Most of the peoples of Transcaucasia know this sweet, made from the juice of fruits and nuts strung on a thread. In Georgia, this delicacy is called churchkhela, in Armenia, sweet sujuk or sharots. Despite the external similarity, the sweets differ slightly in the recipe. The famous culinary specialist and author of the book of recipes "The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food" William Pokhlebkiy, describing churchkhela and sharots, draws the attention of readers to the fact that both dishes are prepared according to the same principle, namely, that nuts on a string are dipped into a jelly-like fruit mass, however, in the recipe of Armenian housewives contains several ingredients that significantly change the taste of the finished dish.
When preparing Armenian churchkhela-sharots, spices are added to the fruit mixture - cloves, cardamom and cinnamon - which give sharots a special aroma, while Georgian churchkhela does not have such a smell. In 2011, Georgia registered its rights to churchkhela, and now it is considered an original Georgian dish. Cooking churchkhela is easy and at home, it is important to follow a few rules, be patient and in the end you will get a great homemade churchkhela that will delight you at every tea party. And our photos of the step-by-step preparation of this tasty and fragrant delicacy will easily help you cope with the task. Prepare a large number of nuts and patience, we proceed.
The Georgian churchkhela has been known since the time of David the Builder, the Armenian sharots begins its countdown from about the same time. From ancient times, when gathering warriors on a campaign, the women of Transcaucasia prepared for their defenders and heroes, as they would say now, "dry rations." Usually it was dried meat, goat hard fatty cheese, and churchkhela for dessert.
Churchkhela was made in advance and with great love, so that during the long hours and days of hiking, men could have a tasty and satisfying meal, remember the house and the hostess who prepared such a luxurious βdry mealβ for him. Nuts were strung on threads, dipped into the prepared fruit mass, ready-made sweet sausages were dried firmly in the sun for 7-10 days. Ready-made churchkhela was cut into pieces, sprinkled with flour and put into storage. Along with dried meat, churchkhela or sharots were "long-playing" in a bag with supplies of a warrior, or civilians hiding behind the walls of besieged cities.
Let's take the ingredients from the list
Gently split the nuts to get whole kernels.
Using a needle and thread, we will prepare beads from nuts and leave them to dry for a day.
We will prepare the plums for the preparation of a jelly-like mass.
Remove bones.
Let's put the plums in a blender, you can do it in parts.
Plums turn into juice.
Pour the water for the preparation of the flour mixture into the pan.
Pour the flour into the water.
Gently beat everything with a whisk until the lumps disappear.
Mix the ingredients for the fruit part.
Let's boil the fruit mixture over a fire until half of it boils.
Mix both components to get a homogeneous mass.
Pour the finished fruit mass into a form for dipping nuts.
Dip threads with nuts in a jelly-like mass.
Continue dipping up to three times.
We hang churchkhela to dry for 5 days.
After five days, the churchkhela is ready to eat. Enjoy your tea!.
Churchkhela is a very healthy product rich in vitamins and minerals. However, due to the addition of sugar to the fruit component of the juice, as well as nuts, churchkhela is very high in calories, so it should not be abused by people with certain health problems. In particular, those who are overweight, as well as various forms of obesity, should generally abandon this delicacy. For the same reason, it is contraindicated in those suffering from a disease called diabetes mellitus. For those who have kidney problems, churchkhela should be eaten with caution. For everyone else, this delicacy will bring not only pleasure, but also great benefits.
Since home-made churchkhela does not use industrial additives - thickeners, dyes and preservatives, it is, as they say, a natural product. Accordingly, all the vitamins and minerals of the fruit from which the juice is made remain in the finished product. The same applies to nuts, which do not undergo any additional processing in churchkhela, except for peeling, therefore they retain all their fatty acids, fiber and vitamins in their pure form. In addition, nuts strengthen the nervous system, improve brain activity, and prolong the reproductive capacity of men and women. In addition, churchkhela is very tasty, and may well replace sweets and muffins, which affect our weight so much. Eat tasty and healthy food and be healthy!