Classic Georgian tkemali from plums: we prepare the sauce and delight loved ones. Georgian seasoning from plums

Tkemali sauce is a guest who came from Caucasian cuisine.

Tkemali sauce at home Georgian recipe

The first thing I want to say is that up to an iota of the exact recipe for tkemali does NOT exist, because in Georgia every housewife prepares this sauce with her own twist. It's like in Austria. But, there is a certain unambiguous set of products, without which tkemali sauce is netkemali.

And therefore, let's start with the essential components of a real Georgian tkemali and, in parallel, we will discuss how they can be replaced in case of absence (or not replace).

1 is a plum of the tkemali variety. Tkemali is a type of cherry plum that grows in Georgia. Its scientific name is Prunus cerasifera or Prunus divaricata. Tkemali are:

red;
yellow;
not ripe (green).

If you take red tkemali, you will have red plum tkemali recipe, if you take yellow plums, you will have yellow cherry plum tkemali recipe.

That is, there are really 2 colors, but they prepare 3 types of tkemali by color. Green tkemali is prepared in spring from still green plums. The photo shows a real tkemali plum (green and not ripe) with a sprig of sweet cherry in the Georgian market.

And here is how this plum grows in Georgia (a variety of red tkemali and a variety of yellow tkemali). Plums grow, as it were, on the trunk, however, like cherry plums, and not like our garden plums.

What to replace? The closest in taste is the eel plum, it is the least pronouncedly sweet.

2 - ombalo or smart Menta pulegium ( pennyroyal). Although it is a type of mint, it differs from the well-known peppermint and menthol. Outwardly, it is a creeping plant, but the taste and aroma are delicate and light.

What is it being replaced with? the smallest amount of peppermint is usually added (although this is still not the same).

3 is coriander. It is put in different variations. There is only dry ground coriander added, and there is also finely chopped cilantro in the sauce. Cilantro is the green of coriander. That is, coriander and cilantro are the same plant. Not everyone likes the bright, memorable aroma and taste: the cilantro that is part of the products is to blame, but those who refuse the sauce lose a lot.

Nothing can be replaced!

Other mandatory ingredients of course include: salt, hot red pepper and garlic.

What else is added to the tkemali sauce: dill and ground black pepper.

All about the ingredients. And now how to cook tkemali sauce from cherry plum Georgian recipe.

wash the plum and put it in a saucepan to boil. The vast majority of Georgian women do not clean it from the stone, but cook it straight whole. Plums are filled with water and the calculation is approximately 1/2 cup of water per 1 kg of plums. There should not be much water and it should not completely cover the plums. But if you cook green tkemali from unripe plums, you will need a little more water: 1 cup per 1 kg of plums. They should be cooked until soft, but not falling apart. Ripe yellow cherry plum boils literally in 5-7 minutes. Stir occasionally, of course, so that they do not stick to the bottom of the pan and do not burn.
when the plums are cooked, put them to drain the “first juice” through a colander. Set aside this plum broth. Then they will need to bring the tkemali to the desired consistency. the rest of the plums should be cool so that they can be rubbed with your hands.
When the plum has cooled, wipe it through a colander with circular movements of the hand. As a result, only the skin and bones should remain in the colander. If you cooked pitted plums, then still do not beat with a blender, the result will not be the same.
Now add salt and sugar to the puree. Everything here is just for taste. According to your taste. The sauce should be sweet and sour, not sweet. All the zest is in the sourness. Although Georgian women generally do not add sugar to ripe yellow tkemals.
Now we need a blender with knives. You need to finely grind: cilantro, ombalo, garlic and hot red pepper. Add everything ground to plum puree. In the old days, all this was finely cut and pounded in a mortar. And not a single elderly Georgian woman will tell you how much you need - everything is to your taste, everything to your taste. It is, after all, a work of art. But to get oriented. then you need 2-3 large cloves of garlic per 1 kg of plums and about 10 grams of ground coriander per 1 kg of plums.
Add ground coriander.
Now put the sauce on fire. But first add the drained plum broth, bringing the consistency to not very thick. The sauce tends to burn, so cook in a suitable saucepan. Cook the sauce for 10-15 minutes.
That's all and ready!

If you want to prepare the sauce for the winter, then add vinegar to the finished sauce at the very end - 1 tablespoon per 1 liter of sauce.

