Plum tkemali is a classic recipe. Tkemali plum sauce "Classic" - the perfect combination of sour and sweet taste

10.09.2019 Dishes for children

Residents of sunny Georgia believe that the use of tkemali is one of the reasons for the longevity of the elders living in the mountains! The taste of tkemali itself can be described as a spicy-sour-sweet-spicy seasoning that is served with almost all second courses. All recipes for plum tkemali sauce for the winter are delicious, and cooking at home is not difficult. Tkemali is suitable for long-term storage, so many people cook it for the winter.

The inhabitants of Georgia do not have lunch without tkemali sauce. This is understandable: it helps to digest the heavy, fatty food of the inhabitants of the mountains. It is served with all savory dishes: meat, fish, potatoes and other vegetables, cereals, pasta (this is already a “Slavic” know-how), in Russia it is consumed with egg dishes and casseroles. Tkemali is used in soups such as kharcho, pizza and sandwiches.

There are more than 100 varieties of this sauce in total. It is prepared on the basis of plums of different varieties, so it comes in green, yellow and red. Taste qualities vary from sweet and sour to tart. The classic recipe has tkemali plums, garlic and herbs. Tkemali is a wild, sour variety found only in the Caucasus and the Balkans. In Georgia, tkemali grows in almost every yard. We can replace it with any unsweetened varieties.

Tkemali sauce from blue plums at home for the winter

All types of sour plums are suitable for tkemali: green, yellow, red. Today we will prepare tkemali sauce from blue plums for the winter, because it is not difficult to cook it at home. The main thing is to be patient and stir the mass often during cooking.

Prepare:

  • Plum - 2 300 g;
  • Water - 1/2 cup;
  • Salt - 1 tablespoon;
  • Sugar - 200 g;
  • Greens: cilantro and basil - in a bunch;
  • Hot pepper - 1 pod;
  • Garlic - 2 heads.

In about an hour and a half, you will make about a liter of sauce. The plum boils down quite strongly.

Wash fruits and put in a bowl. You need to pour half a glass of water and cook on low heat under the lid until soft. We stir! As soon as the fruit begins to fall apart, turn off the fire.

Then we filter the plums through a sieve or colander (the liquid can be used later in compote). We thoroughly wipe the mass through a sieve, pour it into a saucepan with a thick bottom, add salt and sugar. The thickness of the sauce can be adjusted with the drained liquid. On fire, the sauce should languish for about an hour.

Now you need to clean and finely chop the greens, garlic, hot peppers. You can use a meat grinder or a blender, then 2 tablespoons of plum broth should be added to the mass.

Combine sauce and crushed puree. Cook for 10-15 minutes. Then hot tkemali is poured into prepared jars and rolled up. Preservation is perfectly stored in a cool and dark place.

How to make plum tkemali sauce at home: a simple recipe for beginners

To prepare tkemali sauce, the hostess needs to spend quite a lot of time in the kitchen, on average from 50 minutes to 2.5 hours. It is not always possible to find time for blanks. A huge variety of sauces allows us to find the simplest and fastest recipes. After all, tkemali seasoning is so exquisite and fragrant that it is definitely worth cooking.

Knowing a simple recipe on how to make plum tkemali sauce at home, you don’t have to rack your brains on how to diversify bored pasta or fried potatoes, because this sauce is suitable for almost all savory dishes.

The first option is the easiest

One of the simple recipes is red or green-yellow tkemali in a slow cooker. We take:

  • Plums (red or blue, sour, unripe) 0.5 kg;
  • Fresh greens (cilantro, basil) 0.5 bunch each;
  • Hot pepper 0.5 tsp;
  • Garlic 3-4 cloves;
  • Coriander (seeds) 0.5 tsp;
  • Salt to taste;
  • Vegetable oil

My plums, put in a multicooker bowl, fill with water so that it slightly covers them. We set the "Soup" or "Steaming" mode for 10 minutes. If the skin bursts, turn it off. We filter the mass through a sieve (leave the liquid) and wipe.

Using a blender, grind all the remaining ingredients, combine with mashed potatoes, mix. If the sauce is thick, add the drained liquid. We turn on the slow cooker to the "Soup" or "Steam" mode and boil for 2-3 minutes. We lay out in jars, add vegetable oil to the top, twist.

