Pork in Georgian: recipes, cooking features

In the Christian country of Georgia, there is no ban on eating pork. But still, the attitude towards this type of meat is ambiguous and contradictory. In ancient times, in some regions of Georgia (Svaneti, Kartli, Guria), pigs were sacrificed to pagan gods. Therefore, in the early centuries of Christianity, the meat of this animal was considered “not beneficial to the saints.” Compared to lamb, chicken, beef, pork is not used very often in Georgian national cuisine. This is primarily due to the small number of livestock. Highlanders rarely raise these animals. But if Georgians do make pork dishes, they prepare them in a special way. The canons of national cuisine require serving meat with plenty of seasonings and herbs. In this article we have collected the most famous Georgian pork dishes. We hope that using these recipes you will add more variety to your table.

Satsivi

Wash a kilogram of fatty meat and cut into large pieces. We clean and chop seven onions into half rings. We put everything in a cauldron and fry thoroughly. Pass two hundred grams of walnut kernels through a meat grinder. In a mortar we crush six sprigs of cilantro, three cloves of garlic, a few pinches of salt and capsicum. First mix these greens with nuts. Add 75 grams of corn flour there. Pour some water and stir. Pour over the fried pork and onions. Cook for about twenty minutes. When the Georgian pork becomes soft, add a tablespoon of hop-suneli seasoning and dry coriander, a pinch of cinnamon and cloves. Pour in wine vinegar and add salt as needed. Cook the dish for another five minutes. Serve chilled, generously sprinkling the meat with fresh chopped herbs.

Georgian yoghurt sauce for beef

Initially, the basis for this sauce called “tsakhton” was a local fermented milk product - matsoni. But you can use sour cream with 10-20% fat content, neutral yogurt, and thick kefir.

Required Products:

yogurt – 500 ml;
walnuts without shell – 120 g;
cilantro leaves – 100 g;
parsley leaves – 100 g;
dill leaves – 100 g;
garlic – 4 medium cloves;
salt - to taste;
black pepper - to taste;
red pepper - to taste.

The sauce is a mixture of fermented milk base with fresh herbs and spices. The above is a complete list of ingredients, but if you wish, you can eliminate a few items without loss, add something of your own, or change the proportions. The main thing is to adhere to the basic principle.

Preparation:

Chop the nuts, you can chop them with a knife, or cover them with a towel and roll them with a rolling pin. In traditional tsakhton, nut particles should crunch on the teeth, so a 3-5 mm fraction is used without grinding the kernels into a homogeneous mass.
The greens are washed and dried, unnecessary stems are separated, and the leaves are chopped with a knife.
The garlic is turned into a paste. It is convenient to use a special garlic press or blender.
All ingredients are combined in a convenient container and mixed thoroughly.

Thanks to the yogurt base, the sauce turns out light and summery, garlic and pepper add piquancy, and nuts and cilantro give a recognizable flavor, so tsakhton organically combines with Georgian kebab.

Pork in the oven

We put a handful of dried seedless dogwood to soak. For this dish, you need to choose a kilogram piece with a bone and a layer of fat (shoulder or ham). Chop three large onions into rings. Preheat the oven. Salt the piece of pork and place it on a baking sheet so that the layer of fat is on top. Place the onion rings next to the meat. Add half a glass of water. Place the pan in the oven for two and a half or even three hours, until the Georgian pork is completely cooked. From time to time you need to open the oven door and pour the released juice over the piece of meat. It will all evaporate during the baking process. Therefore, you need to have a kettle of hot water ready, because if you water the meat with cold water, it will become very tough. After about two hours, when the pork is half cooked, peeled, chopped and salted potatoes should be placed on a baking sheet. The dogwood must be placed in a colander, allowed to drain and also placed in the oven. The finished dish is cut into portions and served with a side dish (potatoes and onions). The meat is poured with juice on top, sprinkled with dogwood and fresh chopped herbs.

