Georgian cuisine gave the world a lot of wonderful dishes. But one of the most famous can be called khachapuri - a flatbread with cheese. She happens different types and with various fillings, because every region of Georgia is rightfully proud of own version dishes. Let's learn how to cook it by choosing the recipe for khachapuri with cheese to our liking.

It would seem that you can come up with an intricate one, having at hand a minimum of ingredients - cheese, flour and a lactic acid product. However, Georgian culinary experts skillfully wield several of these components, preparing various types of cakes in Georgian. And it is difficult to choose the most delicious option from them.

Adjarian-style khachapuri are interesting in their own way. They are made in the form of a boat, pouring into the center a raw egg and baking it so that it barely grabs. If you bake Megrelian cakes, then they will resemble a pizza with cheese - this is a round open baked goods... Products in Imeretian and Tbilisi are like a round ruddy sun, and inside them is hidden delicate filling from cheese.

Khachapuri can be made from different fillings, but cheesy is the most popular

Traditionally, any kind of Georgian bread was made from yeast-free dough... It was made on the basis of yogurt, a Georgian lactic acid product. If you follow the recipe of Georgian culinary experts, then you should know that yogurt can be replaced with kefir, sour cream, yogurt and even yogurt. However, home cooks often simplify the cooking process by making puff pastry cakes or using yeast for sourdough. Cakes are baked in a pan or in the oven.

As for the filling, modern chefs can experiment here too. It is recommended to cook a treat with cheese such as Imeretian, Suluguni, Chanakh, Kobi or Ossetian. But in the absence of them, they are replaced with feta cheese, mozzarella and even cottage cheese. To get enough of the dish, many chefs make cakes with cheese and meat, changing the recipe, and this does not lose the taste of the dish.

Gift from Abkhaz cuisine

Let's first learn the recipe you learn to make cheese cakes in Abkhazian. For it, we will use a dough based on a fermented milk product in order to bring the cooking method as close as possible to the traditional one. However, you can speed up the process and make a puff meal.

Serve hot cakes

First, find the following foods in your home:

• 1 liter of curdled milk;
• 3-4 tbsp. flour;
• 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
• 1 tsp soda;
• 1/2 tsp salt;
• 1 kg of suluguni cheese;
• 100 g butter;
• 3 eggs.

If you bought too salty suluguni cheese, then cut it into cubes and cover with cold water. When he stands for a couple of hours, he will give excess salt to the liquid. And you just have to squeeze it and knead it to make the filling. In it, you need to add 2 raw eggs and a piece of butter weighing about 50 g. Now the mass needs to be left alone for two hours.

Then we start preparing the dough. For him, we mix curdled milk with soda, salt and a piece of butter, which we first take out of the refrigerator so that it becomes soft. Add flour to this mixture, but gradually, so that the dough is smooth and soft. Then we divide it into parts and roll it into circles. As a result, you get flat cakes with a diameter of an ordinary saucer.

The case is small - as the recipe indicates, it remains to put the suluguni filling and make something like a bag, bringing the edges of the dough to the center. Having pinched it securely, turn it over and flatten it. As a result, we will have a cake with cheese. Be sure to seal the seam butter... At the end, you need to beat the egg and grease all the cakes with it.

We will fry the Abkhazian treat in a pan. To do this, put butter on it and melt it. Then quickly enough to fry the cake on both sides. As soon as it becomes appetizing in appearance - ruddy and golden, fry the next one.

Removing the Abkhazian khachapuri from the pan, do not forget to grease them with butter. In this case, they will not stick to each other and acquire a pleasant golden shine, as in the photo. The dish should be enjoyed with fervor, with heat.

Cheese cake from hospitable Imereti

Now we will offer you next recipe- Khachapuri in Imeretian style. In many ways, you will find similarities with the process of baking an Abkhazian flatbread. However, as a result, you will get a slightly different dish, no less tasty and aromatic.

Khachapuri - Easy to prepare pies but taste delicious

Let's take the following ingredients for it:

• 0.5 l of lactic acid product;
• 2 eggs;
• 1.5 tbsp. l. Sahara;
• a pinch of salt;
• 3-4 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
• 1 tsp soda;
• 2 tbsp. l. vodka;
• 1 kg of cheese;
• 2-3 yolks;
• butter.

Imeretian-style flatbreads can be prepared in two types - thin and plump. We suggest using the recipe for the second option, since the products are more delicate and airy. First, knead the dough.

