Master Cooking Class: Georgian

Yes, we are just that cool.  There are two cooking classes offered on the spring program to those who love being in the kitchen and are willing to pay to have their minds blown by a master chef.  The first of these was a crash course in Georgian food.

Hmmm Georgia, you say??  Odd choice of cooking class in Russia, of all places......

Usually when people hear "Georgia" they think of the state.  Нет.  Southern comfort food was definitely not what I was cooking.

Here it is!!

Look at those mountains - gorgeous, no??

Georgia the country is squished between Russia and Turkey on the eastern end of the Black Sea.  It is also the birthplace of Josef Stalin, Communist revolutionary and leader of Russia after Lenin's death.

Things my DC friends will appreciate - pomegranates are used in Georgian cooking!!  According to the internet, pomegranates have been grown in the Caucasus region for quite some time now, and indeed, two of the four dishes made in the master class featured them.

So food!!  To start with, here is the amazing, nameless chef who taught us how to make the fancy Georgian food.

A wild master chef appeared!!

First up on the class menu was harrcho, which was a soup that reminded me a lot of jambalaya back home.

Харчо

Pretty simple, and it was primarily what I got to work on during the master class.  First, you chop some onions.

Work work work.  Chop chop chop

Then you pose for a picture.

We look so happy. You'd never know those onions were making us cry an ocean of tears

And then go back to fighting with the onions and desperately trying not to cry.  Back home, chopping onions is nothing, and they're twice the size of the ones here.  Yet back home, I barely ever tear up.  These things were tiny, but my eyes were swimming bad enough at times that I had to stop and blink away the tears so I wouldn't accidentally cut my fingers as I chopped.

The chef seemed to approve of my onion chopping skills, so I was upgraded to actual cooking!!

Making a masterpiece, one scoop of tomato paste at a time

I made the sauce and cooked the rice.  That was hard - try making rice al dente and getting it right.  From there some minced garlic was added, heaping handfuls of salt/pepper/sugar, and into another pot full of chicken broth it went.  Chicken was chopped and I stirred it in, and the chef worked some magic with more salt/pepper and chili powder.  Thus was my job in the kitchen done.

The other foods which I did not prepare were pp'halli - eggplant strips in a walnut/onion paste with pomegranate on top.....

Пхали

......chahokh'beeli - a chicken dish, which I have no idea what else went into the making of it.....

Чахохбили

.....and hachapurri - really excellent bread stuffed with cheese and slathered in butter.

Хачапури

Best thing about this class??  We got to eat everything we made.  Like everything else in Russia, our food was served with hot tea, and everyone helped themselves to the feast.  Everything smelled wonderful.  And it tasted even better.  I'm definitely making these when I come home.