Georgian Khachapuri, My Latest Obsession

adjaruli-khachapuri-georgian-bread

Adjaruli Khachapuri, a variety of the famous Georgian cheese bread. Image source: DanielSedoff on Wikimedia Commons

Actually, Georgian food as a whole is on my mind, but khachapuri, the ubiquitous Georgian cheese bread, in particular has really caught my attention. But let me back up a little bit and wander slightly away from bread and into the greater Georgian cuisine.

I first got a taste of Georgian food during an evening in 2009 of The Sunday Night Dinner, which is an underground supper club run by my friend Tamara. The title of that evening’s dinner was Ramadan, Deconstructed, With A Little Georgian Influence. The food was spectacular—here is the menu from that night:

Spicy Caramel Popcorn
Fatoush
Grilled Duck with Tomato/Sesame/Saffron Sauce
Rice Pilaf with those Dates
Green Beans with Cinnamon and Clove and a Garlic Yogurt Sauce*
Beets with Sour Cherry Sauce*
Qatayef married to Jean Halberstrom’s Fried Peaches

The two dishes I marked with an asterisk were the Georgian dishes. I absolutely loved them! They had fresh, vibrant flavors that really took my palate by storm. Here’s a shot of the green bean dish—that is a fantastic amount of mint, too.

georgian-green-beans-with-yogurt-and-mint-sunday-night-dinner

And as a lover of beets, you can bet I was really into the beets with sour cherry sauce dish. Sadly, I did not take a photo of it. I probably was so eager to dig in, I forgot to pull out my camera for that.

As an aside, the other dishes that night were absolutely delicious, including the amazing dessert of peaches and qatayef, a kind of pancake popular during Ramadan that is often filled with things like cheese or nuts). In fact, as I write this we are in the middle of Ramadan, and one of my favorite shops on Steinway, Al-Sham Sweets, makes a wonderful version.

But back to Georgian food. I think some of the reasons I like this particular cuisine are how flavorful the food is, as well as the Middle Eastern and Central Asian influences. There are plenty of fresh vegetables, meats (grilled meats known as shashlik, and sausages, such as kupati, both popular in the Kakheti region), yogurt and cheeses, pickles, walnuts, fresh herbs, plus there are the giant dumplings, khinkali. They look like soup dumplings and are filled with broth and beef. Regarding khinkali, I really like this video—I can’t understand Russian (yet), but love that they make the dough from scratch, and show how to cook and eat the dumplings (including a “Master Khinkali”—indeed, it’s big).

Georgia also has a long tradition of wine making—as far back as 6,000 BCE—with vines throughout the country. In the earliest days of wine making, they’d bury wine in pits and let it ferment over winter.

georigian-vineyards

Georgian grapevines. Image source: Wikimedia Commons 

According to Wikipedia, “wine is made in the regions of Kakheti (further divided onto micro-regions of Telavi and Kvareli), Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, and Abkhazia.” This map easily delineates the different regions in Georgia (tourists are often discouraged to visit the disputed territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia). Apparently Kakheti is a particularly major player in the Georgian wine scene, and has been called “the cradle of wine” in the country.

georgia-regions-map

I would love to get my hands on some Georgian wines. I will do some investigating next time I’m in Rego Park and Forest Hills, an area of Queens with a Georgian population (mostly Georgian Jews who left Georgia in the late 20th century). By far, though, Georgians in NYC live in the southern part Brooklyn, and that’s where the restaurants and bakeries are. NYC is home to the largest enclave of Georgians in the United States.

But back to khachapuri. As it is so common (some people like to call it Georgian pizza, perhaps because both can be round and cheesy), there are variants. In Georgia, it will be stuffed with sulguni, a pickled cheese from the Samegrelo region, which apparently the United States doesn’t import (maybe I’ll try to make it sometime). Bakers here have figured out a workaround, and they often combine mozzarella and feta, plus butter to create as close an approximation as possible.

Many are named after their region. The most well known is the Imeretian (a.k.a. Imeruli) khachapuri. This is what most people think of when their hear khachapuri—it’s round and filled with cheese and really does look pizza-like.

Then there is the Adjarian (a.k.a. Acharuli/Adjaruli) khachapuri, which is pictured at the top of this post. That’s actually the very first style I laid eyes on (virtually). The dough is formed into a sort of open boat shape. When the bread comes out of the oven, it is topped with a raw egg and butter, which of course cooks the egg somewhat and melts the butter. I dream of eating this kind of khachapuri.

Wikipedia has a great list of regional khachapuri, including Mingrelian (Megruli), Abkhazian (Achma), Ossetian (Ossuri), Svanuri, Rachuli, and Phenovani. I’d love to try the Ossetian in particular, because of the inclusion of potato in the filling.

Some Georgian breads can be baked in an oven called a toné, which is like a tandoori oven. A convection oven is often used to make various kinds of khachapuri. Check out this great video by James Boo on Serious Eats of khachapuri—you can see examples of what looks like the Imeretian and the distinctive Adjarian types of bread.

1 Minute Meal: “Brighton Train to Georgia” from James Boo on Vimeo.

I spend so much time eating in Queens, that traveling to one of the far corners of Brooklyn is a real adventure. I expect to head down there soon, so stay tuned for a first hand report of my projected devouring of khachapuri. I plan to hit up bakeries Georgian Bread and Georgian Food a.k.a. Brick Oven Bread, both in Brighton Beach. A stop at Tibilisi Restaurant or Prisomani may also be in the cards, if only to chow down on a plate of khinkali, and maybe some borscht and eggplant with walnut paste. My mouth is watering just thinking about it all.