The second recipe is jam sauce!

Another easy way. You can turn ordinary plum jam into tkemali sauce. Let's cook:

  • Plum jam 0.5 l;
  • Greens (cilantro) bunch;
  • Garlic 8 cloves;
  • Apple cider vinegar 50 g;
  • Hot pepper 1 pc.;
  • Salt 0.5 tsp

Grind greens, pepper, peeled garlic and jam with a blender. Salt. Seasoning is ready. Can be served at the table.

Tkemali with nuts

And a variant of tkemali with nuts is also possible. We will need:

  • Plum blue 4 kg;
  • Walnuts 1 handful;
  • cilantro, dill, basil in a bunch;
  • Garlic 3 heads;
  • Hot pepper 4 pcs.;
  • Ground coriander and salt to taste.

Wash the cream, remove the pits and cook for 25-30 minutes. Strain and rub through a sieve. Grind the remaining components with a blender, combine with mashed potatoes and cook until thick. Pour into sterilized jars and roll up.

All the tricks of a good sauce on the shelves

Aromatic herbs and spices are added depending on the type of plum. Green plum is combined with fresh and dried herbs. Dry seasonings are better suited to red. And for yellow cherry plum you need to take fresh herbs.

Spicy lovers focus on hot peppers and garlic. But if you like a softer, more delicate taste, then you need to use more herbs. The peculiarity of tkemali is the use of ombalo spice. This is pennyroyal, it gives a spicy taste and is a natural preservative. We don't grow it. Mistresses replace it with lemon balm, thyme. From herbs, hops-suneli, dill, cilantro, coriander are also used.

There are modifications of tkemali seasoning. Instead of plums, they use other sour fruits: apricots, cherries, red currants, quince, dogwood, grapes, gooseberries, etc. In addition, fruits, berries and vegetables (peppers, eggplant, tomatoes), as well as nuts are perfectly combined in the sauce.

There is a nuance in the quantitative composition of recipes. Georgian chefs determine the ratio of ingredients "by eye" and "on the tongue". They don't use exact numbers. Therefore, during cooking, you often have to try the dish and independently determine what is missing for the ideal.

Execution operations

  1. Begin cooking with the preparation of plums. It must be remembered that their volume during cooking decreases by 4 times. For example, to prepare 500 ml of sauce, you need to take 2 kg of plums.
  2. A few words about dishes. It is recommended to use a pan with thick walls or a cauldron. Use a wooden spoon for mixing. And for wiping fruit - a sieve or colander, it is also convenient to use a silicone spatula.
  3. Plums are washed, poured with water and boiled over low heat until they begin to burst and boil soft. Then they are taken out on a sieve or colander and rubbed. You can use a silicone spatula. A decoction of plums is not poured out. In some recipes, pits are removed from still raw plums, then boiled plums can be chopped with a blender. Boil another 5-7 minutes.
  4. Next prepare the greens. It is washed and finely cut or ground with a blender. In the latter case, you need to add a little water or decoction. Greens and fruit puree are combined, the rest of the spices, salt are added and put on fire again. Cook for 7-10 minutes over low heat due to the large amount of splashes. In this case, it is necessary to stir constantly. For sampling, the sauce must be cooled down. If the dish is sour, add some sugar.
  5. When tkemali is ready, it is poured into prepared jars. It is better to take jars of a small volume so that the sauce does not deteriorate. They need to be thoroughly sterilized. Wash dishes preferably with soda. You can dry it by laying it in a cold oven on a wire rack with the bottoms up. After heating the oven to 150 degrees, wait 15 minutes and take it out on a clean towel. Another option for sterilizing jars is a water bath. Steam sterilization is also suitable. Place the lids in boiling water and boil for 3 minutes. before rolling.
  6. The plum contains a lot of citric acid - a natural preservative. If the sauce has been heat-treated, packaged in dry jars and hermetically sealed, then it is well stored.
  7. For better storage, sunflower oil is often topped up in jars as a buffer before rolling. It is drained before use.
  8. Sometimes vinegar is poured on top of each jar. But this is optional. After preservation, the jars can be turned upside down and wrapped in something warm. There is an option to freeze tkemali packaged in bowls in the freezer.
  9. After opening the dishes with the sauce, you can add fresh herbs, nuts to it, add the broth. Store an open jar in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Any cook in the Caucasus knows: the main thing in making tkemali sauce is to do everything with love!