Khashlama

Khashlama is one of the most delicious dishes not only of Georgian, but also of Caucasian cuisine in general. The meat here is tender and very fragrant due to the beer or wine that is used for stewing. The aroma is also transferred to vegetables: peppers, onions, potatoes, which are placed in a pot along with meat. Beer should be taken only fresh and of the highest possible quality. In khashlama, unlike chanakha, there should be 2-3 times more meat than vegetables.

Beef and potato khashlama

Components:

beef - 1100-1200 g;
beer - 0.5 liters;
sweet pepper - 2 pieces;
onions - 2 pieces;
potatoes - 2 pieces;
tomato - 2 pieces;
garlic - 3-4 pieces;
black peppercorns;
parsley or cilantro;
salt.

Preparation:

For khashlama, take brisket or meat with bone and cartilage. The meat must be cut into portions.
Vegetables can be cut very large, since they will have time to cook in 2 hours.
Cut the onion in a rustic style (slices), potatoes and peppers - in large parts, tomatoes - randomly.
The garlic needs to be peeled, but not cut, the greens should be chopped.
Vegetables and meat are placed in layers so that the vegetables are on top. Herbs, garlic and spices are also located between the layers. The following dishes are used for khashlama: a pot, a cauldron, a high heat-resistant dish with a lid.
The oven is heated to a temperature of 200 degrees.
Meat and vegetables must first be poured with beer, and then topped up with water. Add salt and simmer in the oven for 2 hours.
The finished dish should be sprinkled with herbs on top.

Roast pork

Cut a kilogram of boneless meat into medium-sized pieces. Prepare the spice mixture. It must contain black allspice, salt, dry cilantro, rosemary, basil, parsley and dill. “Rain” this mixture of spices over the meat. Mash with your hands so that the seasonings coat all the pieces. Add a large spoonful of honey and lemon juice to the meat. Mix so that all pieces are in the marinade.

Georgian pork should sit in the refrigerator for at least three hours. The recipe instructs to place it along with the marinade on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil. Add another soup spoon of sour cream, stir and place in a preheated oven. Marinated meat, cut into pieces, bakes faster. In just an hour and a half you will have a ready-made dish. It should be served with a side dish of vegetables.

Option of ojakhuri with mushrooms in a slow cooker

A family dish of ojakhuri with a very interesting marinade for lamb, which will get rid of the characteristic smell of this type of meat. Cooking in a slow cooker will allow you to use less fat, so it will be healthier, but no less tasty.

Required ingredients:

lamb – 600 g;
potatoes – 1 kg;
mushrooms (champignons) – 300 g;
sweet and hot red and black pepper – 0.5 tsp each;
Refined sunflower oil – 2 tbsp. l.;
table salt - to taste;
onion – 1 medium onion;
parsley or other greens you like - 1 bunch;
Svan salt - 1-2 pinches;
sour cream – 2 tbsp. l;
tomato juice – 100 ml;
mustard beans – 1 tsp;
red or white dry wine – 40-50 ml.

Method of preparing ojakhuri:

Cut the lamb into medium-sized pieces, as for a roast. For the marinade, mix sour cream, tomato juice, mustard, wine, black pepper. We do not add salt! Pour the marinade over the meat, cover, and refrigerate for a couple of hours, or better yet, overnight.
Coarsely chop the potatoes. If small - into 4 parts, large - into 8. Mix paprika, salt, hot pepper with oil and pour on potatoes, mix.
Remove the lamb from the marinade and place in a colander to drain any remaining liquid. Place the multicooker bowl and fry on the “Fry” mode. If the meat is lean, you can add a little oil to prevent it from burning. At the end of cooking, when a crust appears, add salt. Transfer the browned lamb to a bowl.
Place the potatoes in the slow cooker and fry until half cooked using the same program. Then add coarsely chopped mushrooms and onion chopped into half rings. Stirring, continue to fry until almost done.
Pour the lamb into the slow cooker with the potatoes and champignons, stir. Season the ojakhuri with Svan salt, close the lid of the device and change the mode to “Stewing”. After 5-10 minutes you can check the readiness of the dish.

