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The Hirshon Georgian Kubdari – კუბდარი

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The Hirshon Georgian Kubdari - კუბდარი

Kubdari Image Used Under Creative Commons License From tasteatlas.com

Citizens, it has been FAR too long since I have posted a recipe from my spiritual homeland – the proud country of Georgia! As such, allow me to share yet another superb recipe from this garden of earthly delights! 😀

Kubdari or Kubed (Georgian: კუბდარი, Svan: კუბედ) is a popular Georgian bread that is traditionally filled with veal or beef, pork, or a combination of the two, along with spices such as cumin, dill, coriander, blue fenugreek, red pepper, onions, garlic, and salt. The dough consists of flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt, and eggs. Interestingly, the meat used in this savory pie should be cut, not minced. It is recommended to glaze kubdari with butter and serve it hot.

Kubdari is particularly a national dish of the Svans and is also traditionally made with cannabis leaves or cannabis seed paste, as the plant grows wild in the region. Kubdari was inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Georgia list in 2015.

Who are the Svans, you ask? I’m so glad you did!

The Svan language (Svan: ლუშნუ ნინ lušnu nin; Georgian: სვანური ენა svanuri ena) is a Kartvelian language spoken in the western Georgian region of Svaneti primarily by the Svan people.

With its speakers variously estimated to be between 30,000 and 80,000, the UNESCO designates Svan as a “definitely endangered language”.

It is of particular interest because it has retained many archaic features that have been lost in the other Kartvelian languages.

Svan is the native language of fewer than 30,000 Svans (15,000 of whom are Upper Svan dialect speakers and 12,000 are Lower Svan), living in the mountains of Svaneti, i.e. in the districts of Mestia and Lentekhi of Georgia, along the Enguri, Tskhenistsqali and Kodori rivers.

Some Svan speakers live in the Kodori Valley of the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia. Although conditions there make it difficult to reliably establish their numbers, there are only an estimated 2,500 Svan individuals living there.

The language is used in familiar and casual social communication. It has no written standard or official status. Most speakers also speak Georgian, the country’s official language, and use it as their literary and business language.

There is no official instruction in Svan, and the number of speakers is declining due to the dispersal of the Svan population in the face of increasing economic hardship. The language is regarded as being endangered, as proficiency in it among young people is limited.

Svan is the most differentiated member of the four Kartvelian languages and is believed to have split off in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier, about one thousand years before Georgian did.

My recipe for Kubdari is based on one from georgianrecipes.net – a fantastic site for all info on perhaps my favorite country in the world! 🙂 I choose to make my Kubdari with Svanetian salt – სვანური მარილ – a blend of salt, garlic, herbs and spices that will truly rock your world, Citizens!

Since using the leaves or seeds of Cannabis is virtually impossible in the States, I have chosen to substitute finely-ground hemp seeds instead as a very close substitute. Buy it here – and no, you won’t get high off this! You can also buy genuine Georgian marigold and blue fenugreek (Utskho Suneli) from here. I’ve left the dough measurements in metric as it is far more precise that way.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Georgian Kubdari – კუბდარი

The Hirshon Georgian Kubdari – კუბდარი

Ingredients

  • Slightly more than 1 pound (500 grams) pork
  • Slightly more than 1 pound (500 grams) veal
  • 1 medium sized onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 tbsp. finely-ground hemp seeds
  • 3 tsp. Svanetian salt, made from:
  • 2 heaped tbsp. dried coriander
  • 1 heaped tbsp. dried dill
  • 1 heaped tbsp. blue fenugreek
  • 1 heaped tbsp. dried red pepper
  • 1 heaped tbsp. marigold (can substitute turmeric, but marigold is better)
  • ½ tbsp. dried cumin
  • 6 ½ heaped tbsp. coarse white salt
  • 150 grams (5.3 ounces) top-quality fresh garlic
  • ***
  • dough ingredients:
  • 900 grams of flour
  • 400 ml warm water
  • 1 level tbsp. yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1 egg (optional) and 200 grams of all-purpose flour for dusting and kneading
  • Butter for glazing