In this article, we will look at the popular Georgian tkemali sauce: the history of origin, what it is made from, what it is eaten with.

Tkemali sauce - interesting features and cooking methods

The high mountains of the Caucasus, a small village on the outskirts of Georgia, an antique house where a whole family gathered at a large laid table, and on the table in bowls there is a strange attractive sauce that is eaten with pleasure with everything that is on the table.

This is the well-known Tkemali sauce!

What is tkemali sauce?

Many Tkemali are confused with adjika, apparently because of their historical roots.

However, adjika has mouth-burning specificity, while Tkemali is softer.

The raw materials for Tkemali are unripe plums (plums, apricots) or blackthorn, garlic and spices.

In the first case, the color of the sauce is green, and in the second, the color becomes a bright red hue.

For the green version, it is very important to take exactly the unripe product to add sourness to the sauce, otherwise you will get only a sweet likeness of Tkemali.

Blackthorn, on the other hand, can be taken from any stage of maturity, because its fruits are very sour, even when it is completely black and falls off the bush.

Feature of red Tkemali: the addition of many spicy seasonings and herbs that saturate the processed mass of blackthorn.

Is tkemali good for the body?

It should be noted its beneficial effect on human health. This sauce contains tannins and pectin.

The former at times improve the breakdown of protein, thereby helping the body digest meat (probably why the people of the Caucasus are so slender), and pectin has a positive effect on the hematopoietic system and metabolic processes.

History of the origin of the sauce

History is silent about who first came up with the yellow sauce and thought of the combination of ingredients in it.

However, the Georgian elders mention their great-grandfathers, who cooked Tkemali amazingly, which means that plum delicacy has its roots in history for many hundreds of years.

It is possible that a huge number of berries that require processing contributed to everything, because even today the Caucasian region is dotted with cherry plum and plum trees, which can be found in almost every yard. And the best processing is conservation.

Tkemali also has its own secret ingredient - ombalo.

Ombalo is a swamp mint that fills the entire territory of the Caucasus, and people have no problems getting it. But if you don't have that kind of mint in your area, other spices will do the job just fine.

What is tkemali made from - a classic recipe

There are several sauce recipes:

  • A classic yellow cherry plum recipe.

You need to take: unripe plums or cherry plums about one kilogram, 3 tablespoons with a slide of sugar, one pod of hot red pepper, a bunch of cilantro, salt to taste, a bunch of green dill, garlic 5-8 medium cloves, ground coriander.

Fruits should be crushed in any way convenient for you to the state of a homogeneous mushy mass.

Pour into a saucepan and put on medium heat for 5-8 minutes, adding salt and sugar at this stage.

While the berries are boiling, chop the garlic and herbs, immediately mixing with spices.

When the berries begin to boil, add greens, wait a couple of minutes and turn off the fire.

Note that the sauce should be tasted while it is hot because there will be a chance to adjust the homemade sauce.

  • Georgian recipe for turn tkemali

You will need: 1 kg of blackthorn, half a glass of water, 3 medium heads (not cloves!) Of garlic, a few tablespoons of dried dill, coriander, ground red hot pepper, mint (all except pepper).

Of course, herbs are best used fresh, but dried ones give a peculiar richer and tart taste.

Remove the stone from the plums, cut each berry in half, put it in a saucepan, cover with water (1/2 cup) and cook until the peel comes off completely by itself.

A light juice is formed, which must be drained.

Grind the remaining berry pulp to a puree state and put back on the fire. Continue cooking until the consistency of thick sour cream.

Throw all the seasonings 5 ​​minutes before the sauce is fully cooked.

This version of Tkemali is more suitable for eating immediately, rather than for storage in canned form.

  • Dried Plum Recipe

Pour a portion of dried plums with one glass of boiled water and leave for a few minutes to swell the berries.