Combine eggs, beaten with sugar and salt, with fermented milk product, soda and vodka. Kneading the mass, add to it vegetable oil... Then beat the mixture. The next step is to introduce flour. The dough should be tender, but not sticky to your hands at all. Let him rest for about an hour.

At this time, we will make the filling. For her, you can take suluguni, but if it is not at hand, try the dish with Adyghe cheese or feta cheese. Alternatively, we combine any two cheeses, for example, suluguni and feta cheese, and then add a piece of butter and yolks to the mass.

We start making dough cakes. To do this, we will divide it into two parts and gently knead each part with our hands. Put the filling in the center and bring the edges of the cakes together. Having fastened them, we get a bag. Turn it over to the seam and knead it. The thickness of the Imeretian khachapuri should be about one and a half centimeters.

Then you can cook the dish both in a frying pan and in the oven. If you choose the first option, then you need to warm up the dishes and fry the cake on one side under a covered lid, and then gently turn it over. Grease the fried side with butter right in the pan.

For cooking in the oven, you will also need a mixture to coat the top of the products. To do this, combine the yolk with a little milk or butter and beat a little. We apply this mixture to the surface and send it to the oven.

It is enough to bake the cake for a quarter of an hour at a temperature of 200 degrees, as indicated traditional recipe... When it is cooked in the oven, again grease it with yolk and put it in the heat for a couple of minutes. Then khachapuri in Imeretian style will turn out golden and very appetizing.

Fast and delicious Megrelian cheese cakes

Let's study another recipe and prepare a Megrelian treat. It resembles a pizza in appearance, since it is made in the shape of a circle, and the filling in it remains open. First, let's collect all the ingredients for the dish:

• 200 ml of liquid (milk or water);
• 0.5 tsp Sahara;
• salt on the tip of a knife;
• 0.5 tsp dry yeast;
• 350 g flour;
• 30 g butter;
• 1 egg;
• 300 g of suluguni cheese or another type.

First, let's prepare the dough. For him, combine warm milk with sugar, salt, yeast and flour. We knead it until the mass stops sticking to the walls of the dishes and hands. Then add soft butter. Now we set aside the dough for an hour - let the yeast start working in a warm place. When it rises, we will accept it, and after half an hour we will begin to cook Megrelian khachapuri.

Such khachapuri also looks great on a festive table.

It remains for us to make a tortilla and put on it two-thirds of the cheese, previously grated. You can make the filling from Suluguni or Adyghe. Now turn the cake into a bag, bringing its edges to the center. Gently flatten it into a circle, learning how to do this with the help of a video. Now we need to give the khachapuri a classic look - this means that we make a hole in the center.

Fill the surface of the cake with the rest of the cheese. Lubricate it with a beaten egg, and then bake it in the oven. Just a quarter of an hour is enough for delicious cakes to decorate your table. We are in a hurry to call those close to the table to enjoy the dish while it is hot.

Tasty treat in Tbilisi style

Let's move on to the next option cheese dish... This recipe will allow you to find out what Tbilisi-style tortillas are. If you stick to it, then you will get four large khachapuri, which are quickly baked in a pan.

You can use Suluguni or Adyghe cheese as a filling

First, collect all the ingredients:

• 0.5 l of kefir;
• 1 kg of flour;
• 4 chicken eggs;
• 1 tsp soda;
• 600 g of cheese.

To make the dough, combine kefir and two eggs in a bowl. Add soda and flour to the mixture. We are not in a hurry to pour out all the flour at once: we may need less or a little more of it. As a result, the dough should be soft and tender. Moreover, it should not stick to your hands.

For the filling, rub the cheese, adding two raw eggs to it. You can make a mixture with Adyghe cheese and feta cheese. After mixing the mass, let's do the cakes. To cook Tbilisi-style khachapuri, divide the dough into four parts at once, and then each of them into two more, making one part a little smaller. Roll out the cakes, resulting in four large and four smaller ones.

Put the filling on a large tortilla. Put the second circle on top and pinch the edges. We repeat the operation with the rest of the cakes and fry them in a pan. Ready-made khachapuri in Tbilisi is usually cut like a pie and served hot.

Hearty meat dish

Finally, we will offer you a recipe with meat. Such Georgian-style cakes are able to feed the most hungry person, and their taste is amazing. It's nice that they are very simple to prepare.