Instructions

  1. Make the Svanetian Salt:
  2. Remove skins from the garlic and crush the cloves.
  3. Put the garlic to one side and use a spoon to thoroughly mix all of the other ingredients.
  4. Add the crushed garlic to the mixture.
  5. Use your fingers to mix the crushed garlic with the other ingredients.
  6. Ensure that all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed together.
  7. The mixed ingredients will feel a little moist and should look like the picture below. Store in a dry, cool place in a glass jar that has an airtight seal.
  8. Serving: Use as a condiment instead of table salt. It can also be used as a flavoring when cooking a variety of meat, fish, potato and soup dishes.
  9. Cube the beef and pork and add to a mixing bowl.
  10. Finely chop the onion and garlic and add to the mixing bowl, together with Svanetian salt and finely-ground hemp seeds.
  11. Use your hands to thoroughly mix and squash the ingredients. This helps to ensure that the kubdari is juicy and the spices blend with the meat.
  12. Preparation (dough): Kubdari requires a robust pastry that uses more flour than usual dough. To make it, add 400 ml of water (heated to 35 C) to a bowl and stir in the yeast.
  13. Add 900 grams of flour to a mixing bowl and make a depression in the flour. Add the yeast water and a raw egg (optional). If you want the pastry to have a golden color you can add 1 tsp of sugar.
  14. The dough should be formed into a soft ball.
  15. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for 2 hours for the dough to rise. Once the dough has risen, add the 150 grams of flour and firmly knead the dough.
  16. When ready, place the dough on a flour dusted preparation area.
  17. Cut the dough into 4 pieces.
  18. Mold the pieces into balls. Cover the dough balls with cling film and leave for 10 minutes.
  19. Roll out each ball of dough and add the filling. Wrap the dough around the filling and pinch the top to seal it.
  20. Carefully press the filled dough into a circular shape that is less than 20 cm (8") diameter. Don’t flatten it too much. Some cooks make a little hole in the middle before baking. This can help to prevent the dough bursting during baking but if the dough has been made correctly it should not be necessary.
  21. Bake on a flour dusted baking tray at 200 C (about 390 Fahrenheit) until the dough becomes golden brown. The meat will cook in its own juices.
  22. Serving: Glaze the surface of each Kubdari with butter and serve hot.
https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-georgian-kubdari-%e1%83%99%e1%83%a3%e1%83%91%e1%83%93%e1%83%90%e1%83%a0%e1%83%98/

The Hirshon Georgian Grape Pudding – ფელამუში

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The Hirshon Georgian Grape Pudding - ფელამუში

Pelamushi Image Used Under Creative Commons License From mygeotrip.com

Citizens, your unquestioned Leader – the ever-questing TFD! – is always on the hunt for great recipes from the Republic of Georgia! This one certainly fits the bill – and unlike my last post, is anything but complex. Like all Georgian recipes, Pelamushi is insanely good for you and has barely any added sugar. A rare treat indeed! 🙂

As noted on the site mygeotrip.com:

Pelamushi is a sweet dish that resembles a frozen pudding. Georgians usually prepare it in cold season using grape juice and walnuts. More specifically, pelamushi is the shell of Imeretian churchkhela (a Georgian grape candy repared in the western part of Georgia).

For its preparation, you need to boil grape juice with corn flour and sugar until the mass gets thick. Hot pelamushi should be poured into bowls and put in the refrigerator. When the mass hardens it is time to turn the bowls on the plate. Ready pelamushi can be beautifully decorated with chopped nuts and served. Traditionally Georgians use the juice of red grapes; the white grapes are used only for weddings – that symbolizes the purity of the bride.

Few recipes are as toothsome and satisfying as this one – but of course, TFD must put his own stamp on it! Sadly, nowhere else will you find grapes as flavorsome and fragrant as those from Georgia (where winemaking was born several THOUSAND years ago, by the way). I make up for this by first specifying a brand of Concord grape juice that meets my taste criteria, and then adding some saba to it.

Saba is a reduced grape juice from Italy, where the grapes are excellent indeed and will help amp up the flavor! For a more complex flavor profile, I also add a tiny amount of Balsamic Vinegar to it – don’t worry, you won’t taste it. If you are lazy (and YOU don’t fit that profile, do you Citizen?!), eliminate the saba and balsamic and just use the grape juice.

