Georgian cuisine that has long beguiled me. Walnuts, aubergine, honey and green herbs are an enticing combination. My first initiation was through a Diana Henry recipe for walnut stuffed chicken.
I’m fortunate enough to have The Georgian, a mother and daughter run restaurant in Balham who make wonderful honey cake and appetisers including kuchmachi chicken liver with pomegranate, onions and green herbs and ajapsandali aubergine salad as well as superb chicken and beetroot soups.
When I visited St Petersburg back in early 2019 well before the world and I turned against Russia’s aggressive incursions into Ukraine and I had the immense privilege of seeing the extraordinary art there, I also remember a truly exceptional Georgian meal in a restaurant full of antiques where we feasted until we were more amply stuffed than the most generous khinkali dumpling.
At National Geographic Traveller’s show last weekend I was fortunate to attend a demo by one of Georgia’s leading TV chefs/restaurateurs who demonstrated khachapuri, the distinctive fluffy yeast bread using melted brined cheese, sulguni.
Later, after a brilliant day of demos from Après Food’s Catherine Sharman, Matt Tebbutt of Saturday Kitchen, Olia Hercules whose most enticing vegetable salad of aubergines, courgettes, peppers and turkish peppers with masses of green herbs and talk of her own herb garden, has inspired me to order a whole load of herbs from Hetty’s Herbs, I went off to a Georgian party hosted by TasteofGeorgia.co.uk at Little Georgia in Liverpool Road in the heart of Barnsbury.
What an immense treat: this was a spread of gigantic variety, vivid in colour and most generous in its abundancy. The appetisers included a special cornbread, badrijani, nigvzita aubergine rolls stuffed with walnuts, garlic, coriander, and khmeli suneli, an exotic mix of ground coriander, celery seed, dried basil, dill, parsley. blue fenugreek, summer savory, mint and marigold] Pkhali is an interesting example of just how varied and vibrant the use of vegetables is in Georgian cuisine. They are balls of usually green veg such as spinach with ground walnuts, vinegar, onions, garlic and herbs mixed with a soft cheese., soft cheese, a tomato salad. I loved the chkmeruli roast chicken in a creamy, paprika pungent garlic sauce, and the khinkali dumplings filled with a brothy, spiced pork and beef filling. They’re rather like soup dumplings and designed to be eaten by hand: protocol is to hold each dumpling aloft by its stem, season with black pepper, and take a small bite from the side, sucking out the hot broth before chewing your way into the filling.
Honey cake is the apogee of Georgian desserts and this was beautifully light, moist and tangy. Interesting too was pelamushi, a cherry blancmange like dessert and tsandili, a dessert with honey, raisins and wheat.
Watch this space for my visit to Georgia next year. I’m even more determined to go now that one of the heads of tourism has explained just how important thei Jewish heritage and connections are in Georgia.
FUTURE TRENDS
Beyond Georgian food (and Balkan too) which are two cuisines which have still to breakthrough in the UK, three thoughts so far on foods we may well be seeing more of:
Waldorf salad is back. I’ve suddenly seen it cropping up with on a number of menus with many a modern kick. My take from a fridge raid included lime pickled shallots, a tip taken from Ben Tish’s new book Mediterra where he credits Nikita, his wife, for this delicious pickle which I love way beyond the delicious lamb kofte recipe.
Teacakes are being given an upward glow by Daylesford in their new collection for Christmas with posh fruit curd fillings and they are utterly delectable.
Gozlemi are a Turkish pancake filled with oozing cheese and other fillings whether spinach or meat and surely a tantalising crossover of the allure of a melted cheese sandwich and a pancake.
I tasted them at Pimlico’s Tachbrook Market’s stand Istanbul Gozleme, a small business that I see roams other London markets too.
NEW FINDS: PIMLICO
Whilst, I am on jury service in this area, I’ve discovered two other gems, firstly a delightful Italian deli/cafe Bon Venuti which is gorgeous to look at and sit outside for a toasted bruschetta sandwich freshly and beautifully prepared (or a panini which comes wrapped in ribbon) with a glass of fresh Sicilian lemonade. Inside there are all sorts of Italian delicacies from pistachio mortadella to guincale, interesting sounding fresh pasta and all manner of prada for the larder.
I’ve also wanted to visit Rippon Cheese Store for years but this was the first time I actually got there. Great timing as was one of the few very hot days of the year and their walk-in cold store where all the cheeses are enticing displayed on shelves lined with ratafia was a beautiful place to linger. It is incredibly well stocked with many of my favourite British cheeses such as Rollright and Sinodun Hill, a superb choice of blue cheeses including Spanish, French and Italian, fresh burrata and some excellent Orkney oatcakes
FAVOURITE NOSTALGIC INGREDIENTS AT THE GRILL AT THE DORCHESTER
Tom Booton of The Grill at The Dorchester may still be ridiculously young and charmingly friendly but he loves nostalgia and posh pastiches of guilty pleasures such as what he claims is the original KFC recipe. I prefer his more haute dishes such as a sublime rich mushroom pate topped with cepe jelly served with the milk bun loaf and a most technically impressive chicken galantine filled with duck liver, pistachios and served with chicory, chicken fat dressing and decadent duck liver snow added with much elan at the table.
I also adored his strawberry trifle exquisitely made with proper custard and liberal booze yet served in classic sundae glasses that took me straight back to arriving at my Grandma’s in Tulse Hill and rushing into the kitchen to check in her larder that there was trifle for dessert. I may also have often swapped the toppings so that I got the sherry trifle rather than the child’s version…
There is also a Georgian restaurant on Lordship Lane, East Dulwich called Kartuli.
What a great piece! And it reminds me of when Russian soprano Galina vishnevskaya was hosting Benjamin Britten and Peter Piers in the Soviet era, and was desperate about how she could feed them, until she realised the answer was to take them to Georgia where there was still plenty of good things to eat!