To make meat dishes very quickly, we will prepare them from ready-made puff pastry. For this we need more filling - about 300 g of meat to our taste. Do not forget about spices, so that the cake reminds of Georgia, we recommend using khmeli-suneli.

First of all, we make circles from puff pastry. Put the filling in the center of each. First, for this, we twist the meat and onions, if you do not use ready-made minced meat... Traditionally, lamb, pork or beef are used. If you want a Georgian dish with chicken meat, then add more onions to it - the treat will turn out juicy.

The cake must be collected in a bag by pulling the edges and blinding them well. After that, flatten the puff pastry blanks very carefully so as not to tear them. Do not forget to grease a baking sheet with oil before baking the dish.

A puff pastry treat should be baked for half an hour. In this case, you do not need to preheat the oven too much: 180 degrees is enough. Be sure to grease the cakes with butter while they are hot. The meat treat will be even tastier if you add greens to the minced meat, so feel free to adjust the recipe.

Here is such a stack of hot khachapuri

Khachapuri is a very tasty, popular Georgian pastry stuffed with pickled cheese: Suluguni or Imeretian (they cook more with him in Adjara and Ossetia). A quarter of this Caucasian cheese pie can completely satisfy your hunger, and after a meal some people may even think that they have overeat.

Khachapuri is very good in the heat! They are usually cooked in a large number and cover with towels to keep warm. There are always a lot of guests in Abkhazian, Adjarian and Georgian houses. For important holidays or other events that are significant for the family, at least 100 guests gather at the table: neighbors, acquaintances, relatives - the closest and those who come from neighboring cities and villages. Everyone who can help the owners to cook, therefore, khachapuri on the table are different, because each hostess bakes them a little differently.

Types of khachapuri

Khachapuri are closed and open... The dough is being prepared for them and yeast, and yeast-free... Khachapuri make different geometric shapes: and in the form of round cakes (in the shape of a frying pan), and square, and even boats (in Adjarian) - this is when the dough rolled into a circle, sprinkled with cheese, begins to be tucked from the edges, as if forming a diamond, then - pinched from both ends. It turns out a boat. So the khachapuri are baked almost until cooked and, shortly before the end, an egg is broken inside the boat - it solidifies beautifully in the khachapuri when baked.

And khachapuri can also be flaky, this is also an Adjarian recipe, called khachapuri "Batumi" or: thinly rolled dough is dipped in boiling water for a couple of minutes, greased with butter, covered with the next leaf blanched in boiling water, sprinkled with cheese and so on another 8 sheets of dough - then greased with butter then sprinkled with cheese. Does it look like lasagna? Then this large, raw and multi-layered khachapuri is settled a little so that all the ingredients get used to each other and cut into portioned pieces, which are then baked into delicious khachapuri.

And you can sandwich the khachapuri differently - roll out the dough thinly, grease it with oil, roll it up in four and roll it out again. Put the filling on it and then pinch the edges.

What can be added to the khachapuri cheese filling and is it necessary

Some add eggs, herbs, garlic and various others to the filling for khachapuri. good products... But we believe that real khachapuri does not need additives. Only cheese.

Any additives are more typical for Ossetian pies, which are prepared in a similar way, but filled with more varied fillings.

Do I need to add sugar to the dough for khachapuri

Someone loves khachapuri of a strict, masculine taste, then, of course, sugar in the dough is not needed.
And if you like the combination of the salinity of the cheese and the light sweetness of the dough, then you can add a little sugar.

Focus on your taste and the taste of your guests.

What to make khachapuri from:

for 4 pieces with a diameter of 22-24 cm (according to the size of the baking dish)

Flour - how much dough will take so as not to stick to your hands (about 1 kg);
Eggs - 2 pieces;
Sugar - 1 tbsp. spoon (optional);
Water - 2 glasses;
Dry French bakery yeast - 1 tbsp. spoon;
Sunflower oil - 100 g;
Butter - 50 g;
Salt - 1 teaspoon;
Suluguni or Imeretian cheese - about 1.5 kg

Butter for greasing ready-made khachapuri - 70-100 g;
Flour for sprinkling the table when rolling out the dough and for sprinkling the baking dish

How to cook khachapuri

Knead yeast dough for khachapuri

Combine water with sugar (if you will sweeten the dough), stir. Then add yeast. Let the mixture sit quietly and the yeast will revive. When the yeast starts to foam, add salt.