In this recipe we shall use the classical method of making pelamushi with flour and badagi (reduced grape juice).

As always, enjoy the unmatched flavors of Georgia, my Citizens – and remember, you can find all of my Georgian recipes if you look on the right hand side of your screen in the tag cloud and click the “Georgian” tag. 🙂

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Georgian Grape Pudding – ფელამუში

The Hirshon Georgian Grape Pudding – ფელამუში

Ingredients

  • 8 ½ cups slowly reduced over 2-3 hours to 4 ¼ cups (1 liter) red Concord grape juice (reduced grape juice is called badagi in Georgian)
  • ⅛ cup saba (optional, omit if not using but TFD strongly encourages you to use it)
  • 2 tbsp. good-quality (not great) balsamic vinegar (very optional but TFD likes it - omit if you prefer)
  • 200 grams (⅞ cup) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp. sugar

Instructions

  1. Add the flour and sugar to a bowl.
  2. Gradually add up to 500 ml (a scant 2 ¼ cups) of Badagi and mix with a wooden spoon.
  3. Once the flour, sugar and badagi have been mixed with a spoon, use an electric blender to ensure that the mixture is absolutely smooth.
  4. Add remaining badagi and balsamic vinegar to a deep cast iron pot and gradually add the flour/sugar/badagi mixture.
  5. Stir thoroughly.
  6. Heat over a high temperature, vigorously stirring all of the time. Bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to a low temperature and continue to stir for 8-10 minutes. In the last minute, add the saba, if using.
  7. During that time it will thicken and you should test it to make sure that it does not taste of flour.
  8. Remove from the heat and immediately pour into serving dishes or a bowl. It can also be poured into jelly molds to create an attractive shape (TFD endorses this).
  9. Allow to cool. After a maximum of 2 hours the pelamushi should be firm enough and cool enough to serve. It can be stored in a refrigerator for several days. When removed from the refrigerator the surface of the pelamushi will be speckled with fructose.
  10. Turn the pelamushi upside down to serve the smooth side facing the diner, garnish with chopped nuts and a mint sprig. Serve immediately.
https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-georgian-grape-pudding-%e1%83%a4%e1%83%94%e1%83%9a%e1%83%90%e1%83%9b%e1%83%a3%e1%83%a8%e1%83%98/

 

 

The Hirshon Georgian Ajarian Khachapuri – აჭარული ხაჭაპური

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Citizens, I will never tire of sharing with you the boundless cornucopia of recipe riches from the amazing country of Georgia – and this is a very popular variant of the national Georgian dish of Khachapuri!

Khachapuri (from ხაჭო xach’o “curds” + პური p’uri “bread”) is a traditional Georgian dish of cheese-filled bread. The bread is leavened and allowed to rise, and is shaped in various ways, usually with cheese in the middle and a crust which is ripped off and used to dip in the cheese. The filling contains cheese (fresh or aged, most commonly sulguni), eggs and other ingredients. It is unquestionably Georgia’s national dish.

According to a 2009 survey, 88% of Georgians prefer khachapuri to pizza. It is more popular among men and older people. As a Georgian staple food, the price of making khachapuri is used as a measure of inflation in different Georgian cities by the Khachapuri index, developed by the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University.

There are several distinctive types of khachapuri in Georgian food from different regions of Georgia:

  • Imeretian (Imeruli) khachapuri, which is circular and probably the most common type.
  • Ajarian (Acharuli/Adjaruli) khachapuri, in which the dough is formed into an open boat shape and the hot pie is topped with a raw egg and a pat of butter before serving.
  • Mingrelian (Megruli) khachapuri, similar to Imeritian but with more cheese added on top.
  • Achma, from Abkhazia, which has multiple layers and looks more like a sauceless lasagna.
  • Gurian (Guruli) khachapuri has boiled eggs inside the dough and looks like a calzone. Arguably, it is not a type of khachapuri. Gurians make them for Christmas and call them simply ‘Christmas pie’. In the rest of Georgia, it is called ‘Gurian pie’.
  • Ossetian (Osuri) khachapuri, which has potato, as well as cheese in its filling. It is commonly called Khabizgini.
  • Svanuri khachapuri
  • Rachuli khachapuri
  • Penovani khachapuri is made with puff pastry dough, resulting in a flaky variety of the pie.

