Fans of Georgian cuisine are well aware that sauces occupy one of the leading positions in it. Georgian sauce is a beautiful culinary song, the melody of which contains both national flavor and taste preferences that have been formed over the long history of the country. Satsebeli, tklapi, tkemali, satsivi have long gained popularity among Russian housewives, and they cook them with pleasure.
Experienced housewives know how a well-chosen sauce can turn an ordinary dish into a gourmet dish. Bazhe sauce also has the same properties. In Georgia, it is prepared in every home, served on weekdays and at the holiday table. At its core, bazhe is a nut sauce, because walnuts play the main violin in the orchestra of its ingredients. They make up 70% of the total composition of the sauce. Professional chefs consider Bazhe a lighter version of satsivi, which is no less popular in Georgia.
Bazhe's culinary secrets
One of the secret ingredients of the sauce is Imeretian saffron, which is difficult to find in Russia. Therefore, it can be replaced with the Indian variety, which is sold in our supermarkets. However, if you want to use just such an ingredient, you can dry marigold flowers, chop them, and you will get real Imeretian saffron. It is from this plant that Imeretian saffron is obtained in Georgia.
Since the sauce is prepared with walnuts, you should choose the right product. The nut kernels should be light in color and not bitter in taste, then the finished seasoning will, as expected, be colored in light nut tones.
A rich nutty taste, colored with a thick garlicky melody, is obtained from young garlic and walnut fruits. In Georgia, where the nut grows, this is easier to do. We have to be content with what we can buy in the store. It’s easier with young garlic: you can buy it at the market or ask your neighbors who have a dacha.
The list of spices is not important; you can add the ones you like best. In Georgia, coriander and suneli hops, cilantro juice and other herbs are added to the bazhe sauce. The Megrelian version of the sauce uses fresh cilantro. It should be noted that in different regions of the country, nut sauce contains different proportions of the main ingredients, but the preparation method is the same.
Odorous spices should not be added to the bazhe, as they can clog the nutty base of the dish.
Tkemali
Tkemali is one of the most revered in Georgian cuisine. It is brewed from a fruit called tkemali (sour plum), and then spicy herbs are added to it, such as cilantro, dill, ombala or lemon balm. In early spring, the time comes for green tkemali, from which the most sour sauce is made. And only later yellow, red and dark tkemali are collected, each fruit of which is sweeter than the previous one. Some people may like to add sugar to the sauce when cooking, but many prefer the initial sourness. Tkemali is a great addition to almost any dish: fried potatoes, meat, fish, pasta.
Basic recipe
Ask a Georgian housewife what is most important in preparing bazhe, and she will tell you that it requires the right ingredients and strong hands. The basic recipe includes:
- walnuts (shelled) – 1.5 cups;
- garlic – 3 large or 6 small cloves;
- boiled water – 400 ml;
- half a lemon;
- red and black pepper, suneli hops, saffron - a pinch or to your taste;
- salt to taste.
Cooking process:
- Choose the nut kernels for the sauce carefully. They should be large, light, and “meaty.” Dry and wrinkled kernels have no place in a dish. All nuts should be crushed in a blender, meat grinder or mortar, as convenient for you.
- Peel the garlic and pass through a crush. You can grate it on a fine grater or simply crush it with the flat side of a knife blade.
- Mix garlic, salt and chopped nuts. Grind all the ingredients again. We need to get an almost homogeneous mass. While grinding, add water. We make sure that the consistency is not very thick, but also does not flow like water.
- Now you need to beat the mass, adding spices to it.
- Transfer the sauce into a deep bowl, add juice squeezed from half a lemon or wine vinegar.
- Mix the mixture with a spoon and serve.
Georgian sauce bazhe, alternative recipe with onions and cilantro
Ingredients
- Walnuts – 150 g.
- Garlic – 2 cloves.
- Onions – 0.5 heads.
- Cilantro – 2 sprigs.
- Utskho-suneli – 0.5 tsp.
- Tastes like salt.
- Coriander and saffron - 0.5 tsp each.
- Red pepper to your taste.
- Water – 250 ml.
- Wine vinegar – 0.5 tsp.
- Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp.
Bazhe sauce recipe
How to prepare original Georgian sauce Bazhe
- Clean the nuts and chop the kernels.
- We clean the onion and chop half of it finely.
- Pour vegetable oil into the frying pan, in which the onions will be cooked.
- Add cilantro to the onion and cook on the stove for another minute.
- We clean the garlic cloves, pass them through a press or grind them in a mortar.
- Grind the spices with vinegar.
- Add cilantro and onion, mix everything again.
- Transfer the mixture to a blender bowl, add a little warm water, and beat everything.
- We pour out the water gradually, assessing the consistency of the dressing, which should be velvety and tender, not too thick.
Leave the sauce for 2 hours. During this time it will infuse, after which it can be safely served with dishes such as fish, stew, chicken, etc.
Easy option
If this is your first experience cooking Georgian cuisine, try the lighter version of Bazhe, with less nuts and garlic. For the dish we will need:
- walnuts (kernels) – 250 grams;
- chicken broth or water - arbitrary amount for dilution;
- garlic – 2-3 cloves;
- red pepper (ground) - to taste;
- suneli hops – 1 teaspoon;
- saffron (dried) – 1 teaspoon;
- cilantro – 1 teaspoon;
- wine vinegar or lemon juice - 1 tablespoon;
- salt to taste.