• Combine 2 types of butter, warm slightly to dissolve the butter, cool slightly until warm and combine with yeast and eggs. Add flour and knead the dough. Urgently wrap up in towels or other warm rags and put in a very warm place (as a rule, it will be warmest at the top, closer to the ceiling in the kitchen, where the stove works. And our dough stood in a cool house at all on a wooden board placed on an electric heater. The dough should not come into direct contact with hot (more than 50 C)).
• After an hour, the dough will grow up, you can knead it again with your hands and put it to ripen again (for 2-3 hours). But if there is no time, then you can cook khachapuri immediately after the first rise.

Prepare the filling for khachapuri

If your suluguni is too wet or you kept it in the freezer wrapped in foil until better times, then take it out in advance and put it in a colander so that the glass will have excess water.

We dry the thawed cheese in a colander

Then - grate the suluguni on a coarse grater. Give it a try. If necessary, add some salt to the grated cheese.

Preparing the filling for khachapuri

How to sculpt khachapuri

• Divide the dough into 4 parts, roll each into a ball, and place on the work surface of the table, sprinkled with flour (so that the dough does not stick)

The dough was divided into parts - these are the future khachapuri cheese cakes

• In turn, roll each ball into a round, thin cake. Scoop up a large handful with both hands grated cheese and put it in a slide in the middle of the dough. Take the edges of the dough, gather them into a knot over the filling and pinch the ends.
• Then - gently crush with your palm, making a cake out of a ball and put in a frying pan (baking dish, sprinkled with flour), seam (pinch point) down. Now - quickly smooth the flat cake with your palm along the bottom of the pan, lightly slapping it so that it stretches a little more, completely covering the bottom of the form. - using the example of whitewash, only the whites are small, and the khachapuri are large, but the method of sculpting is the same.
• Lightly sprinkle with flour on top and bake in a hot oven at a temperature of 250 degrees (or even hot, we generally baked these khachapuri during power outages in a poorly warming electric oven, so we set the temperature to a maximum of 300 degrees). If the oven is warmed up well, the khachapuri will bake very quickly, about 10-15 minutes.
• As soon as a clear smell of baking appeared and the khachapuri turned brown, take it out immediately, put it on a dish or tray, grease with a generous piece of butter and cover so that it didn’t have time to cool down.

Quickly grease the khachapuri with butter so that it has time to melt and drink on the top of the cake.

Also bake the rest of the khachapuri. Serve hot.

Features of cooking khachapuri and taste

Our khachapuri turns out to be pleasantly heavy, with a dense and very delicious filling, seductive aromas of cheese, butter and freshly baked goods. Slices of khachapuri, slightly rough, oily and hot, are very pleasant to hold in your hands.

Real Abkhazian khachapuri - very tasty and hearty Caucasian food! Real jam!

Achma is a type of khachapuri, but made of many layers of dough, which is slightly boiled. It is very, very satisfying and very, very tasty.

dough:
egg - 5
water - 300 ml
salt - a pinch
flour - how much will it take

filling:
cheese - 1 kg 200 g
butter - 400-450 g (for lubricating layers)

It takes me about an hour to cook it. Most of the time is spent rolling out the dough very thinly. And the main difficulty of achma is the same.
I am writing the recipe in great detail to make it easier for you to make.
Believe me, this is not at all difficult as it seems at first glance. If you have any questions, I will answer with pleasure.

We need:

two large basins
two or three towels
a large colander, with a volume of about 2-3 liters
wooden spoon
try to place a bowl of cold water and a place for a towel as close as possible to each other.

Let's start with preparation:

Place a large bowl of water on gas and let the water boil. The water should boil continuously during cooking.
Place a basin of cold water next to the gas.
Place one towel on the table and put the other next to it.
Grate the cheese. Divide it in two.
Melt butter. Let it cool slightly. But the oil must remain liquid all the time.
Grease the mold well with oil.

Let's start preparing the dough:

Beat eggs a little. Add water and salt. Stir.
Then add flour and knead the dough well. The dough should be smooth and elastic.
Divide the dough into 9 pieces.
The two parts of the dough are the first and the last layer, they should be a little larger. The other seven layers are smaller, they will be inside.
We will NOT cook large portions. Let's leave it raw. And we'll boil the little ones a little.

1 layer of achma: Roll out the dough so that it hangs slightly over the edges of the mold (by 1-2 cm). And, as I said, we do not cook this first layer.
Distribute the dough evenly over the entire mold.