Adapted plum Tkemali sauce recipe with photo

This is a detailed recipe for tkemali at home, in modern, non-Georgian cuisine.

The main, dominant product of the sauce is plums, the variety and degree of ripeness of which determine the final taste of the dish. If you take ripe fruits for cooking, the sauce will be thick, sweet, delicate in taste. If you choose unripe fruits for the sauce, the sauce will get more acid, tart taste. The recipe is designed with a selection of unripe plums in mind and is easy to prepare:

Products for Tkemali sauce:

2 kg plums “Hungarian” (“eel”)”
25 g hot chili pepper without seeds;
100 g green cilantro;
10 g of garlic;
40 g of sugar if the plum is ripe, 80 g if the plum is unripe;
2 g black ground pepper;
2 g salt.

How to cook Tkemali sauce: recipe

Separate the bones from the pulp. Some people boil the plums directly with the pits, and then simply rub the resulting mass through a colander. This is a dangerous event, since the seeds of fruits in water during heat treatment release hydrocyanic acid, the strongest toxin that can harm the human body.

Peel the pepper and cut into rings, peel the garlic, prepare the spices: salt, sugar, spices.

Finely chop the cilantro greens together with hot pepper (pre-cut into rings it is easier to chop).

Pass the garlic through a garlic press or chop it very finely with a knife.

Put in a separate container: garlic, cilantro, salt, sugar, black pepper. Mix everything well.

Put the plums to boil by adding 50-100 ml of water to the pan. If you like a thick sauce, then 50 ml of liquid is enough, if it is thicker, then you can pour in 150 ml. Cooking time 35 minutes with occasional stirring.

Rub the boiled plums through a sieve with a medium section or through a colander with small holes.

Add the resulting mass to a container with spices and cilantro, mix.

Put to cook on low heat with the lid open for 40 minutes (cook the 2nd time). The mass should be boiled twice, then the plum puree will become glossy and shiny, completely give up its taste and aroma, mixing with the rest of the ingredients.

The sauce is ready! Tkemali can be stored in the winter by filling sterilized jars; it can be stored in a regular container in the refrigerator for up to 60 days.

Where to use Tkemali sauce?

A tasty addition is appropriate for meat dishes, suitable for side dishes from, beans, perfectly “gets along” with sausage, kebab burgers. Many people like to drink the sauce just from a mug, enjoying the pleasant spicy taste and extraordinary aroma.

Georgian cuisine dishes have an unusual and refined taste.

This is especially true of Tkemali sauce, with which any dish becomes a real masterpiece.

We have collected the best recipes for Georgian Tkemali sauce from different varieties of plums.

Tkemali from plums - the basic principles of cooking

The main ingredient of the sauce is tkemali plums, better known to us as cherry plums.

It is thanks to this plum that the sauce got its name and unique sour taste.

A real Georgian plum tkemali sauce is made only from green, sour cherry plum, which has not yet ripened.

In addition, you will also need pennyroyal - this is an herb that is used as a seasoning, and it grows only in Georgia. Garlic and spices are also used to prepare the sauce: cilantro, salt, dill, red hot pepper and ground coriander.

Plums are thoroughly washed, put in a saucepan, poured with water and boiled for forty minutes. Then boiled plums are ground through a sieve. The pits and skins are discarded. You should get a puree-like mass, which is boiled down to the consistency of thick sour cream. Fresh herbs, garlic and seasonings are thoroughly ground and added to the sauce. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn off and lay out hot on prepared jars. If you want a hot sauce, add more hot peppers and garlic. Conversely, lovers of a delicate sauce should focus on aromatic herbs.

Of course, in our latitudes, it is difficult to cook real Tkemali from plums, but the recipe can be easily adapted by preparing it from any variety of plums. Swamp mint can be replaced with the usual lemon balm or thyme. You can experiment with seasonings and herbs to your taste. In any case, the sauce always turns out to be incredibly tasty, and is indispensable as a seasoning for almost any dish.

Recipe 1. Classic yellow cherry plum tkemali

Ingredients

a kilogram of ripe yellow cherry plum;

5 g ground coriander;

50 g of sugar;

60 g fresh dill;

three heads of garlic;

50 g fresh cilantro;

hot pepper pod.

