Recipe - Achma

This took a pretty long time to make.  Allot around 2 and half hours.  About a half hour of that is resting time and another half is baking, but the rest is active.

But, it's completely worth it!

Achma

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk (whole is probably best, but I used 2%)
• 1 1/2 sticks butter (3/8 cup), melted +plus more for greasing the pan
• 8 oz bryndza, crumbled
• 8 oz sulguni, shredded

Directions:

1. Combine flour, salt and eggs and stir until well mixed. Add the milk and kneed until a ball is formed.
2. Cover and let rest for at least 30 minutes
3. Combine cheeses in a bowl and mix well.
4. Butter a 9x13 pan.
5. Divide dough into 8 pieces. Flour well, and, with a pasta machine, roll each piece to the next-to-finest setting to be approximately the size of your pan. 
6. Cook one pasta sheet in salted boiling water for 1 minute, shock in ice water, pat dry with paper towels, then place in the pan (cut off excess dough).  
7. Put 1/4 of the cheese on top of this layer.
8. Do the next layer and pour 1/4 of the butter.
9. Keep going layer, cheese, layer, butter until you've used up all the layers.
10. You can cook right away or prepare up to a day in advance.
11. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes, then finish under the broiler for 2 minutes. 
12. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Removing from my cold water and getting ready to set into the pan.

Setting it into the pan

This is how I poured the butter on.

References:

• https://worldgrinds.wordpress.com/category/abkhazia/
• http://cookedearthblog.com/2011/02/21/abkhazia/

Recipe - Soko Arazhanit (Mushrooms in Cream)

By far this was the easiest of the dishes.  I'm a big fan of mushrooms so I was predisposed to like this!  The dill was an interesting flavor combo with the cream.

Soko Arazhanit (Mushrooms in Cream)

Ingredients:

• 1 T butter
• 1 pound of mushrooms, trimmed and thickly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 2-inch piece of cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan, saute the mushrooms in the butter.  
2. Warm the cream in the microwave for about 60 seconds to remove the chill.  Pour over the mushrooms.
3. Sprinkle in the spices and stir well..
4. Cover and simmer the mixture for 15 to 25 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed.  During this time, stir occasionally. 
5. Remove the bay leaves and cinnamon before serving.

References:

• http://curiositykilledthecook.blogspot.com/2006/04/around-world-in-243-recipes.html
• http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/792371-Georgian-Mushrooms-in-Cream-Soko-Arazhanit

Recipe - Adjika (Sauce)

Just like the territory of Abkhazia, the Georgians claim Adjika as their own.  I will just point out that the word comes from the Abkhaz word for salt so I'll let you draw your own conclusions on that one.

Here is another time that I ended up with analysis paralysis.  Every recipe that I found online was different or an obvious duplication of another.  I read that every woman does hers a little different so there's probably about 100,000 recipies of this sauce out there.  

And now there's 100,001.

Some recipes call for tomatoes, but I didn't use them as I'm guessing that's a Russianization of the sauce.  Besides, tomatoes are new world so it would not have been original to the dish anyways.  Then again so are peppers so who knows what this was originally!

Adjika

Ingredients

• 10 fresh red hot peppers
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 T minced garlic
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

fresh and dried herbs to your liking, but this is what I did:

• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp summer savoy
• 1 T ground feenugreek (blue feenugreek would be better)
• 1/2 cup fresh coriander
• 1 cup fresh chopped dill

Directions:

1. Slice up the hot peppers and set them and the fresh herbs on a piece of wax paper to dry overnight.
2. Push the peppers, garlic, walnuts and fresh herbs through a meat grinder (or use your blender or food processor if you don't have a meat grinder).
3. Mix in the dry spices.
4. Chill in the fridge at least a half hour or even better, overnight.

References: 

• http://cookedearthblog.com/2011/02/21/abkhazia/
• http://georgianrecipes.net/2013/08/30/ajika-with-walnuts/
• http://travelbystove.palfreymedia.com/abkhazia-recipes-adjika.asp
• http://abkhazworld.com/aw/blogs/647-adjika-sauce-of-glory-pride-of-abkhazia-by-oliver-bullough

Recipe - Abkhazura (Meatballs)

This dish calls for wrapping the meatballs in caul fat which is...interesting.  Basically it's the membrane around the internal organs of certain animals.  I used pig's caul fat, but any is fine.  It's mostly fat and melts away, but not before imparting flavor and helping to both steam and roast the meat.

It's a bit gross to think about and look at, but in actuality, caul fat is no worse than your average sausage casing.  It smells pretty bad too.  But, it does it's job.  The meatballs were pretty awesome.  They seemed like encased meatballs.

I feel like caul fat would be really interested to wrap around my next meatloaf.  Just a thought.

As mentioned in the overview, I got mine at the Paulina meat market in Chicago.  When I asked if they had caul fat the guy kinda looked at me like "of course we have caul fat...why wouldn't we?"  He did inform me very apologetically that they did only have frozen, but I was just happy they had it.  Any butcher that works with whole animals could get this for you.  I'm not sure if they'd have it on hand or if you'd have to wait for the next pig/cow to come through.  According to what I've read online, it's often thrown away so calling ahead of when you need it is a good idea.

Abkhazura

Ingredients:

• 3/4 lb. ground pork
• 3/4 lb. ground beef
• 1 onion, peeled and minced
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1/2 t ground coriander seed
• 1/2 t ground cayenne
• 1/2 t ground black pepper
• 1/2 t savory
• 1 T ground fenugreek (blue feenugreek would be better)
• 2 T ground barberries
• 1 lb. caul fat
• vinegar (just a splash)
• 2 T olive oil

Directions:

1. Soak the caul fat in lukewarm water with a splash of vinegar until it separates and becomes pliable. 
2. Gently rinse very well to remove any debris and cut into four inch squares.  Choose sections that have thinner, sparser fat – nothing chunky or heavy.
3. Run onion and garlic and meat if not ground through a meat grinder.  Combine everything except the caul fat/vinegar and olive oil.  Roll up your sleeves and do this with your hands because a spoon is a poor substitute.
4. Form meatballs a little bigger than a golf ball and wrap each in a caul fat square.
5. Fry in a deep pan with olive oil over low heat until fully cooked and lightly browned. 
6. Serve with tkemali sauce for a Georgian twist, Adjika to be more Abkhazian or ketchup if you don't have either of those.

Half of these meatballs have the caul fat and half do not.

Getting ready to wrap

Cooking up

References:

• http://cookedearthblog.com/2011/02/21/abkhazia/
• http://abgeo.blogspot.com/2010/07/abkhazura-spicy-meatballs.html
• http://georgiantaste.blogspot.com/2007/12/abkhazura-spicy-meatballs.html
• http://www.starchefs.com/events/studio/techniques/vuong_loc/html/