2nd layer of achma: I roll out the dough so thin that it becomes one and a half times larger than the shape itself on all sides.
Gently transfer the dough and immerse it in a bowl of boiling water. I quickly immerse the dough, but with undulating movements so that it does not stick together in the water.
The dough should be immersed in boiling water FOR 12 SECONDS ONLY. Then very carefully, but very quickly, using a wooden spoon, we drive the dough into a colander and let the water drain for 1 minute.
Then transfer the dough to a bowl of cold water and cool it well. Again, using a spoon or hand, drive it into a colander and let the water drain well.
Then put the dough on a towel and dry it well with the second towel.
Now you can transfer the dough into the mold and put it in waves according to the size of the mold. It falls in waves because it is larger than the shape.
Grease the dough abundantly with oil (you can use a brush, or you can use your hand).

3rd layer of achma: - repeat the procedure. Everything is the same as with the second layer.
After we grease the third layer with oil, we spread on it - 1/2 PART OF CHEESE.

4th layer of achma: - we do it as 2nd layer.
5th layer of achma: - we do it as 2nd layer.
6th layer of achma: - we do AS 3th layer. Put the other half of the CHEESE.
7th layer of achma: - we make it as 2nd layer.
8th layer of achma: - we make it as 2nd layer.

9th layer of achma: - we do it AS 1 LAYER, which we DO NOT cook.
Now with the edges that hung down, we will cover boiled dough... With the last layer we will cover the entire achma and its edges with a gentle non-sharp knife and push it along the sides of the form past 9 layers to the very bottom.
We get something like a box with a lid.
Put it in the refrigerator.

On the second day, first cut. And then we will bake in a preheated oven.
It will take you about an hour to prepare the achma.
Achma should brown a little.

Small pieces of dough should be rolled out as thin as possible. The thinner the dough is, the more tender and tasty the achma will be. And when you cut it, then in the cut it will be openwork.
It takes a lot of oil because it has to be cooked in this oil.
Achma must be cut into portioned pieces before putting it in the oven.
Do not make it from just one Suluguni - mix with another cheese. Suluguni quickly cools down and achma becomes tough.
Put in the oven just before the guests arrive, as it is served hot. It will take you about an hour to cook it.
The fire should be less than average.
Achma should brown a little.
Do not forget! Each layer of dough must be greased with oil.
The baking dish can be aluminum or enameled. But always deep! Achma turns out to be high. I have a form for achma - enameled, deep, 30x40 cm in size and about 6 cm deep.
Do not be alarmed if the dough breaks during cooking. The main thing is that the first and last layers should not be torn.
I cook it in a day. I keep it in the refrigerator. And on the second day I bake it.
The dough must be beaten off by hitting it on the table about 30-40 times. Those. toss it up so that it falls down and hits the table with force recipe copied from the Culinary Piggy Bank site

Since these two peoples live in the neighborhood of Georgians and Abkhazians, the kitchens are borrowed from each other a little. Anything is put into the recipe for khachapuri with cheese in Abkhazian soft cheese... Some housewives use mozzarella, some put it in appetizing dish suluguni cheese, Imeretian cheese, feta cheese, and there are also those who like to cook it delicious dish with soft Adyghe cheese. In Abkhazia, such cakes made with cheese are called Abkhaz achash, or in another way, such a cake is called khachapur, but not khachapuri. Therefore, "khachapuri" is the Georgian name for this hearty and tasty national dish... Also, this dish can be prepared from homemade cheese which is just cooked and looks like fresh curd.

Ingredients

• - Adyghe cheese 1 kg
• - butter 130 g
• - wheat flour 1 kg
• - fatty kefir 500 ml
• - egg 1 pc
• - dry yeast 1 tsp
• - sugar half a teaspoon
• - salt

Preparation

To prepare an Abkhazian khachapuri recipe with cheese, you must first prepare a yeast starter. To do this, pour some warm water into a glass, add dry yeast, one tablespoon of flour, sugar, mix and set aside for 15 minutes. After the leaven of yeast, sugar and flour becomes bubbly, it is necessary to sift the flour into a volumetric bowl, make a depression in the middle, pour the leaven into this depression, break one egg, salt to taste and periodically add pre-melted butter and kefir at room temperature knead the dough for khachapuri with Abkhazian cheese. The dough itself needs to be kneaded for a long time. Until it becomes elastic.

