Snow Peas Soup

This is one of my favorite summer soups to make! I get very happy when I see fresh snow peas at Whole Foods. The recipe is simple and you can make vegetarian version as well. This time I used Pacific Organic Chicken Broth, but you can use vegetable broth, or just water.

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 1/2 lb snow peas (remove the ends by hand)
• 1 large ripped tomatoes chopped (or 2 cups of small once)
• 2 large potatoes cubed
• Cilantro chopped
• Parsley chopped
• 2-3 small garlic smashed
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

Sautée onion in a large pot using olive oil. Add tomatoes and potatoes for 2 minutes, then add snow peas. Next, poor desired broth or water in the pot so it almost covers all the ingredients. This is more of a thick soup than liquidy. Let the mixture boil on a medium heat and the simmer it till the potatoes and snow peas are done. Add chopped parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt and pepper at the end. Enjoy!

Georgian Orthodox Easter and Paska Recipe

I am going to share some of my Georgian Orthodox Easter traditions. It is very different than Easter in the US. We do not have bunnies or kids hunting for eggs in the bushes. Preparation normally starts on Friday night. We color the eggs and make Paska, which is an Eastern European Easter bread.

Mom usually boils the eggs and dyes them red using red onion skins. Sometimes she places cilantro leafs, or other plants that have interesting designs, against the egg and then wraps the egg tightly in a fine net (usually pantyhose). The resulting egg is imprinted with the pattern of the leaves. Next, she makes Paska. The recipe is at the end of this post. 

It's a Georgian tradition that after the Easter mass we come home and start the game of breaking the eggs. Each person gets an egg and then we alternate hitting eggs the tip-to- tip and bottom-to-bottom. The first person with the unbroken egg is declared the winner! One year, my neighbor got a wooden egg that resembled a real egg and broke all of our eggs (obviously). We quickly realized his ploy!

P.S. If you like decorate your Easter table then, two weeks prior, you can sprinkle wheat seeds on a cotton ball in a container. The cotton ball should be moist with water. What grows in two weeks is called Jejili (grass), which is used as a table decoration. See the image below. 

Paska Bread Ingredients

• 2 tsp yeast
• 500 ml of milk
• Around 500 g of flour
• 200 g of sugar
• 5 eggs
• 250 g of (melted) butter
• 2/3 cup of resins
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preparations

Pre-Ferment: Add yeast to 1/2 cup of warm milk. Next, add flour so that the consistency is like light a pancake batter. Wait for the mixture to rise. Keep it in a warm room.

Dough:In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar very well. Next, use the wooden spoon to add the melted butter, salt, cardamom, nutmeg and the pre-ferment. Next, add more flour untill you reach the pancake butter consistency. Wait for it rise for the second time. Next add rasins and let it rise third time. Several options are available for forming the loaves. If you have tin can forms, pour the dough into forms wrapped in parchment paper. You can also form the dough into a braided loaf or however else you please. Here, we assume you are using forms. Make sure that you fill the forms halfway. Put the filled forms in a warm place and let the dough rise again. After the dough rises in the forms, bake them in the oven at 355F for 35 minutes and then lower the temperature to 320F for 25 minutes. Happy Easter!

Shoo (Cream Puff Pastry aka Pâte à Choux)

Shoo is very popular in Georgia. The pasty is very light, airy, and you can't help to eat more than one at a time. As promised, here is the recipe. This recipe makes 7-8 pieces.

Ingredients
Batter

• 1/2 cup of water
• 50 grams of butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2-3 eggs

Cream (In Georgia we call this type of cream a 'boiled cream')

• 2 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• Less than 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 stick of butter
• Vanilla

Ganache (optional)

• 3 tbs cocoa
• 5 tbs milk
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/3 stick of butter

Preparations
Batter: Boil the water in a pot and add the butter. After butter is melted set the heat to low and gradually add flour and stir. Remove the dough from the heat and start adding eggs, one at a time, while vigorously stirring the dough quickly with a wooden spoon (See the image below). When you add the first egg the batter might separate in chunks but it will come together after the stirring. The consistency needs to be thick so that when you scoop it out on a cooking sheet it stays firm.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Start scooping out the batter using a large spoon and placing it on a cookie sheet as shown in the image below. Shoo should be done when the dough turns a golden color, about 30 minutes.