Before serving, transfer the ojakhuri onto ketsi and garnish with finely chopped favorite herbs.

Chakhokhbili from pork in Georgian style

For this delicious dish you need to take 600 grams of fatty meat. After washing, you need to dry the piece thoroughly with napkins so that no liquid remains. Cut the pork into small pieces. Place a saucepan or cauldron on the fire. When it warms up well, put the meat there. Cover and simmer over low heat for about twenty minutes. As the juice is released, it must be poured into a bowl. We clean four onions and chop them into half rings. Add them when the pork is almost ready. We also add 250 g of tomato sauce. Stir and simmer for another quarter of an hour. If the meat starts to burn, add juice from the bowl. Chop three to four cloves of garlic. We chop fresh parsley, savory, basil and cilantro. When the onion becomes soft, add the garlic. Season chakhokhbili with black pepper, salt and suneli hops. Stir. Add chopped greens. Immediately cover the cauldron and turn off the heat. Chakhokhbili should be served after twenty minutes so that the herbs and spices have time to reveal their aroma.

Classic beef ojakhuri on ketsi

Instead of beef, you can use other meat - whatever you have in stock or whatever you like. Delicious ojakhuri will be obtained with moderately fatty pork. If there is fat on the meat, it is not necessary to add oil to the ketsi - nothing will burn due to the even distribution of heat.

What will we make the dish from:

beef (pulp) – 500 g;
new potatoes – 500 g;
onion – 1 head;
bell pepper – 1 pc. (large, fleshy);
black pepper – 2 pinches;
dry red wine – 50 ml;
garlic – 2 cloves;
refined oil (any vegetable) – 2 tbsp. l.;
melted butter – 100 g;
mustard – 1 tsp;
hot pepper – 1 pod;
utskho-suneli, khmeli-suneli or green adjika – 0.5 tsp;
cilantro, basil - half a bunch each;
salt - to taste.

Cooking step by step:

Coarsely chop the beef, having first cleared it of films, washed it well and dried it. Add ground pepper, mustard, stir. Marinate the meat for 1 hour to 1-2 days in the refrigerator.
Place the ketsi in a cold oven and turn it on to heat up. When the red clay frying pan is hot, place it on the burner, installing the divider. Place a little melted butter on the ketsi and wait until it warms up. Fry the marinated beef until golden brown. At the end of cooking, add wine and simmer the meat a little.
Cut the young potatoes into slices without peeling them. Remove seeds from pepper and cut into wide strips. Chop the onion into feathers (not too thin). Chop the greens and garlic finely.
Fry the potatoes in another frying pan (ketsi) until an even golden brown crust appears in the remaining oil.
Pour the potatoes into a clay frying pan with the beef, add sweet peppers and onions. Stir and fry everything together over moderate heat for about 5 minutes. Then add hot pepper and garlic to the ketsi. Mix. Add utskho-suneli or other Georgian seasoning and salt. Continue stewing the ojakhuri until the meat and potatoes are ready. After this, sprinkle the dish with herbs and remove from heat.

Ojakhuri should be served directly in ketsi, which will retain the heat and aroma of spices for a long time.

Mtsvadi and bitches - what's the difference?

Recipes for Georgian pork shish kebab are quite numerous. But, contrary to our ideas about this Caucasian dish, the meat is not marinated for it. Georgians believe that this way the kebab will retain its flavor and be more tasty. There are mtsvadi and suki. The first course is pork neck shashlik. Bitches are made from tenderloin. In any case, use only fresh, not defrosted meat. For the barbecue, they do not take coals, but old grape vines. They give off a lot of heat. Often pieces of kebab are placed not on metal skewers, but on thin grape rods. Moreover, they are placed very close to the heat.

