Resting in the south, many people heard peddlers on the beach or traders at the market shouting: "Churchchela!" Someone tried this delicacy, but someone did not dare to taste the Georgian sweets, not knowing what the churchchel is. And yet this is a very useful dessert made of nuts and fruit juice, however, the high calorie content still makes one consider the number of sticks of churchkhela eaten.
General principles
If you have not seen how this dessert is cooked in the Caucasus, and do not know how and what to make churchhell at home, just follow a few simple rules.
First: the basis of delicacies are nuts. In the classical version, either walnuts or hazelnuts are used. However, cooking always gives room for fantasy, so you can experiment, taking as a basis and peanuts, and hazel, and other varieties of nuts, alternate them among themselves and even "dilute" with dried fruits: dried apricots, prunes, apricots.
Second: the necessary ingredient is juice, in the original grape. However, grapes do not grow everywhere, so you can cook the churchel from any juice. The main thing - it should be freshly squeezed and thick enough. If the juice is not very sweet, you can add sugar or honey, but remember that the sugar is put in boiling juice, and honey - into the cooled.
The third mandatory ingredient is flour. Traditionally, wheat flour is used, sifted and without impurities, but you can take oatmeal, corn, and rye - the main thing, it should be ground very, very finely.
The recipe is traditional, the simplest
The easiest way is to make a traditional Georgian churchchel, the recipe of which includes a minimum of ingredients.
Ingredients:
- juice from white table grapes - 3 l;
- wheat flour in / with fine grinding white - 3 cups (cup - about 150 g);
- walnuts, peeled chopped - 1 kg.
Preparation
The hardest thing in preparing churchkhely is to string nuts on a string so that they do not crumble. To do this it is necessary with the help of a needle, into which there is a strong thread made of natural fiber - linen or cotton. Of course, we use only an unpainted thread. When the nuts are strung on strings (20-25 each), we leave each thread a loose tail, long enough to allow the churchche to hang to dry. We divide the juice in half. We put half cook on the fire, in the second we carefully dissolve the flour, and to make the lumps do not work out, stir it with a whisk. As half of the juice boiled, slowly, stirring, pour the second part - with flour. The mixture is brewed and thickens quickly, so in no case from the plate do not move away and do not stop interfering. Turn off the thickened mixture and let cool. Now the most interesting is how to prepare the churchhell to make it dense and smooth. To do this, we dip a string of nuts into our juice, raise it, wait for the remainders to drain, suspend for a couple of hours. Then repeat the bathing of the nuts in the juice. Drying the churchchel lasts 3-4 days. The place should be cool, well ventilated, it should not be accessed by animals and insects. After a few days, we remove the delicacy and enjoy the viscous sweetness of the fruit concentrate and crispy nuts. If you have prepared many churchhels, the question arises of how to keep the churchhela at home. If you leave it in the open air, the sticks can stick together, so wrap each parchment or food film and put it in the refrigerator.
Turn on fantasy
An unusual delicacy - churchkhela with hazelnuts - is prepared in the same way, but you can fantasize a little and make such a dessert that guests just swallow the tongues.
Ingredients:
- juice cherry plum with pulp, freshly squeezed - 2 liters;
- honey may or flower - ½ cup;
- Nuts (hazelnuts and walnuts) - 400 g;
- Oatmeal flour fine grinding - 200 g;
- vanilla - 1 sachet.
Preparation
Cherchekla from cherry plum is obtained acidic, so it must be sweetened. If you are allergic to honey, use sugar. Add it to half the juice and cook. In the second half, dissolve the flour, then combine both mixtures and cook until thick. If you use honey, then add it to the cooled kissel. Nuts string on the thread, alternating. Dip low into the juice and hang out to dry. Gradually, if you prepare the churchhe often, you can achieve the perfect combination of acid and sweetness of fruit and berry juices.