Kharcho
Kharcho is a spicy Georgian soup which came to prominence during Soviet times and was served at almost every canteen. It is hot (you can adjust the heat by adding less chillies or garlic), and requires certain spices.
We provide several cooking options – one if you are lucky enough to have original Georgian herbal mixes/plum purées and a more general recipe with a few substitutions. The outcome of both scenarios will be a hearty delicious hot soup and a unique eating experience.
Kharcho
By Published: October 12, 2013
[ezcol_2fifth id="" class="" style=""] [/ezcol_2fifth] [ezcol_3fifth_end id="" class="" style=""] Kharcho is a spicy …
Ingredients
- 400 grams beef
- 2+2 litres water
- 2 onions
- 1 bayleaf
- 5 peppercorns
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cloves
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1 carrot
- 2 tomatoes (to substitute for tklapi – plum puree or tkemali – plum sauce)
- 2/3 birdeye chillies (or 1 long one)
- 1 garlic bulb
- 100 grams walnuts
- 1/5 glass rice (be careful if you want to add more, you can get the soup thicker than desired)
- 1 handful fresh coriander
- 1 tablespoon khmeli-suneli (Georgian mix of herbs) (Can be substituted with 1teaspoon of coriander powder and 1 teaspoon of fenugreek leaves)
Instructions
- Rinse the rice and add some hot water over it, set aside to soak
- Put cut in pieces beef and one of the onions, peeled and halved, into 2 litres of cold water.
Bring to boil and reduce the heat.
After 15 minutes pour the broth out (discarding the used water), rinse the meat and the onion off the foam, and pour over another 2 litres of fresh cold water.
Again, bring to boil, reduce the heat and add a bay leaf, cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves and salt. Simmer for 30 minutes - ~ Meanwhile:
Blitz up walnuts, set aside.
Chop up the carrot, set aside.
Peel the garlic, set aside.
Skin tomatoes (first put them in hot water for 2 minutes and then in cold water for the ease of peeling) and blitz them.
Slice a half of the second onion into small pieces and slice the chilies.
Add the chilies and the sliced half of the onion into the blitzed tomatoes, set aside
- After 30 minutes of simmering, discard the boiled onion, add the chopped carrot to the pot and carry on simmering for another 15 minutes
- ~ Meanwhile:
Slightly oil the frying pan, heat it up and stir-fry the mix of blitzed tomatoes, chilies and half of the onion for five minutes.
- Add the rice to the soup pot, simmer for 15 minutes
- Add blitzed walnuts, fried tomatoes mix, ground coriander and fenugreek leaves, simmer for 5 minutes
- Chop up the remaining half of the onion into small pieces, add to the soup, simmer for 2 minutes
- Crush the garlic with the garlic press, add into the soup pot, simmer for 2 minutes
- Turn off the heat, add fresh coriander. Enjoy!
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