Wipe drains.

The mixture will turn out to be quite thick, so it should be diluted with the liquid in which the berries lay. Add garlic, dill and cilantro to the pulp.

Put the mass on fire, let it boil for a few minutes.

It is served on the table in a gravy boat with a narrow spout or a small cup with a spoon.

If there is no need to adhere to the rules of etiquette, then portioned adding individually to the plate will also serve as an excellent option.

What is Tkemali eaten with?

Consider the main points:

  • Meat and fish

Beef, pork, poultry are perfectly complemented by plum sauce.

Tkemali should not be served with protein foods that have their own specific taste, such as sea fish and other seafood.

It is better to cook something creamy and tender for them.

  • side dishes

There are no specific restrictions here. Pasta, potatoes, a variety of cereals, stewed and grilled vegetables are suitable.

A gourmet vegetable dish with a sour "marinade" is broccoli and spinach soup, which is served in many famous restaurants around the world and is appreciated by most fastidious critics.

  • Meat dishes and soups

A couple of spoons of sour sauce will perfectly complement borscht, cabbage soup, kharcho, meatballs, dolma. There will be a replacement for tomato paste and citric acid.

Dishes at home will take on a peculiar shade from pale yellow to pink or red, depending on the type of sauce.

  • kebabs

In the barbecue season, a jar of the most delicious sauce disperses instantly under juicy pieces of meat, saturated with the aroma of smoke.

Eating dishes with this sauce, you can feel all the charm of mountain cuisine, imagining local landscapes and feeling the air of Tkemali's homeland.

If you have a couple of kilograms of extra plums or cherry plums, then you should stock up for the winter with several jars of a wonderful addition to dishes.

Include tkemali sauce in your diet and bon appetit!!!

Georgian cuisine dishes have an unusual and refined taste.

This is especially true of Tkemali sauce, with which any dish becomes a real masterpiece.

We have collected the best recipes for Georgian Tkemali sauce from different varieties of plums.

Tkemali from plums - the basic principles of cooking

The main ingredient of the sauce is tkemali plums, better known to us as cherry plums.

It is thanks to this plum that the sauce got its name and unique sour taste.

A real Georgian plum tkemali sauce is made only from green, sour cherry plum, which has not yet ripened.

In addition, you will also need pennyroyal - this is an herb that is used as a seasoning, and it grows only in Georgia. Garlic and spices are also used to prepare the sauce: cilantro, salt, dill, red hot pepper and ground coriander.

Plums are thoroughly washed, put in a saucepan, poured with water and boiled for forty minutes. Then boiled plums are ground through a sieve. The pits and skins are discarded. You should get a puree-like mass, which is boiled down to the consistency of thick sour cream. Fresh herbs, garlic and seasonings are thoroughly ground and added to the sauce. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn off and lay out hot on prepared jars. If you want a hot sauce, add more hot peppers and garlic. Conversely, lovers of a delicate sauce should focus on aromatic herbs.

Of course, in our latitudes, it is difficult to cook real Tkemali from plums, but the recipe can be easily adapted by preparing it from any variety of plums. Swamp mint can be replaced with the usual lemon balm or thyme. You can experiment with seasonings and herbs to your taste. In any case, the sauce always turns out to be incredibly tasty, and is indispensable as a seasoning for almost any dish.

Recipe 1. Classic yellow cherry plum tkemali

Ingredients

    a kilogram of ripe yellow cherry plum;

    5 g ground coriander;

    50 g of sugar;

    60 g fresh dill;

    three heads of garlic;

    50 g fresh cilantro;

    hot pepper pod.

Cooking method

1. Wash ripe cherry plum under running water, put on paper towels and dry. Take out the bones.

2. Grind plums through a meat grinder.

3. Add sugar and salt to the plum puree. Mix and put into a bowl. Put on a slow fire and cook for nine minutes.

4. Disassemble the garlic into teeth, peel it from the husk. Remove the stalk with seeds from the pepper pod. Rinse greens and pat dry. Put everything in a blender bowl, add spices and grind until smooth.

