Tkemali sauce

Tkemali sauce is truly a calling card of Georgia. Without it, the locals simply will not sit at the table, as they are sure that food without tkemali is becoming inferior. When the tkemali is pronounced, it immediately becomes clear that we are talking about a real branded sauce.

In general, tkemali sauce can be 2 colors with a variety of shades. For example, red (more savoury and sour) is obtained from red and yellow plums, and green shade sauce, which is much sweeter, acquires due to the addition of thorn. The obligatory companion of the classic tkemali sauce is a seasoning with a rather mysterious name ombalo. Interestingly, this is a type of mint that grows exclusively in Georgia and it is she who, in a duet with sour plum, endows the sauce with such a unique taste. In other countries, this weed is often replaced by mint peppermint or balm, only in this case it is a completely different culinary story.

It is known that acidic plums contain a huge amount of pectin and tannins, which has a beneficial effect on the absorption of meat products. Georgians claim that clean air with unity with wine and tkemali sauce is the secret to the longevity of local elders.

In almost every Georgian courtyard, you can see one or two plum trees. Each hostess cooks tkemali sauce according to her own unique recipe, so there are exactly as many recipes for preparing this dish as there are housewives in Georgia.

When preparing a tkemali sauce, it should be borne in mind that during the heat treatment, the berries are boiled 4 times. That is, to get a kilogram of sauce, you need four kilograms of sour plums. By the way, if you replace the plum with tomatoes, you can get a completely different sauce - sacibeli, which also refers to traditional Georgian dishes.

Tkemali sauce is ideal for any meat and fish dishes, vegetables and potatoes, skewer chicken, pasta and bread. For meat and fish, this sauce is usually served with crushed fresh dill and parsley greens, which are placed separately and added to taste.

Composition of tkemali sauce

In the composition of tkemali sauce, as mentioned earlier, the main component is wild plum, which in our country is called cherry plum and has a red, yellow or green color. In addition, garlic and some types of aromatic herbs, in particular ombalos, are mandatory ingredients in this rich sauce. This spice is added not only for the smell, but also to avoid the fermentation process of the plums during cooking.

Today there are many modifications of this sauce, which is traditionally based on sour plum. So, often in the composition of the tkemali sauce you can also observe natural substitutes for this berry - mainly red currants and gooseberries, which also differ in a rather sour taste.