Boiled Cream: Place the milk in a pot on a medium heat. After the milk is warm (before it starts to boil) start adding flour and sugar mixture slowly and mix it constantly with a whisk. After all the flour and sugar is mixed, let it simmer for 5 minutes. You will know if it's done when the flour taste has left the cream. Next, poor the cream in a different container and let it cool completely. You may put it in the fridge but make sure to stir once in a while to prevent clumping.

After the cream has cooled completely begin whipping the butter (soft, at room temperature). Add the boiled cream, little by little, until it's all mixed, then add vanilla. The cream should come out very fluffy.

After Shoo is completely cooled, start preparing it to add the filling. Use a knife and slice the shoo in half without going all the way through, then fill the opening with a cream (see the image below). After you filled all the shoo take the powdered sugar and ganache and decorate the shoo before serving.

Ganache (optional): Take a small pan and mix coco powder with sugar. Add milk and put it on medium heat. After it boils let is simmer and add butter. Let is simmer 3-5 minutes until it thickens. You can drizzle the ganache on the assembled shoo and then sprinkle on powder sugar. Enjoy!

Fresh Fruit Kampot

Growing up in Georgia, we didn't go to the supermarket to buy juice. Instead, my mom would make it at home. It's so easy to make fresh fruit juice at home and avoid the store-bought juices full of preservatives, flavoring, coloring and other ingredients!

After picking fresh blackberries, peaches and strawberries from the farm, we decided to make kampot. First, we washed the fruit. Some of the peaches were sliced while others were left whole. We placed the fruit in a large pot, added water, let it come to a boil on medium heat, then let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the fruit was softened considerably. Lastly, we added sugar to taste. After cooling to room temperature, it was ready to enjoy! I usually love warm kampot, but cold is just as good. Some people strain the kampot before serving, but I love the fruit that remains at the bottom of the glass.

There is nothing fresher and healthier to give your children than homemade kampot! My favorite kampot is made with concord grapes--amazeballs! Unfortunately, we can't seem to find concords in Dallas. You can try making kampot with your favorite combination of fruit. Enjoy!

Medoki - Georgian Pastry

This is my most favorite Georgian desert! It's airy, soft, and out of this world. It resembles layered graham cracker cake filled with a soft cream that melts in your mouth. The recipe is not difficult to follow if you are careful and attentive to details. I included step-by-step pictures to guide you trough the process. I love this pastry so much that I requested to have Medoki at my Georgian wedding as one of the deserts. Unfortunately, I was turned down by my cousin who vehemently opposed my request on the grounds that Medoki was "out of fashion" in 2010. Yeah, in Georgia, desserts can go out of fashion! Oh well, I learned how to make it so I can have it anytime I want :) Ya'll ready for this? Here it goes....

Ingredients
Batter

• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter
• 3 cups of flour (more or less)

Cream

• 4 Sticks of butter
• 1 1/2 cans of condensed milk 
• Vanilla

Preparation
Batter: The batter needs to be prepared on a double boiler. The top pot can be metal, glass or ceramic. Start boiling the water in a pot then place the second pot on top. Add eggs and sugar and start mixing with a wooden spoon. After sugar is melted, add baking powder and baking soda. Next, add honey and butter. Every five minutes mix this batter with wooden spoon until the batter turns light brown, about 30-40 minutes. See Figure 1 below.

>Figure 1: Making the batter.