5. Add the aromatic mixture to the simmering plum sauce, mix well and cook for a couple more minutes.

6. Wash and sterilize glass bottles with tin caps. Arrange the finished Tkemali sauce in bottles and wrap tightly with lids.

Recipe 2. Tkemali from plums with lemon juice

Ingredients

    700 g tkemali plums;

    25 ml of vegetable oil;

    a bunch of fresh cilantro;

    five cloves of garlic;

    half a glass of lemon juice;

    3 g crushed coriander;

    3 g ground fenugreek;

    2 g red hot ground pepper.

Cooking method

1. Wash the plums well and put them in a large enameled pan. Fill with drinking water so that it completely covers the fruit.

2. Put the dishes on the fire and bring the mass to a boil. Reduce the heat to a minimum, cover with a lid and cook for another ten minutes.

3. Drain the water, cool the plums to a warm state and take out the seeds. Rub the plums through a fine sieve.

4. Rinse cilantro and finely chop.

5. Peel the garlic and grind it through a garlic press.

6. Put the plum puree back into the pan, add cilantro, crushed garlic and spices. Add lemon juice and salt. Stir and bring the mixture to a boil over low heat. Boil the sauce for a couple of minutes and remove from heat.

7. Cool the Tkemali sauce to a warm state and transfer it to a clean sterile jar. Pour oil on top and close the lid tightly. We put the sauce in the refrigerator. Six hours later, the sauce is ready. We store in the refrigerator for no more than two months.

Recipe 3. Tkemali from plums in a slow cooker

Ingredients

    a kilogram of slightly greenish plums;

    75 g of seasoning "hops-suneli";

    a bunch of parsley and dill;

    a pod of hot red pepper;

    six cloves of garlic;

  • 5 ml of 70% vinegar per liter of sauce.

Cooking method

1. Peel the garlic cloves. Wash the greens, plums and garlic under running water and place in a colander to drain the water.

2. Cut each plum and remove the pits.

3. Fold the plums, garlic and herbs into a blender container and beat everything until smooth.

4. Put the plum puree into the multicooker container, add sugar and salt. Mix and taste. Adjust if needed, or add more sugar.

5. Place the container in the multicooker, close the lid and start the "Extinguishing" mode. Cook the sauce in this mode for an hour and a half.

6. Arrange the hot sauce in sterile dry jars and roll up hermetically with iron lids. Store in a cool place for up to three years.

Recipe 4. Hungarian plum tkemali

Ingredients

    three kilograms of Hungarian plum;

    15 ml of vegetable oil;

    two glasses of drinking water;

  • 300 g fresh cilantro;

    25 g sugar;

    200 g parsley;

    15 g ground coriander;

    two heads of garlic;

    3 g ground red pepper;

    two pods of hot red pepper.

Cooking method

1. We sort out the plum and wash it. We put the fouqt in a large saucepan, fill it with water and put it on fire. As soon as the water boils, we twist the fire and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, so that the plum boils.

2. My cilantro and parsley greens. We cut off the tails from the pods of hot peppers, clean the seeds and wash. We clean the garlic from the husk.

3. Grind the plum mass through a colander to separate the peel and seeds.

4. Pour the puree into a saucepan, add sugar and salt. Season with coriander and ground red pepper. Cook on low heat for half an hour.

5. Twist hot peppers, garlic and herbs in a meat grinder. Add the resulting mixture to the sauce, mix and cook for another ten minutes.

6. We lay out the hot sauce in sterilized jars. Pour refined vegetable oil on top and tightly roll up with sterile lids.

Recipe 5. Tkemali from plums with thorns

Ingredients

    a kilogram of wild small plums;

    a head of garlic;

    200 g of ripe sloes;

    hot pepper pod;

  • two sweet peppers;

    seasoning "hops-suneli";

    granulated sugar.

Cooking method

1. Wash green plums and remove pits. We do the same with the turn.

2. Rinse sweet pepper, wipe and cut in half. Remove the seed tail. Cut the stalk from the hot pepper and clean out the seeds. Rinse greens and pat dry.