Preparation:
- We pass the peeled walnuts through a meat grinder 2-3 times or grind them in a blender. Place in a deep bowl.
- Peel the garlic, finely chop it, add it to the nut mixture.
- Immediately add all the spices and salt to the mixture.
- Now we roll up our sleeves and begin to knead the contents of the bowl with our hands. In Georgia, housewives crush and crush clean nut mass with their hands, squeezing nut oil out of it, which is then used for dressing salads and baking. They drain the oil into a separate bowl.
- A well-kneaded mass turns out to be very thick, which is why we need chicken broth or cold boiled water. You need to add enough broth so that the sauce has the consistency of thin sour cream.
- Add wine vinegar or lemon juice to the sauce. Mix the ingredients again. Now our sauce is ready.
Easy and tasty: tsitsibeli
Tsitsibeli becomes an indispensable seasoning for meat in winter. This sauce is spicy, like many Georgian dishes. To cook it, you will need tomatoes. You should also stock up on pepper. You will need sweet bell peppers, and bitter peppers will add spiciness to the dish.
Recipe
For cooking you will need enamel dishes: a wide bowl or pan.
Ingredients
- Tomatoes – 1 kg.
- Pepper: sweet – 500 g, bitter capsicum – 300 g.
- Garlic – 0.5 kg.
- Salt is added to taste. For winter storage, you need to add at least a tablespoon.
TIP: carefully select vegetables for preparing tsitsibel. Give preference to juicy, fleshy tomatoes and fully ripe peppers.
Preparation
- The ingredients are washed properly. Tomatoes are cut into large pieces. The seeds are removed from the pepper. The stinging cloves cleanse.
- Vegetables are chopped in a meat grinder.
- The resulting vegetable mixture is salted and mixed.
- The dishes are filled with grated vegetables, placed on low heat, and brought to a boil. It is important to stir the contents of the bowl all the time with a wooden spatula so that it does not burn.
- After boiling, remove the container from the heat and place it in prepared jars (washed and sterilized).
What dishes are served with?
Let's start with the fact that the sauce should be served on the table in a gravy boat or in a bowl. The pleasant nutty-garlic spice of the gravy goes well with chicken and fish. The main dish can be boiled or fried, it doesn’t matter; the sauce will add its own flavor to it, giving the dish a special piquancy.
If you are going to prepare a second course of broccoli or eggplant, complement your culinary masterpiece with Bazhe sauce, and it will really surprise your family and friends. You can pour the sauce over the dish or spread it on bread.
For Russian cuisine, the taste of gravy is unusual and specific. When planning to cook it, take into account the taste preferences of your household. A lot of garlic and walnuts may seem unnecessary at first and you won’t like it. Prepare an easy version of nut gravy and use it to test the reaction of your home gourmets to a new culinary delight.
Peanut sauce
THE MOST DELICIOUS WHITE SAUCE! WALNUT SAUCE. Refilling is almost universal; goes well with poultry, offal, vegetables, pasta, fish... In Japan, the sauce is served with sushi and rolls. It can be used to make sandwiches or served with chips, breadsticks...
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Be careful, high in calories!
This Georgian gravy has a very high calorie content. There are 240 calories in 100 grams of product. Despite the obvious vegetarian essence of the sauce, the walnut makes it heavier. This sauce should be given to children with caution due to its pungency and difficulty in digesting. Children's digestion has difficulty coping with such dishes, and the body may respond with an allergy or disorder.
Obviously, the gravy is not suitable for dietary nutrition either. Once a month there will be no harm from it, but it is better to avoid frequent use if you are watching your weight. We would like to wish you a pleasant appetite and a joyful culinary acquaintance with an extraordinary Georgian dish.
Georgian bazhe sauce - cooking tips from experienced chefs
- Thanks to the cilantro, the sauce will be able to enrich the dressing with spicy essential oils, but you need to use only fresh cilantro, since it is impossible to achieve the same effect with dry cilantro.
- Many housewives pour nut oil over the finished dressing, but then there will essentially be fat on the surface of the sauce, which many people don’t like.
- It is important to pay attention to the amount of Georgian spices in the sauce. An insufficient amount of them will make the finished mix bland, and if you overdo it, the nutty taste of the sauce will not be felt.
Georgian bazhe sauce is a fragrant and tasty addition to various dishes.
Garlic-nut sauce
- nuts – 100 g
- garlic – 5-6 cloves
- white bread – 2 pieces
- vegetable oil – 4-5 tbsp. spoons
- lemon juice – 10 ml
- dill and parsley – 30 g
- milk – 50 ml
Soak pieces of bread in milk and wait until it swells. Then beat this mixture with a whisk or in a blender. Add crushed nuts, grated garlic, lemon juice and oil. At the end, add chopped dill and parsley.
Peanut pasta sauce
- pine nuts – 30 g
- walnuts – 100 g
- olive oil – 2-3 tbsp. spoons
- cream 10% - 100 ml
- spices – 1 teaspoon
- parmesan – 50 g
- breadcrumbs - 1 tbsp. spoon
- garlic – 1 clove
- salt – 1 teaspoon
Boil walnuts in salted water, grind them in a blender along with pine nuts, Parmesan and your favorite spices. Mix the cream with breadcrumbs, infuse and add to the nuts. Heat the mixture over the fire, add olive oil and mix well.