After the batter has turned light brown, turn off the heat. Then, in the same container, add flour slowly and mix. Divide the batter into 6 parts. Each part should be about size of your fist. See Figure 2, top right corner. Begin rolling out the dough on a mat sprinkled with flour. Each sheet of dough should be paper thin, so stretch it well. See Figure 2, bottom row.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 F. Place the first sheet of dough onto a baking pan and cook until the dough turns dark brown, about 3 minutes. The dough will burn easily because it's so thin, so pay close attention to the cooking process. Repeat the latter steps for the remaining five sheets of dough. Lay out the finished sheets of dough to cool.

Figure 2: Rolling and stretching the dough.

The pastries sheets are not perfectly square when removed from the oven. Trim the edges of each sheet, removing as possible, to make each sheet into uniformly sized rectangles.  Use this first sheet as a template for your next 5 sheets. Crush the pastry trimmings to make crumbs for later use. See Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Trimming the edges of the cooked sheets and making the crumbs with left over trims.

Cream: Whip the butter well using a mixer, then slowly add condensed milk until the cream is fluffy. Add vanilla.  If the cream becomes too thin, put it in the fridge for few minutes and bring it back out and mix again. See Figure 4.

Figure 4: Preparing cream and then assembling the Medoki.

The final step is to assemble all the pieces. Add the cream to all 6 sheets and start spreading it evenly, being careful not break the sheets. Then, stack all sheets on top of each other. Add cream to the top piece then sprinkle on the trimming crumbs  to cover the pastry completely. Enjoy! 

Quail

Quail has always had a special place in my heart. In Georgia, during the hunting season, my friend used to bring me a bunch of birds and we would pan fry them. We have a great quail dish in Georgia that you can order in restaurants which is cooked in a clay pot with tomatoes (see the image below). The image of a live quail is from a village where my relative was breeding them.

We were able to buy frozen quail in the market. We marinated the quail (deboned) in vinegar, onion, olive oil and pan fried it in cast iron skillet with fresh tomatoes, wine, and fresh cilantro. We served it with buckwheat on the side. 

Blinchiki Stuffed with Meat

This appetizer is common in Georgian cuisine and is also popular in other Eastern European countries.  I'm not sure of the origin of blinchiki aka blini aka blintzes, or why in Georgia we called it Sultan's blinchiki. Anyhow, blinchiki refers to the type of dough that will be stuffed and is similar to that of a crepe.

Ingredients
Blinchiki (dough)

• 2 cups of water
• 2 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• Flour
• 1tbs olive oil

Filling

• 1 pound of ground or mix of pork, beef, or veal
• 1 whole onion
• Parsley
• Olive oil
• Black pepper 
• Salt

Preparation
Blinchiki: Mix eggs and water together. Add pinch of salt, then slowly add flour so that consistency is like a butter milk or lighter.  Add hot olive oil to the mixture and mix it very fast to avoid flour clogs.

Use a nonstick pan on medium to high heat. Poor 1/3 cup of blinchiki batter to cover the bottom of the pan then poor the excess batter back into the batter bowl (Figure 1). It takes about a minute for the dough to turn golden brown on one side. Carefully remove the dough and start your next one.

Filling: Cook the ground meat in a covered pan with a little water. In a separate pan, saute the onions in olive oil and then add the cooked meat and saute together for about 5 minutes. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Last, add the minced parsley. Now you are ready to start stuffing and wrapping the blinchiki.

Take the cooked (golden) side of the blinchiki and add 1tbs full of stuffing and start wrapping.  After you are finished you can save them in the refrigerator or in the freezer (Figure 2). When ready to serve, pan fry each side till golden.

Figure 2: Stuffing and pan frying the blinchiki.

Shashliki aka Shish Kebab

Who doesn't love shashliki? Especially growing up in Georgia, shashliki was a special treat served at certain celebrations. You can smell it cooking from miles away. Shashliki refers to skewered meat slow roasted over charcoal. The meat can be lamb, pork or beef, and it's marinated overnight in vinegar, onions, and black pepper.  Brian tried to make shashliki on our charcoal grill using pork tenderloin. The taste was not the same because Georgian pork is usually fattier and tastier than what they sell in the market here in the US, but it was still YUMMY!