We are obviously focusing today on the Ajarian variant, which for the record makes one of the all-time great breakfasts of all time! The only real tricks in making this are getting the correct shape (see the pictures below from georgianrecipes.net):

Shaping Ajarian Khachapuri Dough

Ajarian Khachapuri Dough Made to the Correct “Boat” Shape

 

The Hirshon Ajarian Khachapuri - How to Fill

How to Fill an Ajarian Khachapuri

The correct Georgian cheeses are impossible to find outside of Georgia, so I have given you effective substitutes. I’ve taken the liberty of making two important changes to the classic recipe: I use some classic Georgian herbs in the filling and 1 clove of grated garlic (Georgian garlic is the best in the world!). You can easily leave these out for the canonical recipe, my Citizens!

I have every confidence you will be blown away by this recipe! 😀

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Georgian Ajarian Khachapuri – აჭარული ხაჭაპური

Ingredients

  • Dough (From a King Arthur Flour Recipe):
  • 1 cup (8 ounces) milk, scalded
  • 3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon non-diastatic malt powder OR 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
  • ½ teaspoon ground coriander seed
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 3 ¼ cups (12 ¾ ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • ***
  • For the filling:
  • 3 organic AA eggs
  • 20 grams butter
  • 100 grams of Sulguni cheese and 100 grams of Imeretian cheese (outside of Georgia, you'll have to make do with 100 grams of mozzarella and 100 grams of bryndza cheese, which you can buy here:).
  • Freshly-ground pepper
  • 1 grated Georgian garlic clove (optional, TFD addition)
  • 1 tbsp. mixed dried tarragon, basil and marjoram (optional, TFD addition)

Instructions

  1. Dough: Heat the butter and milk in a small saucepan, or in the microwave, till the butter has melted. Put the malt powder, coriander and salt in a medium-sized bowl, and pour the hot milk over them, stirring to combine and to dissolve the malt or sugar. Set aside to cool to lukewarm.
  2. Add the instant yeast and flour to the milk mixture and stir to form a shaggy mass. Set this rough dough aside for 30 minutes.
  3. Knead the dough until it’s smooth — in a bread machine set on the dough cycle, about 2 minutes in a food processor, 6 to 8 minutes by electric stand mixer, or 8 to 10 minutes by hand. Put the dough in a greased bowl, turn it over to coat the entire surface, and cover the bowl. Let the dough rise for 1 to 1 ½ hours, or until it increases in size by at least one-third.
  4. Grate the cheeses.
  5. Add the grated cheeses, ground pepper, optional dried herbs, optional garlic, one egg and butter to a mixing bowl.
  6. Mix the ingredients with a fork.
  7. Separate one egg yolk and stir in a dish. This will be used later to glaze the khachapuri.
  8. Knead the dough before using. Leave for 10 minutes and then make a flattish boat shape.
  9. Spread the cheese filling onto the middle of the dough.
  10. Fold the sides and ends of the dough, as in the picture above.
  11. Lightly dust a baking tray with flour (to stop the khachapuri sticking) and put the khachapuri in a pre-heated hot oven for about 12 minutes at a high temperature.
  12. After 12 minutes take out the khachapuri, glaze the dough surface with the egg yolk and add a raw egg to the cheese.
  13. Bake for 3 minutes at a high temperature.
  14. Serving: The Ajarian khachapuri is served hot and traditionally served with butter. The butter and egg are mixed together with a knife and fork and eaten together with little pieces of the bread part of the khachapuri.
https://www.thefooddictator.com/hirshon-georgian-ajarian-khachapuri-%e1%83%90%e1%83%ad%e1%83%90%e1%83%a0%e1%83%a3%e1%83%9a%e1%83%98-%e1%83%ae%e1%83%90%e1%83%ad%e1%83%90%e1%83%9e%e1%83%a3%e1%83%a0%e1%83%98/