In praise of Georgian food

The Washington Post muses on March 3rd, 2015, whether the Georgian food might be the next big thing. It certainly deserves much more attention, if you ask me. There was this incident almost ten years ago, when Kuidaore's Joycelyn began her cookbook meme (memes were a big thing in the early days of food blogging) wondering whether she really needs a Georgian cookbook. I left a long comment insisting she does :)

I've been a fan of Georgian food as long as I remember. The food is so flavoursome and colourful, providing plenty of textures and variety. The picture here is from the chapter dedicated to the cuisine of Georgia in my third cookbook, "Nami-Nami. Maailma maitsed 1" that was published in October 2013 (see my blog post here).  Doesn't it look really appealing and appetising?



There are 99 photos in my  Georgian album over on Flickr, most with links to the Estonian-language recipe. However, there are plenty of excellent Georgian recipes here on Nami-Nami as well for you to browse, helping you to get familiar with the "next big thing". Enjoy!

Georgian-style green beans with herbs and garlicky yogurt or mtsvane lobios borani (pictured at the bottom right, below) is a wonderful side dish (#glutenfree #lowcarb).



Beet salad with walnuts and garlic, pkhali, is a potent vegetable salad that brightens up any festive table (#glutenfree #Paleo):



Cucumber and tomato salad with fresh cilantro/coriander is a delightfully different way to serve the summer favourites, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Chicken in a cold walnut sauce, satsivi, is another winner from Georgia (pictured in the front, below). Georgian cuisine is rather unique in that they use walnuts a lot as a the main ingredient, not just to give some extra flavour or texture. Here the walnuts and mixed with spices and fried onions to form a wonderfully aromatic sauce. (#glutenfree #lowcarb #Paleo)



Creamy mushrooms with spices and herbs, is a great way to cook and serve those rather bland-tasting cultivated white mushrooms (#glutenfree #lowcarb):



Walnut and egg salad,  are here pictured on crispy toasts (#glutenfree #lowcarb):



If you can get hold of the salty Suluguni cheese, then it's excellent when fried in butter:



Yet the most wonderful way of using the Georgian Suluguni cheese is to make a Georgian cheese pie, khatchapuri. There are lots of different versions about that Georgian cheese bread. I've got three recipes in my cookbook, but the recipe you find here on the blog is the simplest one, Imeretian khatchapuri.



Chicken with herbs and tomatoes, chakhohbili (pictured at the centre, below), was the first Georgian recipe to appear here on Nami-Nami, and still finds its way to our table quite regularly (#glutenfree #lowcarb #Paleo)



So, which Georgian dishes have you eaten? Which one would you cook first from this selection here on Nami-Nami?

My cookbook launch on November 11, 2013

Photo by Päivi Palts.

My third cookbook came out in early November (there will be a blog post about the book!), and last Monday there was a small launch party at the Rahva Raamat bookstore in Tallinn. My dear friend Ximena Maier (you'll surely know her food blog Lobstersquad) did the illustrations for the book again. It's as striking as the first one, don't you agree?



They certainly stand out on the bookshelves!

Back to the book launch party. Here's me and my lovely agent, Reelika Rahu, flipping through the pages of the book:

Photo by Andres Haabu

Me welcoming the people and talking briefly about the book. Take note that my stockings are matching the colour of my newest cookbook :)  
Photo by Andres Haabu


Photo by Päivi Palts


Photo by Päivi Palts

This lovely lady, Maret, is a good friend of my mother-in-law. She's also a great fan of Nami-Nami recipes and loved the previous book (or so I'm told). The beetroot phali recipe in the Georgian chapter has caught her attention. Or is it the egg and walnut salad?

Photo by Päivi Palts

Time to sign the books! I was impressed how many people turned up and was signing the books for well over an hour!

Photo by Andres Haabu


Photo by Päivi Palts.


Photo by Päivi Palts.


Photo by Päivi Palts


Photo by Päivi Palts


Photo by Päivi Palts

One of the Nami-Nami fans, my friend Eva Pettinen of the Flexus Pilates Studio:

Photo by Päivi Palts

I don't know who this little sweet girl was, but she had a lovely name and she told me that she always uses Nami-Nami to look for recipe inspiration :)


It was a cookbook, so obviously there was food at the launch party :)
Photo by Päivi Palts.

The purple dip is beetroot borani (recipe in the Persian chapter; also available here on the blog). On the front you'll see cheese and herb filled filo "cigars" (recipe in the Lebanese chapter). There's a bowl in the middle, filled with black pudding profiteroles (a recipe in my Christmas cookbook). Not pictured is a big plate with two different types of cookies from the Swedish chapter:

Photo by Päivi Palts.

The filo rolls and the Swedish cookies were baked by my dear friend and a talented baker, American-born Heidi Park. Heidi also did the catering for my first cookbook launch party back in December 2010. I'm so lucky to have met her and call her my friend:
Photo by Kristjan.

Ok, back to food. Marinated aubergine/eggplant slices, a recipe in the Italian chapter:
 
Photo by Päivi Palts.

A special thanks goes to Põltsamaa Felix, who provided the drinks - juice for the kids and their beautiful dessert wine Põltsamaa Kuldne 2005 for the grown-ups (again, they provided the drinks for the previous launch party as well). Here's my sweet daughter Nora (4 y 9 m) enjoying a glass of Põltsamaa's pear nectar (pirninektar) while chitchatting to her friend Taavi:

Photo by Päivi Palts.

There was also the wonderful bottled mineral water from Georgia, Borjomi, which, of course, is the perfect drink to go with the recipes in the Georgian chapter:

Photo by Borjomi Estonia

And last, but not least, there was some wine, courtesy of Pernod Ricard Estonia. We drank Tamada Mukuzani from Georgia, and San Simone Perlae Naonis Millsesimato Prosecco DOC from Italy:

Photo by Reet Zimmer

A huge thank you to everybody who made it and a huge thank you to everybody who helped to organise the launch party.

Sneak preview # 6

Working on my next cookbook project with the lovely Juta Kübarsepp. We shot five photos on Thursday.

Can you guess what's on the photo? Quite a few of the recipes have been featured here on Nami-Nami previously :)

Sneak preview # 2

Working on my next cookbook project with the lovely Juta Kübarsepp. We shot five photos on Tuesday (2 items are missing from the main photo).

Can you guess what's on the photo? Quite a few of the recipes have been featured here on Nami-Nami previously :)

Sneak preview # 1

Working on my next cookbook project with the lovely Juta Kübarsepp. We shot five photos on Sunday.

Can you guess what's on the photo? :)