Notes about Recipes in this book

• Beef and chickpea stew (Chashushuli)

  • TrishaCP on December 07, 2020

    This was an ok beef stew. The ginger is added in eye-poppingly large quantities but I felt like I could barely taste it. It definitely needs the fresh herbs at the end to liven things up. I used adjika for my chile and would use more next time (I used a teaspoon).

• Chicken with pomegranate juice (Katami brotseulit)

  • TrishaCP on October 24, 2020

    This was ok and I agree that the pomegranate seeds are really needed. I tried to keep the chicken skin out of the liquid (because otherwise why bother with getting them crispy)- but they still kind of steamed. I think I would just use boneless skinless thighs if making it again.

  • Kduncan on November 13, 2018

    Pretty easy to make, good flavors but not really complex. Really needs the pomegranate seeds or it falls a bit flat. Keep the skin side of the thighs out of the liquid to keep the skin not flabby.

  • Dannausc on August 11, 2018

    Pretty decent; easy to make

• Pumpkin with walnuts (Gogra nigvzit)

  • TrishaCP on October 24, 2020

    This is a great way to jazz up bland pumpkin (or in my case bland kabocha squash). The walnut paste is familiar to me from other Georgian vegetable preparations and I love it- although in this case I reduced the garlic to one clove.

• Duck with blackberry sauce (Ikhvi maqvlit)

  • TrishaCP on April 13, 2018

    This was absolutely delicious. The blackberry sauce was a tart and beautiful contrast to the fatty duck. I used Georgian fenugreek in the recipe (generally stronger than other fenugreeks) since it is mentioned in the beginning of the book, though not specified in this recipe. The cooking time for the duck (marinated overnight) worked well for us, although I seared the duck skin at a lower temperature to keep it burning and our duck came out medium rather than medium rare following a 10 minute simmer in the sauce.

  • Dolcetto23 on September 08, 2021

    I agree with TrishaCP! This was gorgeous, in both taste and appearance, and much enjoyed by a professional-chef-guest! I did reduce the final cooking time in the sauce to 7 minutes rather than 10, and would actually reduce that to 6 next time. I used blue fenugreek (which my copy of the book does specify). . . and I reduced the salt slightly. But it's easy, a real winner and such a lovely way to use a glut of local wild blackberries. We had it with a delicious Georgian saperavi (red wine) called Orgo, and I made aubergine rolls from the same book which were also great (this a fab book)

• Spicy ribs (Tskhare neknebi)

  • TrishaCP on August 31, 2021

    This was good, but probably not a repeat. This dish is largely going to depend flavor-wise on the quality of your adjika. I used the wet paste version and I wanted more flavor, so I added it to taste. (I can’t imagine one tablespoon is enough seasoning for all the ribs if you use the dry version). I did marinate the ribs overnight and I would highly recommend doing so.

• Cheesy cornbread (Tchvishtari)

  • TrishaCP on June 18, 2022

    This is a great side for Georgian dishes-both crispy as well as gooey from the cheeses. I am always uncertain when a baking recipe calls for polenta whether I am using the correct product. In this case, I had Georgian white cornmeal on hand, so used that here with great success.

• Beans stewed with herbs (Lobio 2)

  • TrishaCP on June 18, 2022

    I didn’t love this version of lobio- the flavors felt very flat to me. (Even though I used an adjika blend as my chile.) It was much better topped with a pickled element (I made jonjoli salad.)

• Beans with walnuts and spices (Lobio 1)

  • TrishaCP on October 03, 2021

    These are not your basic beans, since they are made even creamier with the addition at the end of a spiced paste of ground walnuts. I really liked the spices of the beans, even though I didn’t have the marigold leaves that were specified. (I used more parsley and celery leaves instead.) I’m not sure that I loved the walnut paste though - it did make them creamier but also a bit stodgier. (I used cranberry beans instead of borlotti beans.)

• Chicken and walnut stew (Katmis kharcho)

  • TrishaCP on October 10, 2020

    The sauce was very flavorful for fairly simple ingredients. There seemed to be a lot of sauce relative to chicken. (I did use boneless, skinless thighs in place of bone-in chicken). Also the book called for two tablespoons of marigold- one ground and one whole leaves. Not sure why the two types were needed when it all gets blended together and I only had ground marigold, so I just used the one tablespoon.

• Aubergine/eggplant rolls (Nigvziani badrijani)

  • Dolcetto23 on September 08, 2021

    Delicious version of classic recipe. The only thing I'd say is, it's very garlicky (maybe reduce that a bit especially if planning to keep for more than a day) and it's a bit too salty for me. I would reduce both next time, and maybe up the herbs. I kept the walnut paste pretty coarse and that was good.

• Aubergine/eggplant ajapsandali (Ajapsandali)

  • ricki on August 06, 2020

    We both enjoyed this. Complex and fresh -- will make again. one-third of the recipe made three good-sized servings. one tbsp fresh summer savory + a large pinch dried. Dill and cilantro were going to seed, so I went light on those (the flavors still came through) and heavy on the parsley. a good use for long, thin eggplants; sliced crosswise only, they held together well.

• The master dough recipe 1 (yeast)

  • Dannausc on August 11, 2018

    Fairly easy; quite good. I would definitely make it again.

• Grilled chicken with garlic sauce (Shkmeruli)

  • Dannausc on August 11, 2018

    Good and easy, though not particularly memorable

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