Caucasian cuisine
Shashlyk
Adjarian Khachapuri
The cuisine of the Caucasus includes the traditional cuisines of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay–Cherkessia, North Ossetia–Alania, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Adjaria, and the Adygea.
Traditional dishes
Kharcho soup
Aubergine and pepper dolma
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Pakhlava
Starters and snacks
- Sujuk
- Basturma
- Cheeses: Sulguni (Georgian), Circassian cheese
- Chiburekki
- Dolma or sarma - wine leaves, stuffed with rice or cheese
Soups
- Bugleme - meat stew, served by the Mountain Jews
- Dovga - yogurt (matsoni) soup cooked with a variety of herbs, rice and (optionally) chickpeas
- Khash
- Kharcho - Georgian soup containing beef, rice, cherry plum purée and chopped walnut
- Piti or putuk
- Sorpa - spicy meat soup with a large variety of recipes. Usually it is made with fried meat (lamb or beef), fried vegetables (potatoes, onions, carrots, optionally tomatoes and peppers), and herbs; may also include chickpeas or other beans, as well as noodles, and fruits (apples, plums)
- Balyk sorpa - fish soup, served mostly on the coast of the Caspian Sea
Main courses
- Chanakhi - spiced lamb stew with potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines and onions
- Chakhokhbili - spiced chicken stew
- Chiburekki
- Chicken tabaka
- Dolma or sarma - cabbage or wine leave rolls, aubergines, zucchinis, peppers, stuffed with rice or meat
- Various kinds of flatbread pies such as khachapuri, chudu, khychiny, Ossetian pies. The flatbreads may be filled with meat, cheese, eggs, potatoes, pumpkin etc.
- Küftə
- Khinkali - dumplings that are either filled with meat, or quark
- Lyula kebab
- Manti- dumplings filled with meat
- Plov
- Shashlyk (Khorovats, Mtsvadi, Kebab)
- Shashlyk Tarki-Tau or Gharsi khorovats - shashlyk with vegetables wrapped in lavash, similar to the Levantine shawarma and the Turkish doner kebab
Condiments and sauces
- Adjika - spicy but subtly flavoured relish based on a boiled preparation of hot red peppers, garlic, and typical Caucasian herbs and spices
- Matzoon or matsoni - fermented milk product, similar to yogurt
- Narsharab - pomegranate molasses
- Satsivi - walnut sauce
- Tkemali - sour plum sauce
Breads
Desserts
- Halva
- Pakhlava
- Gata
- Gozinaki
- Churchkhela - sausage-shaped candies
- Rahat lokum
- Murabba
Beverages
Bottles of Georgian wine
Armenian coffee served in a Yerevan café
Alcoholic
- Saperavi - acidic, teinturier-type grape Georgian wine
- Rkatsiteli
- Armenian brandy (e.g. Ararat)
- Chacha - pomace brandy
- Tutovka - mulberry brandy
Non-alcoholic
- Tea: black, nogay shai (salty tea)
- Turkish coffee called Armenian coffee in Armenia
- Suv - sherbet
- Pomegranate juice
- Mineral water, with Borjomi being the most praised one
- Fermented milk beverages, such as ayran, tan (doogh), kefir
See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cuisine of the Caucasus. |
- Middle Eastern cuisine
- Soviet cuisine
- Persian cuisine
- Turkish cuisine
- History of the Caucasus
- Peoples of the Caucasus
References
- Beliaev, Edward; Oksana Buranbaeva (2005). Cultures of the World: Dagestan. Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 0-7614-2015-0.
- Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper. A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (2nd ed.). London & New York: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-86064-603-4.
- Irina Petrosian, David Underwood. Armenian Food: Fact, Fiction & Folklore. Lulu.com, 2006. ISBN 1-4116-9865-7.
- В. В. Похлебкин. Национальные кухни наших народов. Москва: Пищевая промышленность, 1980. ISBN 978-5-9524-2783-9 (William Pokhlyobkin, Ethnic Cuisines of our Peoples. Moscow: Soviet Food Industry publishing house, 1980; Russian)