In addition, we fire-roasted potatoes in foil, which is, BTW, to dye for. When I was a kid we used to steal potatoes from our house and throw them in a bond fire and eat them after they were done with salt. The potatoes get very smoky and they are delicious! The meal was completed with a fresh cucumber, tomato and dill salad.

Mom's Georgian Tolma

I previously posted a little blurb about my mom's Georgian Tolma (which resembles Turkish dolma) and I finally got a chance to make it. So, without further ado, let's begin.

Serves about 8 (depending on how much people eat).

Ingredients
Vegetables you can stuff

• Sweet peppers (any color you like, mom usually gets red and green)
• Small cabbage leaves
• Small collard green leaves (if you have large leaves you can cut them down to size)
• Eggplants 
• Tomatoes (pulp removed)

Filling

• 1 pound of ground beef or 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground pork
• Tomato pulp
• Finely minced: onion, garlic, cilantro, parsley, and basil
• 1/3 cup uncooked rice 

Stock

• 1 box (1 quart) of chicken broth or boiled water
• 1/2  onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup of tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp tomato paste (optional, it will make the color richer)
• Salt to taste

Preparing vegetables to be stuffed
First, you will need to soften the cabbage leaves and collard greens in boiling water so that they are easy to roll when stuffed.

• Blanch 10 cabbage leaves at a time in boiling water until soft enough to form into rolls (about 5 minutes). Trim the thick portion of the stem (but do not remove completely) so that the leaf is easier to roll (see Figure 1).
• Blanch 10 collard green leaves as you did the cabbage leaves, but this time it should take less than 5 minutes until soft. 

Figure 1: Blanching the cabbage leaves in boiling water, trimming the stem, and rolling the stuffed leaf.

If you're using eggplant and tomatoes, cut off the top and then remove the insides to create space for the filling. Save the tops and set aside. They will be replaced after stuffing.

Filling preparation

• Mix all the filling ingredients by hand 
• Add 1/2 cup of water and then mix again by hand
• Next, if using peppers, eggplant, or tomatoes, add the filling to the hollowed interior. If using cabbage or collards, roll the filling as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Stuffing the vegetables.

Stock preparation

• Sauté chopped onions in olive oil in a large pot
• Add 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
• Add 1 tsp tomato paste (optional)
• Simmer the contents for 3 minutes and then add stuffed vegetables (Figure 3).
• Add boiled water or chicken broth to just barely cover the stuffed vegetables.
• Add salt to taste and cover the pot. Let it come to a boil and then simmer until rice is cooked, about 30-40 minutes. 

Figure 3: Placing stuffed vegetables in the pot. 

Finally, the dish is complete. We served it with fresh cucumber salad and bread. Enjoy!

Mom's Borsh Recipe

People have been asking me to post my mom's Borsh recipe and I finally got around to it. Borsh is my favorite soup! I love it hot and cold. You can also make Borsh with beef but this one is only made with vegitables. So, here we go...

Ingredients

• Small cabbage – thin sliced
• One large carrot – grated 
• Small onion – diced
• 3 potatoes – cut in large cubes
• 2 large tomatoes – diced
• 3-4 beets (the smaller the beets, the redder the color)
• 1 box (1 quart) organic chicken broth or vegetable broth (low sodium preferably)
• Parsley
• Dill
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt to taste

Step 1. First, cut the ingredients as mentioned above.  
Step 2. In a frying pan, sauté onions and tomatoes in olive oil. 
Step 3. In a large pot (where you will be making Borsh) add 1-quart chicken broth and 1-quart water and bring to a boil. 
Step 4. Add the beets and let them boil for 10 minutes. 
Step 5. Add cabbage, potatoes, and carrots to the pot. 
Step 6. Remove the beets from the pot when they are cooked. This occurs when a fork can easily be inserted into the beet. Grate the beets in a food processor or with a manual grater then set aside. 
Step 7. Add the sautéd onions and tomatoes from Step 2. 
Step 8. Add onions, parsley, salt, and grated beets. Bring the soup to a boil once again then turn it off immediately if begins boiling. Now it’s done! 