Meat in the oven with vegetables and cheese. Meat baked with vegetables and cheese

What an aroma floats in the kitchen when this dish is prepared! Meat baked with vegetables and cheese is a win-win option for any situation. Because it’s quick, easy and always very tasty.

Cooking method

We usually start by washing and drying a piece of meat. Then we cut it across the fibers into slices 12-15 mm thick and, without being too zealous, beat it, putting each piece between two layers of cling film - and just in a bag. And the meat is not in rags, and is clean.
Having laid out the chopped slices, sprinkle them with lemon juice, salt, spread mustard, put them in a container - and put them in the refrigerator for an hour or two to marinate.
Chop the onion into half rings, place in very hot vegetable oil, reduce the heat to medium and fry for 5-7 minutes, turning, until slightly soft and golden brown.
We cut clean and dried tomatoes and peppers crosswise into rings - of course, removing the seeds and stem from the pepper.
Coarsely grate the cheese. Turn on the oven at 180-190°. Grease a baking dish or baking sheet with oil and lay out the meat.
Place an onion on each piece of meat, pepper rings, tomato slices, and grated cheese.
Bake in the oven until the meat is soft and the cheese is crispy, i.e., depending on the nature of our oven, 50-70 minutes.

Georgian pork shashlik

Now we will describe in more detail all the stages of preparing delicious mtsvadi. Cut the pork neck into medallions. Dry the meat. We divide each medallion into three pieces. The main secret of delicious Georgian kebab is that the meat is not marinated. The pieces need to be kneaded with your hands for a long time until they become sticky. This way the pork will retain its juiciness and flavor. Thread the pieces onto skewers. We light up the grill. When the coals or firewood burn out, set out the skewers, placing them quite low above the heat. Here we salt the top side. Skewers should rarely be turned over. The meat should be covered with a crispy crust. Turn it over and add salt again. Separately, you need to prepare tkemali sauce and marinate the onions.

Option 1: Classic recipe for sliced meat in the oven

Even a classic recipe can be prepared in different ways.
Most housewives know it by heart. If this is your first time, follow the step-by-step recipe. For a traditional recipe, pork neck or ham is ideal. You can take a spatula, but it contains more veins. Ingredients: pork neck or ham – 1 kg; medium size potatoes – 6 pcs: 3 onions; salt – 11 g; pepper – 5 gr. seasonings for meat as desired. A step-by-step recipe for cooking meat into pieces in the oven Step 1: Rinse the meat under cold water, place on a cutting board and cut across the grain into medium-sized pieces, then into several more servings - we need small pieces. Step 2: Now put the meat in a small saucepan, add salt and pepper. If you have a favorite pork seasoning, add it, but only a little - half a teaspoon. Step 3: Peel the onion, cut off the base, cut into thin half rings and pour into the meat, mix. The meat should sit for a while. Step 4: While the meat is marinating, peel and wash the potatoes. Cut a small piece of the side, place the potatoes on it and cut into slices, about half a centimeter. You can also cut into slices, as for Idaho potatoes. Step 5: Preheat the oven to 200°. Step 6: Place foil or baking parchment on a baking sheet. Visually divide it into two parts. Place pieces of meat and onions on one half, potatoes on the other. The potatoes need to be salted and sprinkled with a small amount of pepper. Step 7: Bake for 45-50 minutes. Note to the hostess: - If you want to make the meat more spicy, marinate it in advance, for about 1-2 hours. — If desired, you can mix mayonnaise and cheese and grease all ingredients before baking.

Kaurma

Cut a half-kilogram piece of pork tenderloin into medium pieces. Place the meat in a saucepan and simmer for a quarter of an hour. Peel three onions and cut into slices. Add to the meat and simmer for about eight more minutes. We dilute half a glass of tomato paste in water in a ratio of one to two. You can also use fresh tomatoes (400 grams) - this will make Georgian pork (kaurma) even tastier. But the tomatoes should first be boiled and rubbed through a sieve. Salt the dish and continue to simmer until the meat is completely cooked. Finally, add traditional Georgian spices and seasonings to the saucepan: black pepper, suneli hops, finely chopped parsley and cilantro.

