into small pieces into the cauldron, with the first layer, on top - potato wedges. The next layer is eggplant, sliced in circles. Sprinkle with salt. Next, alternately lay the onion half rings, salt, mugs (or cubes) of tomatoes, carrots chopped on a grater, bell pepper cut into slices or straws.
Pour 2 cups of broth or water into a pot with vegetables and meat, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about two hours with the lid closed.
10 minutes before the end of cooking, add uchi-suneli, chopped garlic and herbs, if necessary, add salt and chopped hot pepper pod. Booglama is served hot.
Recipe 2: Georgian Eggplant
This dish is prepared on the basis of baked eggplant, so it is important to choose large-sized fruits, but not overripe. Large, because when baking eggplants are greatly reduced in size, and it is important that in the end there are not only the skin and tails, but also a lot of delicious pulp.
Ingredients: 2 large eggplants, 1 onion, 150g peeled walnuts, 3 medium cloves of garlic, cilantro and parsley juice, juice of a small lemon, half a spoonful of spices - basil and hops-suneli, to taste hot ground pepper and salt, a pinch sugar, pomegranate seeds.
Cooking method:
Bake whole eggplant fruits in the oven (200C) for about 40-45 minutes until soft. Cool, peel, chop the flesh with a knife.
Finely chop the onion, chop the garlic (on the track or using a garlic squeezer). Add lemon juice, all spices, together with sugar and salt, mix.
Grind walnuts in a mortar, blender or meat grinder. All ingredients are thoroughly mixed with each other and put in the refrigerator for a day. Of course, you can eat immediately, but if the dish is infused, it acquires a special and unique taste. Therefore, it is better to tolerate a little, at least at least 12 hours. Before serving, sprinkle generously with pomegranate seeds.
Recipe 3: Ajapsandal - Georgian Eggplant Stew
To make it clear what kind of dish it is, you need to find out what the word "ajapsandal" means. In a figurative sense, it means a mixture of a large number of ingredients, items. In Russian there is a similar definition - "vinaigrette". That's why in this dish, depending on the specific recipe, many different vegetables can be mixed - tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, carrots, but eggplant is the main product. Those. half of them, or even a third of the remaining products, are taken for one part.
Ingredients: eggplant - 1 kg, half a kilogram of bell pepper and tomato, 250 g of string beans, onions and carrots, 1 bunch of cilantro, parsley and basil, pepper and salt to taste, a pinch of saffron and ground coriander, vegetable oil - half a glass, 1 chili pod (bitter pepper), 4 cloves of garlic, 1 bay leaf.
Cooking method
Chop onions into small cubes, julienne peppers, eggplant into circles (or half circles), grate carrots coarsely.
Fry the eggplants, (you don’t need to peel them, but soaking them in salt water before frying will not be amiss), transfer them to a colander to let the oil drain. In the same pan, sauté the onions, add pepper and carrots, fry them all together for 10 minutes, then transfer the vegetables to the eggplant.
Cut the ponytails from the beans, break each pod into 2 or 3 parts with your hands, boil in water until half-ready, put it in a colander. Peel the tomatoes, pre-dousing them with boiling water, then chop.
Grind garlic with cilantro in a mortar and mix with tomatoes. Chop the remaining greens with a knife, finely chop the chilli and clear of seeds. All vegetable slicing should be sent to the eggplant to the pot as well as the bay leaf with spices and salt. Stir and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
Recipe 4: Georgian Eggplant with Nuts in Georgian
Eggplant with peanut sauce is the original Georgian appetizer. She acts as an invariable attribute of any holiday feast. It’s easy to cook, and delicious to eat. Give it a try.
Ingredients: 4 eggplants, 150 g of walnuts (peeled), 1 bunch of parsley and cilantro, 1-2 medium onions, 3 cloves of garlic, a pinch of ground hot chili pepper and coriander, salt, white wine vinegar (can be apple) - 3 tbsp .l., vegetable oil.
Cooking method
Cut eggplant into longitudinal slices-tongues, put in salted water for half an hour. Then dry (squeeze) and fry in oil.
For the filling: chop the nuts (in a mortar, through a meat grinder or in a blender), add finely chopped greens, salt, pour vinegar, add spices and squeeze the garlic. Mix the mass thoroughly.
Put a spoonful of the filling on the hot eggplant slices and fold in half. Cut the onion into thin rings. Put eggplant with nuts on a grater, shifting each roll with a ring of onion. Now let them cool down and stand for some time to soak. Before serving, a snack can be decorated with pomegranate seeds and parsley leaves.
You can cut the eggplant not with longitudinal tongues, but with transverse circles. Then the filling should be placed between two fried circles, and on top lay a ring of onion.
Georgian eggplant - useful tips from experienced chefs
While relaxing in nature, try to cook kebab according to one of the recipes of Georgian cuisine. Mtsvadi is kebab in eggplant. For one serving, you will need 1 eggplant and 150-200 g of meat (in the original, lamb, but you can also pork or poultry). Cut the eggplant lengthwise, into the cut place the pieces of meat (salted and pepper) and string on the skewer so as to pierce all the pieces and the eggplant itself from both ends. Fry over the coals until cooked as a regular barbecue, periodically greasing the eggplant and meat with vegetable oil.
