Kharcho soup - general principles and methods of cooking
Sweet and nourishing soup kharcho is a real pride of Georgian cuisine. Having mastered the recipe of its preparation, you can arrange for your home a real Georgian restaurant.
Classic soup kharcho made from beef. Even its name translates as “beef soup”. Further, the original recipe for kharcho soup involves the use of a special dressing - tklapi, simply put - dried plum puree. If you want to cook real Kharcho soup in Georgian, then you can not do without this dressing. However, if you do not succeed in getting it, but you really want to eat Kharcho soup, you can use tkemali sauce to make it. If even the tkemali is inaccessible, then you can take pomegranate juice.
What do we need more? Traditional Kharcho soup is also made from rice, onion, spices, garlic and hops-suneli. Our housewives often use tomatoes when preparing this dish, but this is a matter of personal taste preferences. Ready soup kharcho in Georgia made already sprinkled on a plate with fresh cilantro.
However, in Georgian cuisine, as a rule, there are no strict recipes of the main dishes common to the whole country. The recipes of the residents of Eastern and Western Georgia may differ among themselves, so you can choose those recipes that are closer to your preferences.
Kharcho soup - food preparation
When cooking soup-kharcho important to choose the right meat and rice. Many people think that all Georgian dishes, including kharcho soup, are made from mutton. However, for this dish you need to use beef, or, in extreme cases, chicken. It is better to give preference to a piece of fresh fatty beef on the bone. Separating the meat from the bones and stripping it from the films, cut it across the fibers into small pieces.
As for rice, it can be round or long grain, but not steamed, and certainly not crushed. Kharcho soup - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Classic Kharcho Soup
Preparing a dish for this recipe, you will get not just a tasty first course, but real Georgian kharcho soup. It uses beef, rice, onions, prunes and traditional Georgian seasonings, which make it extremely tasty and fragrant.
Ingredients:
300 gr. beef brisket;
100 gr. rice;
2 onions;
3 garlic cloves;
3 pieces of prunes;
1 pod of chili hot pepper;
1 tbsp. l hops-suneli and tklapi;
50 gr. tomato puree;
1 tbsp. l rast. oils;
7 glasses of water;
to taste salt, fresh cilantro greens.
Method of preparation:
1. Cut the bacon in small pieces, put them in the pan. Then, adding a couple glasses of water so that it covers the meat, boil it over high heat for about 5 minutes.
2. Finely chop the onion, garlic, cilantro, mix the greens with tomato paste, hops-suneli, vegetable oil and cook this mixture for about 2 minutes also on high heat.
3. Add to the meat the mixture with tkemali, prunes, pepper, rice. Then, pouring the remaining water into the saucepan and salt, cook the soup for about 10 minutes on high heat.
4. Chop the parsley and dill, sprinkle them on the soup before serving.
Recipe 2: Soup Kharcho with Tomatoes
This recipe is more affordable in its components, but the taste and aroma of the dish prepared according to it is no less appetizing. It does not use the famous Georgian tklapi sauce, but the necessary sharpness and sourness is achieved using tomatoes and popular seasonings.
Ingredients:
0.5 kg of beef on the bone;
3 medium onions;
4 tbsp. l rice;
4 ripe red tomatoes;
1 clove garlic;
to taste salt and cilantro greens;
to taste spices (hops-suneli, basil, bay leaf, allspice).
Method of preparation:
1. Take a saucepan with a capacity of about 2.5 liters and cook meat in it for about an hour and a half with the lid closed. Half an hour before the end of cooking, salt to taste. From the finished broth take out the meat with bones, filter it. 2. Finely chopped onion, fry it in a frying pan with vegetable oil until soft. Then we shift the meat to the skillet with onions and fry again for about 5 minutes. Then, reducing the heat, pour a few spoons of broth into the pan, and simmer everything under the closed lid for about 15 minutes.
3. While stewing meat, we are preparing tomatoes. Having washed them, we cut each top crosswise. Then, putting the tomatoes in a bowl, pour them with boiling water (so that they are completely covered with water). After a few minutes, pour out the water and easily peel the tomatoes off the tomatoes, then chop them arbitrarily and send them to the pan, where the meat and onions are stewed, stew all together for about 10 minutes.
4. Put the pan with the broth on the fire and, when it starts to boil, put the stew with vegetables there. Again, bring to a boil and send the same rice, reduce the heat and boil for about 5 minutes. Then add the spices.
5. Before the very end of cooking, add crushed garlic and finely chopped greens to the pan. Letting the dish stand under the lid, serve it with pita bread or bread.
Recipe 3: Chicken Kharcho Soup
Chicken Kharcho soup is no less tasty than beef soup. It is just as aromatic and nourishing, and in Georgia chicken kharcho soup is no less popular than a beef dish.
Ingredients:
hen;
2 onions;
40 gr. wheat flour;
0.5 cups mashed plum tkemali or 3 ripe tomatoes;
200 UAH peeled walnuts;
3 garlic cloves;
1 tsp. hops suneli;
2 tsp. crushed cilantro seeds;
a few sprigs of cilantro;
taste:
chilli pepper;
allspice;
black pepper;
cinnamon;
carnation;
imeretinsky saffron;
Bay leaf;
salt.
Method of preparation:
1. Put the prepared chicken pieces into a pot with a capacity of about 2.5 liters and cook until half cooked; remove the fat during cooking in a separate pan.
2. Finely chopped onions, put it in another pan with the fat that we removed from the broth, and well stew. Then we put the pieces of chicken that we cooked in this pan, cover with the lid and stew further with periodic stirring for about 15 minutes. 3. Then pour the same flour and simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. Pour the chicken broth into the pan and boil everything for about 10 minutes. Then add mashed plums or tomatoes, which should be boiled beforehand and rub through a sieve. Boil everything for about 5 minutes, then add crushed walnuts with garlic, cinnamon, cloves, pepper (chilli, black, fragrant), Imereti saffron, hops suneli, seeds of cilantro, finely chopped greenery of cilantro, bay leaf, salt. Boil the soup for about 10 minutes and let it brew.
Kharcho soup - useful tips from experienced chefs
Contrary to popular belief, red hot peppers should be used very sparingly when cooking kharcho soup. Like many other spices used in the preparation of this dish, the pepper should not give it sharpness, but create an aromatic effect.
Also care should be taken with cilantro. It is distinguished by a very specific taste, which not everyone likes. Using this seasoning for the first time, do not put it in a saucepan with a ready dish, but add chopped greens to a plate before serving.
When cooking kharcho soup, it is important to remember about the technology of cooking and the order of laying products, however, you can experiment, trying to diversify its taste by adding various spices or components, for example, finely chopped cherry plum. And most importantly - cook it with a soul, and then everything will turn out as well as possible!