3. Put everything in a blender container, add spices and smash everything to a puree state or chop with a meat grinder.

4. Transfer the resulting mass to a saucepan, add sugar and hop-suneli seasoning. Salt and add a mixture of pepper, herbs and garlic to the mass. Stir and put the container on fire. Bring the sauce to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Spread the hot sauce into sterile bottles and tightly tighten the lids.

Recipe 6. Tkemali from plums with walnuts

Ingredients

    three walnuts;

    kilogram of cherry plum;

    5 g of Imeretian saffron;

    a head of garlic;

    greens of dill, mint and cilantro;

  • hot pepper pod;

    15 g of sugar;

    5 g coriander.

Cooking method

1. Put the washed cherry plum into a saucepan, fill it with water so that it covers the fruit. We put the pan on the fire and cook for about 15 minutes. Then we cool it to a warm state and rub the plum through a sieve. Remove the bones and peel. Do not pour out the water in which the plum was boiled.

2. Peel the garlic cloves. Cut the tail off the hot pepper pod and clean out the seeds. We put garlic, walnuts, hot peppers and herbs in the blender container. Salt and add sugar. We interrupt everything in a pulsating mode until smooth.

3. Add cherry plum puree to this mixture and beat again until a homogeneous mass is obtained.

4. We shift the resulting mass into a saucepan, pour in a little water in which the plum was cooked, and put the container with the plum mass on the fire. Cook over low heat from the moment of boiling for ten minutes.

5. We lay out the hot sauce in sterile jars, tightly close them with lids and cool completely. Store the sauce in a dark, cool place.

Recipe 7. Tkemali from plums with basil

Ingredients

    80 ml of olive oil;

    kilogram of cherry plum;

    50 ml of drinking water;

    5 g red ground pepper;

    100 g of sugar;

    60 g green cilantro, parsley, basil and dill;

Cooking method

1. Wash the greens and cherry plum thoroughly. Put the cherry plum in a large saucepan, add water so that it completely covers the fruit. Boil the cherry plum until it becomes soft.

2. Put the boiled cherry plum into a sieve and grind with a wooden spatula. Discard skins and bones.

3. Pour the puree back into the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.

4. Add washed and finely chopped greens, crushed garlic and very finely chopped hot peppers to the plum puree. Salt and mix thoroughly. Boil the sauce from the moment of boiling for about 20 minutes, until the mass thickens.

5. Pour hot Tkemali sauce into jars or bottles. Pour refined oil on top. Roll up tightly and leave to cool completely. Put the sauce in the basement or pantry for storage.

  • Use moderately ripe yellow, blue, or red plums for the sauce.
  • Do not boil the sauce for too long so that it does not lose its taste and benefits.
  • You can prepare tkemali sauce from different types of cherry plum.
  • Stir the sauce constantly during the cooking process so that it does not burn. It is better to do this with a wooden spatula.
  • To facilitate the cooking process, remove the peel from the plums, pour boiling water over the fruits for five minutes.
  • Spices and herbs can be selected based on your preferences.
  • After adding all the spices to the sauce, taste it. If necessary, adjust it by adding certain spices.

While posting this recipe, I ran into a naming problem. On the one hand, the recipe comes from a reliable Georgian source called “satsebeli”. On the other hand, having looked at the recipes for satsebeli, I realized that there is a complete confusion on the network in this regard - either it is from tomatoes, or it is from the juice of unripe grapes. Then maybe call it “tkemali”? It seems to be, here, from plums! But still, somehow, but not that ... After all, this sauce can be prepared not only from tkemali plums, but from absolutely any plums of the “country”, “market” or “store” variety.

In general, I decided to simply call it “Georgian plum sauce”. Although, one could have "very tasty plum sauce in Georgian." I think that the comparison with tomato sauces in this case is incorrect. Plum sauce is tart and spicy. If you are used to sweet ketchups, this may seem unusual. In any case, tastes need to be varied, and plum sauce, which will decorate any meat, will help us.

Necessary:

Absolutely all additives can be adjusted to taste. I'm just giving the proportions that I do myself.