Chakapuli

Chakapuli is a national dish that has been known in Georgia since time immemorial. It was prepared in the spring from lamb with the addition of seasonings. With the onset of warm weather, everyone cooked on the street or went out of town, so this dish was traditionally cooked over a fire, in a cauldron. In spring, the green Tkemali plum and various greens appeared, which were also used in chakapuli. The literal translation is “meat in foam.” At other times of the year, it is allowed to use lamb, beef and Tkemali sauce, rather than fresh fruits.

Lamb and herb chakapuli

Components:

lamb - 2 kg;
white wine - 500 ml;
sour plum - 1 kg;
onions - 2-3 pieces
tarragon - bunch;
green onion - a bunch;
green basil - 1 bunch;
mint - half a bunch;
purple basil - 1 bunch;
garlic - 4 cloves or green feathers;
salt.

Preparation:

When preparing chakapuli, the layering principle is also used. The meat is placed alternately with herbs and plums. For example: meat, plum, tarragon meat, etc. If there is no sour plum or cherry plum, then you can use Tkemali sauce.
The meat must be washed and cut into portions.
Peel the onions and cut into rings.
The onion is placed in the dish first. Then - meat and herbs, each in a separate layer.
Each type of greenery needs to be cut separately, possibly with stems, since with prolonged stewing all the dense parts will soften.
The plum must be washed and cut, freeing it from seeds.
After placing all the food, you need to salt the dish, pour in dry white wine and add water to the required volume.
Place a container of chakapuli in an oven preheated to 200 degrees. The dish will be ready in 90 minutes.

Georgian meat on a clay frying pan ketsi

If you don't have this extremely useful kitchen utensil, you can make do with a pot. Or use a regular frying pan. Cut half a kilo of meat into small pieces, add an onion. Fry both ingredients in a mixture of vegetable and butter. We cut a small carrot. Add to the pan. Peel the eggplant and cut it into pucks. Remove the stem and seeds from the sweet pepper and chop into strips. Add vegetables to the pan. Three three tomatoes. We also add this puree to the meat. Season with salt, garlic (2-3 cloves), hot red and black pepper.

From a regular frying pan, transfer all the contents into a ketsi or pot. Place in the oven for an hour. Georgian-style pork is served with lavash and plenty of fresh herbs.

Ojakhuri

Ojakhuri is a simple hearty dish for the whole family. It is translated as “family”. It does not require complex ingredients; it is prepared for a narrow circle of loved ones using the simplest products. It is based on meat, onions and potatoes with spices and additives. For cooking, the national Georgian frying pan was used - ketsi, which was made of clay.

The secret of this dish is in the special cutting: onions, potatoes and other ingredients are cut into slices, rustic style. They are shaped like orange slices. They say that this gives the food a special taste.

Pork ojakhuri

Components:

pork - 1 kg;
potatoes - 7-10 pieces (depending on size);
garlic - 4 cloves;
onions - 3-4 pieces;
butter or ghee;
tomatoes - 5 pieces;
parsley, cilantro - a bunch;
black pepper to taste;
salt.

Preparation:

Potatoes, onions and tomatoes are cut into slices.
The pork is cut very thinly, into small strips.
Garlic must be passed through a press.
Everything is laid out in the frying pan in the following order: potatoes, onions, pork, tomatoes. The potatoes should be half fried when the onion “slices” are added to them. The pork is cut finely enough so it is ready in 10 minutes. Everything is fried in ghee or butter.
At the very end you need to add salt, tomatoes, garlic, black pepper and half the herbs. The tomatoes have released juice - this is a signal that the pan needs to be removed from the heat.
Ojakhuri is served in a ketsi or frying pan.