Soup-kharcho from mutton: a recipe from the depths of centuries

Soup-harcho is a surprisingly tasty dish, the home of which is supposed to be Georgia. Harcho of lamb in Georgian, like many other dishes from this type of meat, was probably invented by shepherds who spent a lot of time high up in the mountains, grazing sheep. Delicious, aromatic meat could quickly saturate, warm in the cold. Therefore, the main dishes of the shepherds were shish kebab, shulum, soup-kharcho from mutton. The recipe, simple initially, was constantly improved, became more complex, refined. After all, it is much easier to make a complex dish at home than at a stake in the mountains.

It is interesting that in our time there is a reverse process: the recipe is again simplified. Stepping out of Georgia, the soup has greatly changed. Moreover, many people call kharcho soups with spices, cooked on mutton broth. Undoubtedly, such dishes are also tasty, they have the right to life. However, they have nothing to do with the historical dish. For the present kharcho a lot of products are required:

• A kilo of a ram's breast, a desirable young one;
• Three large bulbs;
• A glass of walnuts;
• The same number of ripe tomatoes;
• A large bundle of coriander;
• The same bunch of parsley;
• Rice;
• Acute adzhika or tkemali (sauce from plum);
• pomegranate juice;
• Sweet pepper;
• Hops-suneli.

If you cook the walnuts with the walnuts, it is usually not difficult, then in the last ingredient, the most common problem is a snag. Usually in shops the mix "Hmeli-suneli", including a maximum of six components is on sale. While in the present set of spices for the grub, there should be much more. It should include:

• Imeretian saffron (which is almost impossible to get outside of Georgia);
• basil;
• Fenugreek or fenugreek;
• peppermint;
• marjoram;
• hot peppers;
• dill;
• parsley;
• thyme;
• coriander;
• Bay leaf;
• celery.

Only such a composition of spices will help to cook a truly delicious, Georgian soup-harcho from mutton.

Recipe

First, chop the lamb to a golden crust. After that, it starts to cook on low heat. While the meat is cooked, the rest of the food is cooked: shred onion, greens, peel and cut vegetables.

Onion until transparent fry in oil, then spread out to half-cooked meat. Then add the rice, and when it is also half cooked, throw the peeled tomato, sweet pepper.

Walnuts make especially savory soup-kharcho from mutton. The recipe allows for their absence, but without nuts a bouquet of taste will not be so refined. Therefore, 15 minutes before the end of cooking in the soup lay out mashed nuts, greens. Salt, adjust the taste with adzhika or tkemali, pomegranate juice.

This Harcho is a terrific feast of taste. It combines the most unexpected notes of spices, the refined aroma of walnut, the spice of seasonings. Acid-sweet, spicy, fragrant soup-harcho from mutton, the recipe of which came from the depths of centuries, forever conquers gourmets.

Some cooks argue that the harch was originally made from beef. It is difficult to argue, especially as, as the proverb says, "there are no comrades for taste and color".

There are varieties of harcho, cooked from beef, pork, chicken, turkey and even duck. And everyone who has ever cooked this soup, I'm sure that his recipe is the most correct. All agree on only one thing: real kharcho is impossible without spices and hot pepper.

Do not waste time in empty arguments. It is better to arm yourself with the necessary products and try to cook all the variations of this soup. And it is even better to go to a real Georgian restaurant, where skilled chefs will enjoy a real work of art - soup-harcho, cooked in Georgian. Maybe someone will be lucky, and Georgian cooks will share with him the recipe for cooking this national masterpiece.