Abkhazia - Menu and Overview

After a bunch of recipe comparison and keeping in mind that I have actual Georgia coming up in the future, I've selected my menu:


Abkhazura - Meatballs
Adjika - Sauce
Soko Arazhanit - Mushrooms in Cream Achma - Buttery Cheesy Noodle-y Goodness Life lesson obtained.  Sometimes when one takes a short cut, it takes a lot longer than just doing it the right way to begin with.
A co-worker of mine had suggested that I check out a store in downtown Skokie, but I found a Georgian deli called, creativly enough, "Georgian Deli" less than two miles from my house that,  according to yelp, sells one of the cheeses that I need for the Achma.  In the Chicago area there is a brand of grocery stores called Farm Fresh that sells ingredients popular to the ethnic groups in the area and there was one about two blocks from the Georgian deli.  But I didn't want to go to Skokie even though it was only 15 minutes away.  I also liked the idea of buying a pastry at Georgian Deli.

So I went to the Farm Fresh on Devon.  And it was mostly India/Paskastan stuff.  It was a great store.  Just not Russian/Georgian.  I should have gone to Skokie.  But, the cute Georgian deli made it worth the trip.  I got a really interesting Khachapuri with sulguni cheese and some cured meat inside.  The dough was flaky like a croissant. Achma is considered a type of Khachapuri, but is not like I got at the Georgian Deli.  It was great to be able to contrast the two very different styles.

We ended up running around to a few other grocery stores.  Being the Saturday after a big holiday (new year's) mostly everything was gone.  But, eventually, we got it all!

Abkhazura
They were good.  The casing of caul fat did add a very unique texture.  This was the only part of the meal that I felt comfortable feeding to Z (directly anyways, he's still nursing so will get all the flavors secondhand later on).  He seemed to like it just fine.
Adjika
It did remind me a lot of pesto.  There were walnuts instead of pinenuts and various other herbs instead of basil.  No oil, though.
Soko Arazhanit
I liked these.  My husband did not but he's not a fan of dill. Achma - cheesy lasagna-like dish
This was by far our favorite dish. Everything about it was amazing, except maybe how long it took to make!

Here is Z enjoying some yummy Abkhazura!