Cooking method

1. Wash ripe cherry plum under running water, put on paper towels and dry. Take out the bones.

2. Grind plums through a meat grinder.

3. Add sugar and salt to the plum puree. Mix and put into a bowl. Put on a slow fire and cook for nine minutes.

4. Disassemble the garlic into teeth, peel it from the husk. Remove the stalk with seeds from the pepper pod. Rinse greens and pat dry. Put everything in a blender bowl, add spices and grind until smooth.

5. Add the aromatic mixture to the simmering plum sauce, mix well and cook for a couple more minutes.

6. Wash and sterilize glass bottles with tin caps. Arrange the finished Tkemali sauce in bottles and wrap tightly with lids.

Recipe 2. Tkemali from plums with lemon juice

Ingredients

700 g tkemali plums;

25 ml of vegetable oil;

a bunch of fresh cilantro;

five cloves of garlic;

half a glass of lemon juice;

3 g crushed coriander;

3 g ground fenugreek;

2 g red hot ground pepper.

Cooking method

1. Wash the plums well and put them in a large enameled pan. Fill with drinking water so that it completely covers the fruit.

2. Put the dishes on the fire and bring the mass to a boil. Reduce the heat to a minimum, cover with a lid and cook for another ten minutes.

3. Drain the water, cool the plums to a warm state and take out the seeds. Rub the plums through a fine sieve.

4. Rinse cilantro and finely chop.

5. Peel the garlic and grind it through a garlic press.

6. Put the plum puree back into the pan, add cilantro, crushed garlic and spices. Add lemon juice and salt. Stir and bring the mixture to a boil over low heat. Boil the sauce for a couple of minutes and remove from heat.

7. Cool the Tkemali sauce to a warm state and transfer it to a clean sterile jar. Pour oil on top and close the lid tightly. We put the sauce in the refrigerator. Six hours later, the sauce is ready. We store in the refrigerator for no more than two months.

Recipe 3. Tkemali from plums in a slow cooker

Ingredients

a kilogram of slightly greenish plums;

75 g of seasoning "hops-suneli";

a bunch of parsley and dill;

a pod of hot red pepper;

six cloves of garlic;

5 ml of 70% vinegar per liter of sauce.

Cooking method

1. Peel the garlic cloves. Wash the greens, plums and garlic under running water and place in a colander to drain the water.

2. Cut each plum and remove the pits.

3. Fold the plums, garlic and herbs into a blender container and beat everything until smooth.

4. Put the plum puree into the multicooker container, add sugar and salt. Mix and taste. Adjust if needed, or add more sugar.

5. Place the container in the multicooker, close the lid and start the "Extinguishing" mode. Cook the sauce in this mode for an hour and a half.

6. Arrange the hot sauce in sterile dry jars and roll up hermetically with iron lids. Store in a cool place for up to three years.

Recipe 4. Hungarian plum tkemali

Ingredients

three kilograms of Hungarian plum;

15 ml of vegetable oil;

two glasses of drinking water;

300 g fresh cilantro;

25 g sugar;

200 g parsley;

15 g ground coriander;

two heads of garlic;

3 g ground red pepper;

two pods of hot red pepper.

Cooking method

1. We sort out the plum and wash it. We put the fouqt in a large saucepan, fill it with water and put it on fire. As soon as the water boils, we twist the fire and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, so that the plum boils.

2. My cilantro and parsley greens. We cut off the tails from the pods of hot peppers, clean the seeds and wash. We clean the garlic from the husk.

3. Grind the plum mass through a colander to separate the peel and seeds.

4. Pour the puree into a saucepan, add sugar and salt. Season with coriander and ground red pepper. Cook on low heat for half an hour.

5. Twist hot peppers, garlic and herbs in a meat grinder. Add the resulting mixture to the sauce, mix and cook for another ten minutes.

6. We lay out the hot sauce in sterilized jars. Pour refined vegetable oil on top and tightly roll up with sterile lids.

Recipe 5. Tkemali from plums with thorns

Ingredients

a kilogram of wild small plums;

a head of garlic;

200 g of ripe sloes;

hot pepper pod;

two sweet peppers;

seasoning "hops-suneli";

granulated sugar.

Cooking method

1. Wash green plums and remove pits. We do the same with the turn.

2. Rinse sweet pepper, wipe and cut in half. Remove the seed tail. Cut the stalk from the hot pepper and clean out the seeds. Rinse greens and pat dry.

