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How do you make tkemali sauce at home?

A sour cherry plum sauce and how to make it.

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Short answer

Tkemali is made from boiled, sieved cherry plums with finely chopped coriander, pennyroyal (ombalo), garlic, pepper and salt added. It is a traditional Georgian sauce that most families make and store for winter. Below are the steps and the proportion of water.

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Why

  1. Tkemali is made from red, yellow or green cherry plums, and the colour of the sauce depends on the fruit.
  2. The method varies by region, and the tkemali season starts in May, when the skin of the fruit hardens.
  3. Sauces made from ghognasho (damson plum), cornel cherry or apples are also called tkemali.

Details

Tkemali is made like this.

Ingredients:

  • cherry plums
  • water: 1 cup per kilogram of cherry plums
  • fresh coriander
  • pennyroyal (ombalo)
  • garlic
  • pepper
  • salt

Method:

  1. Put branches of coriander and pennyroyal in the pot to flavour the stew.
  2. Add the plums and pour in the water.
  3. Boil the fruit until soft. For winter preserves it is cooked with more care.
  4. Cool the mixture, then sieve it.
  5. Mix in finely chopped coriander, garlic and pennyroyal, pepper and salt. The finer everything is chopped, the brighter the colour of the sauce.
  6. Traditionally the sauce was boiled for a long time, bottled, sealed with a candle and buried in a clean spot in the ground.

Tkemali is served with barbecue, boiled meat, potatoes, fresh cabbage, kharcho, beetroot salad, fried chicken and boiled eggs. New potatoes with tkemali are a classic seasonal pairing.

For more on sauces see what the Georgian plum sauce tkemali is called and what other sauces exist, and for the herb see what ombalo is and what can replace it.

Tip

Chop the herbs and garlic as finely as you can: it keeps the colour of the sauce bright. Adjust the other quantities to taste.

What may differ

The method for tkemali varies by region, and green and yellow cherry plums have their own recipes. Adjust the herbs, garlic, pepper and salt to taste: the only firm proportion is the water, 1 cup per kilogram of plums.

Common misconception

Tkemali is only ever red.

What actually happens

Tkemali is made from red, yellow and green cherry plums, and the colour of the sauce follows the colour of the fruit.

People also ask

  • How to make tkemali?
  • How to make tkemali sauce for winter?

Sources

This answer is for reference. Adjust taste and spices to your liking.

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