  • plums

For 1 liter plum puree:

  • Garlic - 5 medium cloves
  • Salt - 1 tsp with a small hill
  • Sugar 1-2 tbsp. l. with a small slide (depending on the sweetness of the plums, you can put a lot more if you are used to sweet sauces)
  • Ground coriander - 1 tsp with a slide
  • Suneli hops - 0.3-0.5 tsp

Cooking:

These are the plums I use for this sauce. Ordinary, among them there are both softer and denser, any will do.

They need to be sorted out and washed.

In order to prepare the plum sauce, of course, we need to chop the plums, removing all unnecessary from them, namely, the seeds and the skin.

This can be done in many ways, for example, first separate the seeds, chop the plums into a puree with a blender and wipe.

I make my life easier because I have, well, a lot of drains.

I do it like this:

Pour some water into the bottom of the pot. This is so that the plums do not burn immediately. Approximately half a cup for a 5 liter saucepan.

I lay the plums together with the seeds, cover with a lid, put on medium heat.

As soon as the amount of free liquid increases, the plums begin to give juice, I add fire and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally to heat evenly.

Usually you don’t need to boil for a long time, my plums are of such a variety that the most ripe ones, when boiled, are already falling apart into pulp-skins-pits, and the rest after a couple of minutes.

If your plums are firm, you may need to cook a little longer until softened.

Now the whole mass needs to be wiped to get a clean puree.

But first, I drain some of the juice so that the sauce does not turn out too thin. In no case do I pour out this juice, but I use it to bring the consistency to the desired one, and I prepare compote from the leftovers. But keep in mind that the sauce will be a little thicker when cold.

I pour the plum mass in parts into a colander and wipe it. You can leave the plums to cool down.

First with a potato masher, the mass is still hot.

And the rest is just a hand, I do not forget to put on a glove, after all, the plums are sour and the juice is of an intense color.

This is the puree we get under the colander.

Now we need to put the additives that will make our puree sauce.

Crush the garlic in a press.

Put garlic, salt, sugar, ground coriander and suneli hops into the puree. Taste the sauce. It is better if you put the spoon away and cool on a plate, as the taste of hot and cold sauce is perceived differently.

Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

It is better to stir with a spatula, not a spoon, so that the sauce does not burn.

Prepare banks.

Pour boiling sauce into dry sterile jars and immediately roll up with sterile lids.

Turn over and leave for about half an hour.

Store cooled jars at room temperature.

Serve the sauce with any dish of your choice.

It is especially tasty if you cook another Caucasian masterpiece -.

Bon Appetit!


In Georgia, a variety of sauces are called tkemali. This is a spicy sour sauce that goes well with any kind of meat and fish, fried potatoes, buckwheat porridge, pasta, mashed potatoes, used in kharcho and pizza. It can be cooked from sour plums of all possible colors (red, green, blue, yellow), as well as their apricot, cherry, red currant, dogwood, grapes and other things. The sauce perfectly combines fruits, berries and vegetables (pepper, eggplant, tomato). The composition necessarily includes aromatic herbs and various seasonings. This delicious Georgian plum tkemali recipe for the winter is fragrant and very piquant.

Tkemali got its name from a variety of plums with the same name, they grow only in the Caucasus. The original recipes include ombalo pennyroyal. Coriander, garlic, cilantro and other herbs are also used. You can look for original spices in the market from spice sellers, among them there are natives of Georgia. And, of course, you can replace ombalo with other types of herbs - lemon balm, thyme.

green plum sauce

I offer you the following recipe for tkemali from green plums:

  • Plum (sour green cherry plum) - 5 kg;
  • Cilantro - 4 bunches of fresh herbs (approximately), and you also need dry cilantro, you can with seeds;
  • Peppermint - 1 bunch;
  • thyme (a little);
  • Fennel - 1 bunch;
  • Salt - 1.5 tbsp. l.;
  • Sugar - 1.5 tbsp. l.;
  • Dill - 2 bunches, you can add dry;
  • Garlic - 4-5 heads;
  • Water - a glass;
  • Hot pepper dry or fresh (then 2 pods).

We start with plums. They need to be washed, put in a saucepan, add water and boil. In the process of cooking, the plums will boil, the bone will move away. Turn off and wait for the plums to cool. Rub them through a sieve or colander. This is the base for the sauce. From cake with seeds, you can then cook compote.

