From Georgia. With Love

A year ago I spent a wonderful-wonderful week in Georgia. I fell in love with this country, with her (yes, her;) landscapes, air, with her people, wine and food, with her sound (oh yes, Georgians like to sing). Every morning I had a coffee exactly on a shore, in the evening - wine under the Milky Way, very close to the black sea, which was looking like a huge ocean of oil. This is a place, where I'll be always glad to return to. And I will:) I met a good friends there and I really appreciate this.  

And because of my 'nostalgia attack' I decided to remind myself a taste of Georgia and to cook an adjarian khachapuri and for the lazy once - a simple salad.

Here's just a few photos first..

It's a view from an observation wheel in Batumi.

And here's my faorite couple. Lovelovelove.

And now, we're coming back to food! Georgian food is so delicious, that you have to exercise in 100 times more, because there's a huge chance to become fat:) If you're a vegetarian - no problem, there's tons of various starters, salads, soups and baking for you. If you like meat - Georgian cuisine is full of outstanding dishes. Maybe you want some wine? Drink as much as you can or as much as you have to:) Stunning mountains (Caucasus from a plane is a pure beauty), sea, very open-hearted people. Oh:)

But we're back to our salad. 

What we need:

500 g of meat (I used chicken fillet, but with some beef it would be better I suppose)

1 red onion

50 g walnut

1 canned red bean

2 sweet red pepper

2-3 garlic chive

bunch of parsley or cilantro

1 red chilli pepper 

5-6 tbsp olive oil

Cut everything good (exept red beans of course;)), add olive oil, mix good. Enjoy!

I really like this dsalad, because of rich taste. It will be also good without any meat.

Looks like summer, tastes like summer.

And now we're came to the most important part khachapuri baking!
It was my first home-made adjarian khachapuri ever. That's why my result is so funny and looks like a very first baking ever, but I'm proud of myself!

Recipe:

For Pastry 
500 - 600 g plain flour
glass of milk (room temperature)
5 g dry yeast (of course sourdough would be much better)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

For Filling
400g sulguni (or similar)
300 g cottage cheese
1/2 glass water
eggs
butter


Take a sauce pan, add all ingredients and knead a dough. Than cover it with a damp towel and leave for 1,5 hour to grow.

When our pastry is growing, we can make a filling. Mix 2 kinds of cheese. You can add some water to make the filling more supple, but it's not necessary at all.

It's alive! Here's my grown pastry! We are totally ready to bake!

Roll a circle from a dough.

Then roll from the both sides and connect corners. My huge mistake was the low rolled sides. They have to be strong and high enough to keep the filling and egg, which we will add later, inside. It has to remind you a tiny boat.

Put all kchachapuris on a pan and fill with cheese. And pan in into preheated to 200°C oven.

After 20-25 minutes, take khachapuris from the oven and break raw eggs on them. One egg for each khachapuri. Put the pan again into an oven for 4 more minutes. Put some small piece of butter when done.

Finally!

I know that they look strange:)) But anyway, they tasted just exactly like in Batumi. And this made me really happy! Next time I'll be better, because I know my small mistakes:)

My day is over. Sweet memories keeping me warm in this cold November days.
I have to work on my teleportation machine to appear in Georgia anytime and any day I want...