Then it must be transferred to a bowl of a suitable size, covered with a clean towel and placed in a warm place for one hour. In the meantime, the dough for Abkhazian khachapuri with cheese rises, you need to prepare the filling. To do this, the Adyghe cheese must be grated on a coarse grater or crumbled very finely. If the cheese is not salty, then you need to salt it to taste. When the dough comes up, divide it into the same number of pieces as you divide the cheese filling. That is, you should get 200 grams of dough and 200 grams each cheese filling for each khachapur. From each piece of dough, you need to roll a ball, and then roll out a cake about 3 cm thick.

From the crushed cheese, you need to mold a ball and put it in the middle of the rolled flat cake. For the juiciness of the filling, you can add a little frozen and also grated butter to the grated cheese. After that, you need to wrap a ball of cheese with all the edges of the dough and pinch it carefully so that there is not a single hole. If excess dough remains when sculpting the Abkhazian khachapuri recipe with cheese, then they need to be cut off. Then the surface where you will roll out the cake should be sprinkled with flour, crush it a little with your hands, turn it over with the seam down and roll it out 1 cm thick to the size of the baking sheet or pan in which the khachapur will be baked.

When you put the rolled cheesecake on a baking sheet, you need to make a small hole in the middle so that steam escapes when baking. After that, the Abkhazian achash should be put in the oven for 15 minutes and baked at a temperature of 200 degrees. The finished baked tortilla should be covered with golden brown... After the Abkhazian achash is baked, it must be removed from the oven and greased with butter on top. Then it can be cut into pieces and served hot with tea or kefir.

I recall the calm October sea in the morning, the deserted embankment, the flavor of Caucasian weddings with lobes (this is a local double-sided cylinder-shaped drum with lamb skin membranes), lezginka and the sun shining through amber grapes. And the smell ... The aroma of freshly baked khachapuri with cheese and fresh raw egg on top.

Then, I remember, having plucked up journalistic impudence, I asked to photograph the baker's sacred rite. It turned out to be a young, taciturn and very embarrassed man. He let everything be watched and filmed.

Abkhazian Adjarian khachapuri

Bearing in mind that Abkhazians cook quickly and uncomplicated, we can take a chance and repeat this uncomplicated, but tasty and satisfying meal at home - it will work out great dish on breakfast! Of course, the oven is hardly replaced by the oven, but one friend of mine suggested that you can use a large ceramic floor tile for baking. On it, as on a baking sheet, we will put our khachapuri. Just to begin with, we will heat the tile very hot.

Dough: 1 tbsp. warm water (but this is only if you do not have real Caucasian yogurt), 1 tbsp. l sugar, salt on the tip of a knife, yeast (7 g dry or 25 g fresh), vegetable oil. In general, I suspect that it is better to take olive or corn oil. Somehow I haven't seen sunflowers in the Caucasus.

We mix warm water with sugar and salt, add a little flour and dry yeast (or pour in fresh ones that come up) and begin to knead. Add flour as needed and knead the dough with handles. Add butter (50 g) and knead until the dough "puffs". Next - under the film and let it come up.

Filling: don't even try to look for real Imeretian cheese if you don't have Armenian, Georgian or Karabakh Azeri friends.

I was lucky to taste real homemade Imeretian cheese in New Athos. In consistency, it resembles mozzarella, but in taste it is closer to suluguni. Imeretian cheese is very soft, fatty, oozing with fresh milk, slightly spicy.

How to replace Imeretian cheese? Let's try to mix mozzarella with Adyghe cheese (not to be confused with feta cheese) and add salt. Mozzarella can be slightly frozen and grated, while the Adyghe is simply kneaded with a fork, while adding a little sour cream (or the aforementioned yogurt) to the mixture.

A boat - on a hot ceramic tile, filling on top (2 tablespoons) - and in the oven for 15 minutes, until it is browned. As soon as the khachapuri is almost ready - quickly take out, slap one raw egg into the center and for 1-2 minutes - into the oven. Before our eyes, the protein should turn white. As soon as this happened - urgently save it from the oven - put it on a wooden board and grease the edges with melted butter. In the center, on top of the egg, a piece of cold butter will look wonderful.

Now - how to eat khachapuri... Toss the egg with a fork, picking off small pieces with your hands and dipping them in the egg and cheese sauce. An important detail - majari... Oh, this intoxicating young wine is sung by many poets; I do not even presume to be jealous with them, my tongue is powerless here.

... And you will hear slow songs
Your girlfriends, named sisters,
About the youth that hid in the skies,
About the knight who came to you from the mountains.