The greens need to be finely chopped, or pureed with a blender (then you need to add water and cut the greens larger). Soak the garlic in water and peel or grind with a blender.

Put the sauce on a small fire and bring to a boil. We add greens, pepper, garlic, salt, sugar. You must stir! Cooking should take place on a very slow fire. The sauce is thick, with a strong boil, splashes are formed, which will not be the best way to affect the state of our kitchen. Adjust the acidity and spiciness. If you overdid it with sour, you can correct the situation by adding a little sugar. You can cook the sauce from 20 minutes to an hour. If tkemali is prepared for the winter, you need to cook longer. The density of tkemali can be adjusted by adding hot boiled water.

Ready tkemali sauce should be poured into sterilized dry jars, hermetically sealed with sterile lids. Wait until completely cool and hide the jars in a cool dark place.

Red cherry plum tkemali

What we need:

  • Cherry plum red (2 kg);
  • Greens: hops-suneli (2 tablespoons);
  • cilantro (bunch);
  • Bitter red pepper ground (to taste);
  • Garlic (1 head);
  • Salt (1.5-2 tablespoons);
  • Sugar (to taste)

Wash cherry plum thoroughly. Take out the bones. Pour it into a saucepan, salt. Wait for the cherry plum to release juice.

Now put the plum on a small fire. Cook, stirring, until it becomes soft. Using a blender or meat grinder, turn the plum mass into a puree. Again, put on fire, now in a cauldron or in a saucepan with a thick bottom. While the tkemali is boiling, let's take up the spices and herbs. Peel, wash, chop the garlic with a blender or crush. Finely chop the greens or puree with a blender (with the addition of water). Combine all ingredients, do not forget pepper, salt, sugar. Adjust the taste. It is better to put a spoonful of sauce on a plate, cool and try already cold. The taste of warm and cold dishes is different. And tkemali is served cold. Continue to cook the sauce for 20-25 minutes, until the desired thickness. It remains to pour the tkemali into a hot dry container. Seal and leave to cool.

Tkemali from yellow plums, an excellent recipe for the winter "from Verochka"

Have you tried yellow tkemali sauce? It is prepared from ripe yellow cherry plum and has a very rich taste. I propose to cook tkemali from yellow plums according to this recipe for the winter.

Let's take 3 kg of plums. We wash it and put it in a saucepan, adding 500 ml of water. Cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool and rub the fruit through a sieve. We save the decoction.

In the puree, add 2 pods of hot pepper.

And also 1 tbsp. a spoonful of salt.

And a bunch of dill with "umbrellas". Cook another 30 min.

Grind 4-5 cloves of garlic with a blender.

We also do with cilantro (250 g) and mint (300 g). Now you can take out the dill, add greens with garlic to the sauce and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Adjust the acid by adding up to 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar. Too thick seasoning can be diluted with plum broth. Pour the finished dish into prepared jars, add sunflower oil to the top and twist.

Plum tkemali sauce: recipe "Everything will be delicious"

A well-known culinary expert suggests making plum tkemali sauce according to the recipe of the show “Everything will be delicious”. From childhood, Tatyana learned to cook herself, as her parents were at work. And she became a real expert in cooking!

For 6 liters of tkemali, take:

  • Plums - 2 kg;
  • Hot pepper - 1 pc.;
  • Greens: dill - 1 bunch;
  • cilantro - 1 bunch;
  • Salt - 1 tablespoon;
  • Sugar - 2 tsp
  • Vinegar - half a teaspoon for each liter of sauce.
  • Garlic - 7 teeth;
  • Ground coriander - 1 tsp;

Plums should be poured with water and boiled until soft (15-20 minutes), stirring constantly. Then remove the fruit from the fire, cool, so as not to burn yourself. We take out the bones and wipe the pulp through a sieve. The sauce should boil and turn off immediately. Finely chop the greens, pepper, garlic and fall asleep in tkemali. Add coriander, salt, sugar, vinegar. Now it remains to bring to a boil, pour into jars and preserve.

We hope that with our recipes you will get a very tasty Georgian plum tkemali for the winter. Such a spicy seasoning will perfectly replace purchased sauces and diversify the table.