One of my favorite travel/food sites is Georgia About. There are so many delicious and interesting recipes that I’ll never be satisfied until I try them all! Today I refrigerated the makings for ojakhuri, a stewed pork dish. http://georgiaabout.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/about-food-ojakhuri-family-meal/.
I did fiddle with the recipe a bit. I didn’t have any Berberis berries or know where to get them, so I substituted the zest of a whole lemon. I doubled the amount of meat and I think the dog forgot to include garlic, so I corrected that. Don’t worry Bassa, I’ve got your back 🙂
Ojakhuri Marinade
2 lbs fat pork, cut into cubes
2 red onions, sliced
4 humongus garlic cloves, slivered
Zest of one lemon
3 tbsp creme fraiche
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/4 cup white wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp coriander
2 tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped
4 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Mix everything together, put into a cooking pot with cover and refrigerate overnight.
It looks great! Thank you for the lovely comments about Georgia About blog 🙂
Thank you. Can’t wait until tomorrow to see how it turns out 🙂
Will be trying this. Do you think the Lebanese spice sumac might be a stand in for the berries? It’s certainly tart enough.
I don’t know Jon. Let me know if it works out. The only thing I could think of was zest. I’m sure that’s not quite right but I really wanted to make this.
Oh yum! I love Georgia About too! So glad to see that you are doing one of his recipes. Looking forward to seeing the outcome!
Remember the beans http://cookinginsens.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/lobio-a-georgian-bean-dish/ ? I’m making those again when it’s the fresh bean season. I have high hopes for the pork tomorrow!
Not being the ardent blogger, I’m guessing this is Georgia as in Tiblisi and not Georgia as in Ray Charles 🙂 The ingredients look wonderful …
Hi Laura. Yes, Tiblisi 🙂 Tune in tomorrow.
I’ve never even heard of Berberis berries until just now! I’m trying to catch up on all my lovely blogs and you’re completely distracting me. Here’s another recipe I’m bookmarking! 🙂
I’d never heard of them until reading the recipe. Now, I’ll continue to look for them among the spices.
I will be on the lookout too…it’s always fun to discover and try a new ingredient!
Hello, may I intrude? Berberis berries are barberries (Berberis vulgaris). They are common in Persian food, where they known as zereshk. They usually come as little dry berries and are quite tangy, in Iran they soak them in a mixture of warm water and sugar to take away some of the acidity. I had no idea you could find them “ground” though! If I try this recipe, I might try chopping barberries finely, and see if it works!
I hope you didn’t mind the intrusion,
Darya
I appreciate the added information Darya – thank you!
Thank you Darya.
My mom occasionally makes Georgian food, and everybody always LOVES it! Thank you for posting this, I can’t wait for Part II, and thank you for linking to the Georgian food blog, I will definitely be checking it out in the future!
Sounds rather wonderful, Rosemary!
Thank you Frugal.
Interesting dish. I look forward….
It took me a while to figure out what Berberis are. I think they are the same thing as Barberries, just spelled differently. Sumac is different but does have a tart sort of flavour. I’m sure it would be fine in this recipe but maybe wouldn’t be ‘authentic’.
Can I ask what cut of pork did you use? Shoulder?
Hi dish. Because I speak no German and the butcher speaks very little English, I just found a likely looking suspect, pointed to it and had him cut a kilo 🙂
Love those fresh bay leaves!
Me too 🙂
Damn. Sounds good!
Sounds and looks seriously meaty, apart from the missing berries. I thought Georgian food was well known for being vegetarian, which accounted for the Georgians longevity. I think the red wine helped – in the longevity that is.
Meaty is a good thing. They were vegetarians and winos out of necessity. They have money now 🙂
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Ooh my word that sounds good…am off to read the next part now!
Hi CIS, I started my marinade this morning! My plan is to have it tonight sooo, I’m going to marinade it for less time and then slow braise it in the oven. Just for something completely different 😉
Good luck! Take pictures.
Okay done! I forgot I was scheduled to volunteer so the meat marinated for 28 hours. Not that I’m complaining 🙂
Here’s the finished post: http://dishnthekitchen.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/georgian-ojakhuri/
We eat really late, it’s always a challenge to take decent pictures while protecting the food from the hungry hoards!