Hellgate CSA Week 18

CSA Week 18

This week we still got what I think of as a summer-fall hybrid. Summer veggies like tomatoes, peppers, beans, and eggplant, then fall veggies like asian greens and beets, plus classic fall fruits like apples and pears. We also got some prune plums, which are beautiful. Well, everything is beautiful. We got:

1 pint mini tomatoes
1.5 small beets
1 pound green beans
.5 pounds eggplant
1 bunch asian greens
1.5 pounds sweet peppers
2 pounds pears
1 pound mutsu apples
1 pound yellow delicious apples

Continue reading “Hellgate CSA Week 18”

Hellgate CSA Week 16

CSA Week 16 collage

This is week 16 of the CSA – that means we’ve been at this for about four months! We did skip a week because of Independence Day, but still. Four months! Awesome.

Last week’s share didn’t get documented, mostly because of laziness (yes, it happens). However, I will tell you – we got corn! I froze the niblets for winter. We also got an acorn squash, some seckel pears, and it was the second week of tomato shares.

I ordered another 25 pound box of plum tomatoes, which I think were actually romas. I used part of that tomato share for my tomato dehydrating project. I used the rest to can crushed tomatoes – 11 pints! I can imagine a tasty winter soup of tomatoes, corn, peppers, and chicken, made with my delicious and nourishing chicken bone broth.

Continue reading “Hellgate CSA Week 16”

Hellgate CSA Week 10

Week 10 Collage
Share from Week 10 of the Hellgate CSA

We continue to get classic summer vegetables and fruit mid-August. Summer squash, beans, and tomatoes, especially. And more. This week we got:

1 pint mini tomatoes
1 pound summer squash
1 cucumber
2 peppers
1 bitter melon
1 eggplant
1 cantaloupe
2 pounds plums
2 pounds peaches
2 pounds apples

I have no idea what I’ll do with the bitter melon. It is a mystery to me. The tomatoes are gone, eaten in part with the cucumber. I think I’ll pickle the peppers. The eggplant was made into baba ghanoush – quite garlicky this time around.

I made the peaches into peach cobbler on Sunday, and it is quite tasty! The sprouted flour gives it a bit of a crunch. I may make this instead of crisp topping in the future, as I can get around the need to soak grains this way, plus it’s much less sweet. It’s sweetened with sucanat, which goes great with the peaches. It’s so far my favorite recipe in which to use sucanat.

I’ve been eating the apples out of hand. Sadly, the plums bit the dust after sitting out too long. Our plums this year have been a bit problematic, arriving over ripe to begin with. Still, the ones I’ve been able to eat have been fabulous.

Eggplant With Tahini

whole eggplant

I’m a big eggplant fan… that is, when it’s cooked properly.  There is nothing worse than undercooked, “green” tasting eggplant.  It tastes awful (usually bitter) and has a kind of chewy styrofoam texture. I think the texture gets to me more than the taste.  But the thing is, it’s really easy to undercook it, as the opposite is mushy eggplant that’s been cooked within an inch of its life, which is also unappealing, and desirable to avoid.

There is an Italian restaurant around the corner from me that cooks their eggplant perfectly.  It truly a delight to eat – the texture is perfect, almost creamy, with a little bit of a smoky taste.  I expect they grill it to get the taste and texture like that.

roasted eggplant

I get around all of this by cooking eggplant for purposes of a dip, which means the vegetable is very forgiving for this.  I roast it with olive oil for about 45 minutes, and that usually does the trick – the flesh turns nice and soft, and the cut side caramelizes, which adds a little sweetness to the mix.

Usually “dip” means baba ganoush, aka eggplant with tahini.  I love the combination of flavors – the roasted eggplant with buttery tahini, some garlic, lemon juice, and an unusual ingredient I’ve been experimenting with.

before grinding

I received one medium sized eggplant in my CSA share this week, so this recipe was created around that.  You can adjust amount as you like – I mean really, baba ganoush (as well as hummus) has always seemed to me as one without strongly defined amounts of flavoring.  It should be to your liking.  For instance, I like my baba ganoush to have a pronounced lemony-tart flavor, and a little spicy.  Others prefer a stronger tahini flavor. Recipes like this make it easy to adjust seasonings to one’s own taste.

eggplant with tahini

Baba Ganoush (Eggplant with Tahini)

1 medium eggplant
olive oil
salt
2-3 tbs tahini
1 tbs olive oil
1/4 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp aleppo pepper (red pepper flakes will work, too, but reduce to 1/4 tsp)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the eggplant in half, coat cut sides with olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt, and cook, cut side down on a baking pan, for 45 minutes.  Take out the pan and let eggplant cool for 15-20 minutes. Remove cooked flesh from the skins and place in a bowl.  Discard eggplant skins.

To the eggplant, add the tahini, olive oil, sumac, aleppo pepper,  garlic, and lemon juice.  Grind everything in either a food processor or with a stick blender, until it achieves the texture you prefer (I like something fairly smooth).

Serve topped with olive oil and sumac, with bread of your choice.  Feta cheese is a very nice accompaniment to this, along with some fresh raw vegetables like carrots, celery, and bell pepper.

This is particularly delicious the day after, when all the flavors have had a chance to meld.

Makes 2 cups.