3. Put everything in a blender container, add spices and smash everything to a puree state or chop with a meat grinder.

4. Transfer the resulting mass to a saucepan, add sugar and hop-suneli seasoning. Salt and add a mixture of pepper, herbs and garlic to the mass. Stir and put the container on fire. Bring the sauce to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Spread the hot sauce into sterile bottles and tightly tighten the lids.

Recipe 6. Tkemali from plums with walnuts

Ingredients

three walnuts;

kilogram of cherry plum;

5 g of Imeretian saffron;

a head of garlic;

greens of dill, mint and cilantro;

hot pepper pod;

15 g of sugar;

5 g coriander.

Cooking method

1. Put the washed cherry plum into a saucepan, fill it with water so that it covers the fruit. We put the pan on the fire and cook for about 15 minutes. Then we cool it to a warm state and rub the plum through a sieve. Remove the bones and peel. Do not pour out the water in which the plum was boiled.

2. Peel the garlic cloves. Cut the tail off the hot pepper pod and clean out the seeds. We put garlic, walnuts, hot peppers and herbs in the blender container. Salt and add sugar. We interrupt everything in a pulsating mode until smooth.

3. Add cherry plum puree to this mixture and beat again until a homogeneous mass is obtained.

4. We shift the resulting mass into a saucepan, pour in a little water in which the plum was cooked, and put the container with the plum mass on the fire. Cook over low heat from the moment of boiling for ten minutes.

5. We lay out the hot sauce in sterile jars, tightly close them with lids and cool completely. Store the sauce in a dark, cool place.

Recipe 7. Tkemali from plums with basil

Ingredients

80 ml of olive oil;

kilogram of cherry plum;

50 ml of drinking water;

5 g red ground pepper;

100 g of sugar;

60 g green cilantro, parsley, basil and dill;

Cooking method

1. Wash the greens and cherry plum thoroughly. Put the cherry plum in a large saucepan, add water so that it completely covers the fruit. Boil the cherry plum until it becomes soft.

2. Put the boiled cherry plum into a sieve and grind with a wooden spatula. Discard skins and bones.

3. Pour the puree back into the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.

4. Add washed and finely chopped greens, crushed garlic and very finely chopped hot peppers to the plum puree. Salt and mix thoroughly. Boil the sauce from the moment of boiling for about 20 minutes, until the mass thickens.

5. Pour hot Tkemali sauce into jars or bottles. Pour refined oil on top. Roll up tightly and leave to cool completely. Put the sauce in the basement or pantry for storage.

Use moderately ripe yellow, blue, or red plums for the sauce.
Do not boil the sauce for too long so that it does not lose its taste and benefits.
You can prepare tkemali sauce from different types of cherry plum.
Stir the sauce constantly during the cooking process so that it does not burn. It is better to do this with a wooden spatula.
To facilitate the cooking process, remove the peel from the plums, pour boiling water over the fruits for five minutes.
Spices and herbs can be selected based on your preferences.

After adding all the spices to the sauce, taste it. If necessary, adjust it by adding certain spices.

Tkemali is a spicy sauce originally from Georgia. Like all national dishes of this mountainous country, it contains a large amount of natural herbs and spices, therefore it is good for health. The only people who should refrain from eating the sauce are people with gastritis and peptic ulcers of the stomach and duodenum.

Traditionally, tkemali is made from sour yellow or red tkemali plums (a type of cherry plum) or blackthorn. In Georgia, they grow in abundance both in the wild and in household plots.

The classic sauce turns out to be sweet and sour, with a lemon-mint note, to which it owes a special swamp mint - ombalo.

Georgians claim that only the classic sauce recipe is worthy of attention. However, over time, a large number of alternative recipes have appeared that allow the use of various sour fruits, depending on the season and region of their growth.

It can be plums of different varieties, gooseberries, red currants or some other berries. If there is no ombalo, housewives often use other varieties of mint, getting an excellent result.

Tkemali is a worthy addition to meat, fish, pasta and vegetable dishes. The sauce goes especially well with poultry meat - turkey or chicken.

