Georgian churchkal delicacy - what is it?

Those who visit the south of our country for the first time, especially the Black Sea coast, look with great perplexity at the small colorful sausages sold in the markets and beaches. They are especially surprised by their unusual name - churchchel. What it is, and how it is prepared, we will try to find out now.

This is a national delicacy of oriental cuisine. Despite the fact that it is common in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and also Greece, Georgians consider the church church to be their "invention", and even have issued a patent for it. Now, together with khachapuri, chacha and suluguni, the Georgian brand is also the churchkhela.

What it is? This nut is low, covered with dried fruity juice. As the legends say, this delicacy appeared in antiquity, when soldiers, going on hikes, took with themselves delicious and nutritious sausages that did not require any trouble in cooking and excellent restoring powers. Since they had to fight often, they also harvested the churchhell for future use, without fear that it would deteriorate. A year it will definitely last, and from the next harvest you can make new delicious sausages with nuts called churchchhela. What is it - you already have an idea. Now let's talk about how it is cooked.

How to Cook Churchle at Home

To make this product, you need to stock up on nuts, grape juice, sugar, flour and a stiff cotton thread with a needle. Nuts you can take any, although traditionally used walnuts and hazelnuts. The hazel is sewn on a string entirely, and the kernels of walnuts are divided into two halves. The optimal length of walnut low is about 30 cm. This is just enough to ensure that a thick decoction of juice called a tatar could cover it with a dense layer. And it is best to choose the length of the thread depending on the depth of the pan in which the syrup will be cooked. Dependence here is such - low must completely immerse in the Tatar without bends and kinks.

After all the nuts are tightly strung, you can do the cooking of the Tatars. Three liters of freshly squeezed grape juice pours into the pan (preferably not to use enameled), a glass of sugar is added to it, all of this is put on a small fire. Cook the juice with a constant stirring until its volume is reduced by half. Do not forget that the foam formed during the boiling should be removed. What the result turned out to be, the Georgians call Badagi.

Pour out about a couple of glasses of badaga in a large bowl and cool the contents. We divorce in a cooled syrup two glasses of flour, carefully breaking the formed lumps. To ensure homogeneity of the mass, it can be rubbed through a sieve at the end. We connect both parts of the juice and again we send it to the fire. Do not leave the stove. You must constantly stir the mass, otherwise it will burn. After the contents of the pan thicken and get shine, you can turn off the fire and consider the process of cooking the Tartar finished.

After letting it cool slightly, take the walnut low and completely immerse it in a hot mass. After waiting about 20 seconds, take out the thread, let it drain to the last drops, and send it to the dryer. After two hours, we repeat the whole sequence of actions. Ideally, the layer of the Tatars should reach one and a half centimeters.

Since it will take a long time to do churchhell in this way, it is possible to shorten the total cooking time of delicacies by tying several yarns with nuts to the rake and dipping them into the Tartar at the same time. After you find that the thickness of the layer satisfies you, send the pre-prepared Churchhela for a couple of weeks in the sun to dry. On the readiness can be judged by touch - if it does not stick to your hands, then the drying can be considered finished. Now you need to wrap the sausages in the linen and leave to ripen. In a month you can treat admiring people with a delicacy called "churchchel".

What is it, you now know and, as a true cook, you can do experimenting by changing varieties of nuts and fruit juices. And you can do without thread, just mixing the finished Tartar with nuts. It will, of course, not be the churchchel in the classical sense, but no less delicious treats.