Tuesday, October 25, 2011

tatara churchkhela

tatara and churchkhela - two words all georgians know, second of which sounds especially frightening if you hear it for the first time. but once you taste it, the only word you can say is 'delicious'.

churchkhela is usually made in autumn, when the grape is gathered, from grape syrup and walnuts. the syrup is boiled on the fire (don't ask me the recipe, never tried to do it myself), then walnuts are threaded in one line and put into the syrup. churchkhelas are taken out immediately and hung on a stick in order for it to chill.

this is how this process looks in pictures from my visit to lopota lake, where we were allowed to make our own churchkhelas:

 
an alternative to churchkhela is tatara - without walnuts. i don't like any kind of nuts, so tatara is really my favourite. but though i have tasted all sorts of tatara, none of them will ever be close to tatara my grandmother used to make.

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