Such a preparation can replace artificial ketchups and other additives in the family menu. Tkemali contains only 41 kcal, moreover, it does not contain a single gram of fat, only 8 grams of carbohydrates. For this reason, with a clear conscience, you can diversify your menu on a diet with sauce.

Useful properties of tkemali

Tkemali consists of fruits and herbs, does not contain oil, therefore it brings undoubted benefits to the human body. The active substances contained in spices help to improve digestion and appetite.

A number of vitamins are preserved in the sauce - E, B1, B2, P and PP, ascorbic acid. Thus, flavoring food with a spicy sauce, you can improve the condition of the heart muscle, the supply of oxygen to the cells of the body, brain function, the condition of the skin and hair.

Plums are a pantry of pectin, which cleanses the intestines and activates its work. Therefore, any heavy food is digested easily and without problems.

Tkemali from plums for the winter - photo recipe

In the process of preparing preparations for the winter, housewives pay a lot of attention to various sauces. These are ketchups familiar to everyone with unusual ingredients, and sometimes just boiled tomato juice with spices. Have you tried plum sauce?

This is an amazing sauce that is perfect for all meat products from shish kebab to fried chicken hams. Yes, and with meatballs, it will be incredibly tasty. Want to try? Then we prepare tkemali sauce for the winter at home.

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Quantity: 3 servings

Ingredients

Plums: 1.5 kg
Garlic: 1 goal
Sugar: 8-10 tbsp. l.
Salt: 2 tbsp. .l
Seasoning "Hmeli-suneli": 1 tsp
Vinegar: 50 g

Cooking instructions

Yield - 1.5 liters of tkemali sauce.

P.S. To make the sauce identical to the legendary tkemali, before serving it should be sprinkled with chopped herbs and mixed.

Parsley and dill are suitable for this, half a bunch of each per half-liter jar. It can be made more saturated by adding vegetable oil. This can be done both during the cooking process and before serving. Not more than 30 ml per specified container.

Classic Georgian plum tkemali - a step by step recipe at home

A real, specifically Georgian sauce should include exactly the tkemali plum, which gives it a characteristic taste. You also need to find an ombalo. This subspecies of mint does not grow in central Russia, however, sometimes it can be found in the markets in dried form or ordered online on specialized sites.

Ingredients for classic tkemali

The output of this amount of products is 800 grams of sauce.

1 kilogram of plum tkemali;
10 grams of salt;
25 grams of sugar;
5 medium or 3 large garlic cloves;
chili pepper (1 pod, you can slightly increase or decrease its amount);
a bunch of fresh dill (about 30 grams);
a bunch of ombalo, or dried grass (30-40 grams);
30 gram bunch of cilantro;
5-6 grams of dried coriander;
6 grams of dried fenugreek (aka ucho, or suneli).

Cooking

We wash the plum and put it in a saucepan. It is important that you do not need to separate the pulp from the stone, pour boiling water over it and remove the skin. Pour clean water - about 100 ml - and cook until the bone and peel begin to separate from the pulp. The fire must be small.
We transfer the finished tkemali plum into a colander with small holes and begin to wipe thoroughly. The result should be a plum puree, the skin and bones will remain.
We shift the workpiece into a saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat. Remove from heat, add dry spices - coriander, suneli, as well as salt and sugar.
Greens, previously washed and thoroughly dried, chop as finely as possible and add to the future sauce.
Chili, washed and freed from seeds, chop finely and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
Garlic must be passed through a special press, added to tkemali.
Fill well-sterilized small jars with ready-made tkemali sauce, close with lids. The dish is ready!

yellow plum sauce

Alternative versions of the famous sauce are no less tasty and spectacular. One of the most common is the tkemali recipe, which uses yellow plums. The most important thing is that they are not sweet and very soft, otherwise the dish will not work and will be more like jam than sauce.

Ingredients for yellow tkemali

1 kilogram of yellow plums of any variety;
50 grams of sugar;
30 grams of rock salt;
5-6 medium garlic cloves;
a pod of bitter green pepper;
a bunch of fresh cilantro weighing 50 grams;
a bunch of fresh dill weighing 50 grams;
15 grams of ground coriander.

Cooking

Plums are pitted and passed through a meat grinder, or grind in a food processor. After adding salt and sugar, boil for 7 minutes
Remove tkemali from heat, after 10 minutes add chopped spices, herbs, herbs, garlic. mix
Without waiting for the sauce to cool completely, pour it into prepared small containers that have been pre-steamed. Close tightly with lids.

