In 2016 I was very lucky in that one of my good friends from Colombia came to live in England for a year and we spent some great times together in London, Surrey and Sussex. She introduced me to another friend of hers and one day when our mutual friend was back in Colombia she called me up and asked if we could do dinner – to which I gleefully agreed, little did I know that it would turn out to be a completely awesome night.
We made an agreement – she would pick the cuisine and I would pick the restaurant. The fact that you could pick pretty much any cuisine in the world and find it somewhere in London gives you an idea of just how spoilt for choice one is in London and this seemed like a good way to narrow the choices down. I have continued doing this when friends come to visit me in Oxford – but I always have to give them some limitations, like choose any cuisine except Central/South American, sadly the only South American place (a Venezuelan food truck) closed this year, and the closest you get to something Mexican in Oxford is a burrito. Needless to say, you don’t get these limitations in London and my friend really went for it – not that I need to tell you what country she picked seeing as this post is for Georgia, but just in case she picked Georgia. I rose to the challenge and found a little nugget of gold tucked away in London called Little Georgia. Before I tuck into telling you about the dish, I’m just going to share a bit about the restaurant and my journey there.
I finished work that day at around 4pm and we had agreed to meet at 6 at this restaurant so I decided to walk to the restaurant and it was one of the first times that I had decided to properly walk London rather than catch the tube, and I really didn’t regret it and have been walking as much as possible in London ever since. That day as I walked up to Hackney where the restaurant was, I walked past so many vibrant places, Exmouth Market being the most memorable. The restaurant was quaint and the staff very friendly, my friend and I ordered 3 dishes to share and a bottle of what turned out to be some of the most delicious wine – it turns out as I discovered later in life that Georgian wine is something very special indeed as it’s often aged in clay pots! After dinner we headed back out to Exmouth Market where he shared a desert and another bottle of wine in an Italian restaurant, where we got chatting to a German guy who was travelling and ended up dancing in the Caribbean place across the road. Needless to say, it was a great night and I missed the last bus home!
But the Georgian food alone was worth the taxi fare home, and one of the things I enjoyed that night was the stuffed bread which you might be interested to know comes in several variations, cheese encased, with beans, the cheese in the middle with a baked egg.. just google Khachapuri and you’ll see what I’m talking about. I felt really nostalgic making this dish and I’m not sure if I didn’t quite do it justice or if the change in atmosphere and the lack of delicious wine just didn’t invoke the right sentiments for enjoying it – but it was delicious nevertheless and I would definitely recommend!
Now, if you haven’t been put off by my rather long post, please see my recipe below which is a combination of these two here and here! The first recipe is for a dough without yeast which is faster to make but requires kefir or buttermilk. I decided to go with a yeast version of the dough as I tend to have better luck with that kind of dough but it’s up to you. The recipes also call for Sulguni or Imeruli cheese which are not always easy to find. If you have a local Eastern European shop you might have some luck, but if not you can substitute with 2 parts mozzarella (try to get something on the drier side) and 1 part feta.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Equipment you will need: toothpick or needle, rolling pin, large frying pan.
For the dough
200 g all-purpose flour
100 g milk, lukewarm
approx.50 g water, depends on the flour
4 g fresh yeast
4 g salt
8 g sunflower oil, for greasing
For the filling
400g Sulguini cheese
1 egg beaten
To serve:
butter
Method
Add all the ingredients for the dough to a bowl. Mix well until a dough forms and then knead for about 10 minutes (2-3 if using a mixer).
Then oil your hands and fold the dough onto itself around 4-5 times until you have a tight ball. Leave it covered in a bowl to rise for as long as you can – up to 8hrs on the counter or 24 in the fridge.
Once the time is almost up grate the cheese and mix it with the beaten egg.
Divide the dough into two and roll it into a circle (about 15cm in diameter).
Add the cheese to the middle making sure it doesn’t touch the edges and then pinch the edges to seal the cheese into the dough.
Read the next bit of instructions completely before you start rolling. Flatten the dough with your hand and then a rolling pin, rolling until it’s about 20cm in diameter. As you roll and flatten you are likely to find some air bubbles forming which is completely normal but you need to handle with care. If the bubble burst and creates a large tear in the dough you will find it hard to reseal the dough because of the moisture in the cheese and egg mix.
When you find a bubble deflate it with the tip of a needle or toothpick and then pinch shut again. Then keep rolling until they are about 24cm in diameter.
Once the breads are rolled out put them in a non-stick frying pan over low-medium heat and cook them with the lid on for about 5 minutes on each side. Then put some butter over the top and serve warm. (They also taste pretty yum once cold!)
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