Zurna will begin to praise your smile,
The drum will echo with her bass
And everyone who comes to congratulate you
He will be drunk from the sultry Madjari.

Mirza Gelovani

Market in Sukhumi

If you are in Sukhumi, go to the market, look around, listen and inhale the aromas. Here is an elderly highlander in a huge cap selling an early mandarin - slightly greenish, but fragrant and unusually sweet. He speaks bad Russian, but he chooses the most beautiful fruits for you with knotty, hard-working hands. When they saw my camera, two Armenian women smoothed themselves and broke into a smile: “Look, Goarik, we are being filmed! Sit nicely! " They are surprised at what I buy and know how to choose asparagus beans- wow, Russian - but she eats our food!

Where does this aroma come from? Oh-oh-oh, I know - they cook a hodgepodge in Georgian: right on the market you can buy yourself a large portion. True, no one now calls this dish Georgian - "thanks" to the unforgotten war, but the dish itself is there!

Solyanka in Georgian

Get out the cauldron, we will enchant. Let's take beef, lamb and pork - it may not be the best, and not very successful pieces will do. It takes about a kilogram to feed an entire family. Throw the beef and pork into a saucepan and cook with the husked onion and one well-washed carrot (we'll throw it all out later). As soon as it boils, lightly add salt to the broth - it will be easier to remove the foam. Remember that our meat is not the softest, so you need to cook it longer and on a slow flame.

We also need a little fat: I love mutton, and you see for yourself. We cut 40 grams of fat into pieces and melt in a cauldron - take out the fry and throw it away. Fry mutton well on it and add to the broth as well. In the remaining fat, feel free to throw 5-6 very evil onions cut into half rings. Fry until the onion becomes transparent, after which you need to add a couple of finely chopped large ripe tomatoes(many recommend 1-2 tablespoons. tomato paste, but this is completely out of hopelessness, believe me). Add the diced to the same place lightly salted cucumbers and add broth as needed.

It is necessary to simmer all this for 15-20 minutes, then remove the finished meat from the broth, cut it into pieces and toss it over to overcooking, while adding whole hot green peppers, utskho-suneli, crushed garlic, salt and sugar if necessary (if too sour ). Now it would be nice to add a few pieces of cherry plum or a little tkemali sauce ... But that's not for everybody. Pour a glass into the cauldron cucumber pickle... After 10 minutes, the dish is ready.

Now about etiquette. The southerners differ in that they are in no hurry. For, as the wise say, "whoever understands life is in no hurry." Slowly lay out the meat in the sauce in bowls, pour everything with a good ladle of strained broth, sprinkle it all on top with chopped cilantro and half rings of sweet salad onions. And carry it to the table, not forgetting to serve dry adjika on the table. By the way, according to observations, such a hodgepodge is best prepared by men.

Abkhazian coffee

But do not let men go to coffee. In no case. They will either spoil it or miss it, which is tantamount to spoilage. Take this in your gentle hands. Pour sugar into a Turk (preferably copper) at the rate of 1 tsp. for 2 cups of coffee. I mean normal coffee cups- 90-100 ml each. Put the turkey on the fire and wait until the sugar begins to melt and caramelize. Now add 1 tsp of coffee. per cup and pour in the same number of cups cold water plus another half a cup on the ground. Stir and cook. In no case do not interfere with it during cooking: if it rises, just hit the bottom of the turkey several times on the table - the foam will settle. Let it rise a couple of times and remove it from the fire. Next, slightly beat the foam with a spoon, put it into cups, then pour in the coffee.

They drink it without fail with sweets, cookies or, as in Odessa, with fried nuts. And with conversations - especially on the female side of the table. About children, about ashotik-petros-sako, how he again haunts the mother's heart, about Arusik and her fiance - there he is, there, at the bottom of a cup in the form of a bear with a bouquet of flowers; Yes, and you, Marinochka, let's look into the cup! My God, but what has not been said, not guessed — if only everyone was happy! If only everyone was safe and sound! Peace to your home!

You can try fresh khachapuri in the "At the Swan" khachapuri on the Swan Lake of New Athos. In October, its price is only 80 rubles, and coffee freshly brewed on the sand costs 20 rubles there. A large plate of hodgepodge in the market in Sukhumi costs 50 rubles. But for the pleasure of drinking coffee in the morning, looking at the sea, you do not have to pay.

Illustrations in the text: Marina Bazhenova