Yellow tkemali is ready!

From blue plums - the most delicious sauce recipe

The famous sauce can be made from blue-colored plums, which are very common in the season. They grow in gardens, on personal plots, are sold in vegetable and fruit shops. The main condition is not to take ripe soft fruits.

Ingredients for tkemali from blue plums

1.5 kilograms of fruits;
2 hot peppers;
a couple of teaspoons of dried sweet pepper;
a tablespoon of a mixture of Provence herbs;
a dozen cloves of garlic;
5 large spoons of granulated sugar;
2 large spoons of salt.

Cooking

We remove the bones from the fruits, transfer them to a pan or basin.
Mix with sugar and a glass of purified water. Boil for 10 minutes, remove from heat and wait for the sauce to cool.
Garlic and hot peppers need to be crushed with a press and added to the plums.
Putting salt and dry spices, it is necessary to boil the tkemali for 10 minutes.
Hot sauce is poured into sterilized jars and sealed.

A simple recipe for plum kemali at home

There are options for preparing the sauce, suitable for those who do not want to spend a lot of time and effort in order to get a great result. The simplest and fastest tkemali recipe allows you to get a homemade dish in less than an hour.

Ingredients

¾ kg of any sour plums;
a head of garlic;
a bunch of fresh cilantro;
3 large spoons of dry seasoning hops-suneli;
2/3 red hot pepper;
a large spoonful of sugar;
a small spoonful of salt.

Cooking

Grind fruit in a food processor or pass through a meat grinder.
Cook with salt and sugar until the mass boils.
Remove, wipe, add spices and garlic.
We cook for five minutes.
We roll tkemali into jars.

Tkemali recipe with tomatoes

An alternative to the classic recipe is the option with the addition of tomatoes to the usual ingredients. In this case, something in between ketchup and tkemali is obtained. The sauce perfectly complements the taste of meat cooked on the grill or on coals, pasta dishes, vegetable stews.

Ingredients for tkemali from plums and tomatoes

1 kilogram of ripe tomatoes;
a quarter kilogram of chili pepper;
300 grams of unripe plums;
a head of garlic;
a pinch of dried red pepper;
an incomplete tablespoon of salt;
an incomplete tablespoon of coriander;
glass of water.

Cooking

Stew the washed and quartered tomatoes until the skin comes off. Usually half an hour of heat treatment is enough. We rub through a sieve.
Grind chili, garlic and peeled plums in a food processor or meat grinder. Mix thoroughly with herbs and spices.
Add tomato puree to the mixture.
In an enameled saucepan, boil over low heat for a quarter of an hour. Don't forget to stir with a wooden spatula.
Pour tkemali into sterilized jars, cork.

The plums you use should be slightly underripe - sour and firm. This is the main condition for choosing the leading ingredient.
Boil in an enamel bowl, stir better with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Do not add fresh herbs to hot sauce. Let it cool down a bit and become warm. In this case, vitamin C will be preserved, which is destroyed at high temperatures.
Try to ensure that all the garlic that gets into the tkemali is properly crushed. Large pieces that may accidentally fall into the dish will not make it better.
It is important to store the sauce in small jars. This is necessary so that it does not deteriorate. An open jar should be eaten within a week maximum, otherwise mold may appear.
If it is not important for you to get classic tkemali at the exit, you can add or exclude certain ingredients. Some housewives do not use fresh cilantro because of its specific flavor, others add sweet bell pepper by grinding it and adding it to puree, lemon juice or even apples. It all depends on taste and individual preferences.

Homemade tkemali is a great alternative to store-bought sauces that contain artificial preservatives and colors. Another advantage of the dish is the absence of vinegar, which negatively affects the mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal tract.

I want to tell you: how to cook plum tkemali for the winter, then this recipe will definitely come in handy for you. This is a very tasty plum sauce that is suitable for any piece of meat and even fish or vegetables. Emphasizes the taste and gives a pleasant sweetish-spicy note. Caucasian spices, refreshing aroma of mint and spicy smell of cilantro will captivate you with an unusual taste. In order for plum tkemali to always be on our table, be sure to close a couple of jars for the winter.

