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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
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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.
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