Feel free to add a dollop of sour cream to your bowl. Enjoy!
 

Note: As you can see Mom's Borsh is thick but if you use less cabbage and less potatoes you can make it more brothy.

Georgian Tolma

Tolma is a one of the most popular dishes in Western Georgia and it resembles Turkish dolmas. Every region has its own variations. Georgian tolma uses ground beef (or half beef and half pork) with onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro, basil, tomatoes, salt, peppers and rice stuffed in vegetables. Mom usually stuffs them in green and red peppers, cabbage, grape or collard leaves, tomatoes, and eggplant. We usually serve it with mashed potatoes on the side.

Souzi (Georgian Beef Stew)

This is one of my favorite Georgian dishes that my mother makes. The ingredients include: cubed beef, onions, peas, tomatoes, bay leaves, cilantro, basil, green peppers, and freshly ground black peppers. Mom usually makes mashed potatoes and serves them together. I can eat this any day, even writing this post makes my mouth water.

Strawberry Mousse

Mom's strawberry mousse recipe is simple, easy to make, takes less than 10 minutes, and uses only 3 ingredients! This is really a simple, delicious summer delight! Here is what you need:

1 egg white
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh strawberries

Serves: 4 people, as seen in the images below.

Mix one egg white on high power until it's white and fluffy, this takes about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, use the hand blender to mix together the strawberries and sugar. While the egg whites are still being beaten in the mixer, slowly poor in the strawberry mixture (mix for 5 minutes) and voila!

Georgian Cuisine: Cheeses

Lets talk about Georgian cheeses, shall we? Georgians eat a lot of cheese and each region has its own specialties. Some popular cheeses are Sulguni, Imeruli, Guda, braided cheese, smoked cheese, etc. Generally, the most popular cheeses are made from fresh cow's milk. Below are images from the market in Batumi, Georgia, showing different types of cheeses.

There are also many dishes that use cheese in Georgian cuisine. One of the most popular dish is Ajaruli khachapuri, which is a pizza-like dough shaped like a boat, filled with cheese, and topped with butter and an egg (if you'd like). You can eat this for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It's also good with beer, but I prefer it with hot tea. Another popular dish is imeruli khachapuri, which is a flat-bread stuffed with cheese. This is easier to make at home than Ajaruli khachapuri.

Most people who live in the village and have cows make their own cheese from the fresh cow's milk. In the image below you can see Brian learning how to make cheese on the stove, later used to make  khachapuri.

Another popular dish that uses cheese is Gomi. This is Georgian grits ;-) and can be eaten in many ways, including with the addition of cheese while it's still hot so that cheese softens, or by with the addition of baje, a walnut sauce, shown in the image below.

Fruit Tart aka Tartalekta

Ingredients
Crust

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 stick of butter (softened)
• 1 1/4 cups of flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda + 1/4 tsp vinegar

Cream

• 7oz can of condensed milk
• 1 stick of butter (softened)
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Filling

• 1 tsp jam (strawberry or preferred flavor) per tart
• Fresh fruit (kiwi, strawberry, raspberry, etc.)

Preparation

1. Mix egg yolks and sugar until all sugar is dissolved
2. Add softened butter and manually mix until combined (do not use electrical mixer from here on)
3. Add mixture of backing soda + vinegar and mix until combined
4. Add flour and mix until combined
5. Now you are ready to start forming the dough in the tart pans (grease the pans). Press into the tart pan such that dough is 1/8 in thick on all sides
6. Bake them for 375F for 15-20 minutes (until they are golden brown)

Cream: take softened butter and mix well in an electric mixer until it's fluffy. Next, slowly add condensed milk until thoroughly mixed.

Allow the tarts to cool in their pans and then remove them. Spread the jam on each tart, then add the cream. Lastly, add fresh fruit on the top.