We will prepare tkemali sauce exactly according to the classic recipe. It is the sour variety of plums that is taken. But if you come across sweet and ripe ones, then you should not put sugar in order to correctly regulate the taste. A real tkemali must necessarily include such a spice as suneli hops. And from fresh herbs - cilantro and mint, without these components a classic sauce cannot be prepared.

And if you have cherry plum, then cook according to this recipe

How to cook plum tkemali sauce

One kilogram produces 0.5 liters of sauce

Ingredients

Large plums - 1 kg.
Garlic - 6 large cloves
Red ground pepper - 0.4 tsp
cilantro - 1-2 bunches
Mint - 0.5 bunch (5 branches)
Basil - 0.5 bunch
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Suneli hops - 1 tsp

Let's prepare the plum

Wash well from dirt and remove stones. I got a fairly ripe plum, moderately sweet. Be careful not to get tails in the sauce.

Pour sugar, mix and leave that the berries let the juice go. If little juice was allowed, then you can add 2-3 tablespoons of water. I don’t advise you to pour a lot of sugar, so that you can add it later.

Cooking on fire

We put the plum sauce on the fire and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Be sure to stir with a spoon, prying the bottom so that it does not burn.

Now we put the line of spices: salt, ground red pepper, suneli hops. Mix well.

Immediately take fresh herbs: mint, cilantro, basil. Cut off the steps and finely chop the leaves, put in a saucepan. Mint and basil have very hard stems, so cook for another 10-15 minutes.

At the end of cooking, put the squeezed garlic, cook for another 5 minutes. My head is almost gone.

Grind the sauce

Remove from heat, take an immersion blender and beat the sauce into a homogeneous mass. We put the saucepan on a slow fire and bring the mixture to a boil, it is better not to leave and interfere, as the tkemali “spits”.

It is believed that sour plums have a natural preservative - acid, and it is with it that they will last longer than with sweet ones!

We close for the winter

We wash the jars well with soda and sterilize in the oven. Pour the tkemali and cover with a winter lid. Store preferably in a cold place.

Tips for making classic plum tkemali

You can take to prepare the sauce: cherry plum, agrus and even tomatoes.
An obligatory ingredient is marsh mint. It does not grow here, and even in the Caucasus it is difficult to find it. But it is she who gives tkemali taste, but the usual peppermint, unfortunately, cannot replace it.
If you want to get a smooth consistency, then after grinding with a blender, you need to rub the plum sauce through a sieve so that all the skins and pieces of greens remain separately.
The blank can be stored at home, because it includes red hot pepper.
Vinegar is not added to the classic sauce; it will stand so well all winter.
I really like that tkemali from plums can be replaced with ketchup and used to lubricate pizza and even add to borscht.
Instead of dry red pepper, you can take fresh, but a couple of slices, so as not to overdo it with spiciness.

So, you have learned all the tips on how to cook plum tkemali for the winter. Meat gourmets will definitely appreciate it.

1. Remove the leaves from the ombalo and chop, set aside, and the stems, along with the stems of dill and coriander, put the savory on the bottom of the pan.

2. Pour the fruits of tkemali over the branches of herbs, pour in about a glass of water, close the lid and let the contents of the pan boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the fruits become soft and the bones can be easily separated. Do not worry that there is not much water, as soon as it boils, juice will also begin to stand out from the fruits, and green sprigs will not allow the tkemali to stick to the bottom and burn.

4. Remove the pan from the heat, put the contents in a colander or sieve (do not pour out the broth), let the tkemali fruits cool, and then wipe them with a wooden spoon (I do it with my hands). At the end, you will have bones and skins from tkemali in a colander.

5. Mix plum puree with broth, add salt, sugar to taste, ground dry red pepper or chopped fresh. Place the pot of tkemali sauce over medium heat. If the tkemali turned out to be liquid, then cook it over low heat, if it is thick, then add a little water. The consistency of the sauce should resemble thin sour cream.

6. Finely chop the coriander, dill, pass the garlic through the crusher, and add the chopped ombalo leaves to the tkemali sauce at the very end of cooking, let it boil for half a minute, try if you need to add salt, sugar or pepper.

pour the finished tkemali sauce into bottles. You can close it with ordinary plastic lids.

Tkemali sauce has a long shelf life, but the one made from unripe, green plums is best stored in the refrigerator.