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Everything posted by shain
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Lunch in Borjomi. Lobio. This time flavored with some tarragon, in addition to the ever-present parsley. This version was a little thin compared to those I had before, more soupy, but it lacked a borth base to give it richness. It was tasty nonetheless and the tarragon added a nice bright fresh flavor which was nice on this sunny day. Savoury yogurt soup with mint and garlic. Tasty, but we couldn't eat much of it, it is pleasant in small portions. Grilled khachapuri. It was stuffed with an absurd amount of gooey melted sulguni cheese, which is much like mozzarella and not sour as the immeruli used in many (most?) other khachapuri. The dough was thin and crisp, lightly buttered and very tasty. Chakapuli - lamb and herbs stew. Made with white wine, tarragon, sour unripe plums, garlic, herbs. This is a traditional dish, and has a very unique flavor. I sampled the borth and found it tart, herbal and very reminiscent of a partly cooked khoresht sabzi. The lamb, I was told, was very good.
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Sorry, I was just mid editing
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We found Borjomi to be a pretty, quite and overall very pleasant town. There was some interesting ice cream being sold. Like this Russian ice cream, which I noticed for it's unique/strange albel, but in retrospect I regret I haven't tasted, since it's flavor (of sesame and poppy) sounds like one I would have liked. There was also this Smurfs flavored ice cream (JK ofcourse no idea what it is). Cherry with chocolate/vanilla are also common flavors. Various pastries. Nuts, honey, home made wine. This nice old lady was selling honey and jams and insisted on sampling us with them, at least until a bee landed and got stuck in one of the jars... We bought a jar of preserved pine bads in syrup, they have a lovely and very strong piney-resiny aroma, and the lady said that they are good to relieve a cough. But when we got home it was nowhere to be found
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Those are a sort of groundcherries, a relative of the tomatillo.
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It sounds to me as though you're doing what you need to do already. This article about Vitamin B-12 sources and needs indicates that cheese, yogurt, milk and eggs all are sources. They also mention fortified cereals, nutritional yeast and fortified plant-based milk. (I assume that means soy milk, but I could be wrong.) I've never tried nutritional yeast, but the article makes it sound as though it would provide the umami kick that meat does, as well as providing the extra missing nutrients. According to this article, you only need about 2.4 micrograms of B-12 per day. Here's an excerpt from the article about quantities: I use nutritional yeast quite often, like one would use MSG. Getting enough protein is challenging for a vegetarian, being willing to cook obviously helps by making sure you have high quality food with sufficient protein of various sources. Cottage cheese in Israel is different than the one I sampled in the US, it is richer and the grains larger and more tender. It's my go to snack when I feel my daily diet might be lacking in protein. You can also consider making use of cured meats as a flavoring and nutritional enrichment to otherwise mostly vegetarian dishes, the Italians are masters of this.
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Again, nothing interesting for breakfast (More stomach room for lunch I guess). Watery kasha. Some sausages. A weird baked egg. Some OK pelmeni. A puffy semi-crisp pancake thingy, with sour cream, farmers cheese, cherry preserve and honey. Some of the local Borjomi sparkling mineral water. Which I found to taste of lime and iron. A morning hike in the natural reserve of Borjomi.
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Orzotto (barley risotto) with spinach herbs (parsley, tarragon scallions). Butter, a touch of cream and a hint of nutmeg. WIth pan fried mushrooms and borlotti beans.
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Brunch. Salad - Lima beans, green, arugula, roasted peppers, grated eggs, vinaigrette. Grilled cheese with Gruyere, sauteed mushrooms and arugula.
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Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
shain replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
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Vegetarian burrito. Beans and soft tofu in smokey chipotle flavoured sauce with plenty of cumin and coriander seeds. Cheddar. Pico de gallo. Pickled chili peppers. Served with sour cream. Beans and corn salad, with chili peppers, onion, mayonnaise, chipotle, lime zest and juice.
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We were suggested a complementary dinner at the hotel While I was feeling better by evening, I still didn't have much of an appetite. Nothing really interesting. A sample of a few salads and pickles. Herbed mushroom salad, beet salad, pickled string beans, spinach pkhali. The strange looking pickle at the front left is jonjoli - pickled flowers with a flavor similar to capers but more floral. It would make a decent puttanesca sauce. We also sampled some cakes. They were mostly OK.
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Thanks for caring, it's a bummer, but could have been worse. I forgot to write about the hops. I really like stumbling on wild hops, I like their smell, both when old and garlicky and young and, well, hoppy as those were. It's also nice thinking how did it came so that someone picked some and added to a boiling pot of barley. The real berries I believe to be some sort of blackberries. The last image is obviously of roseheaps.
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Next day, I woke up feeling quite sick. Not having much of an appetite, I could only get myself to eat some crepe with preserves and sour cream. Those were our breakfasts: I was told that the sausages were smokey and tasty, the octopus salad unpleasantly tough, and the eggs tasted OK even though it seems something bad had happened to them. There was also a nice variety of cheeses, including chewy smoked sulguni served with raisins and nuts; various pickles, and fruits. As we headed out for our day trip, I've found that the drive is not doing well with me. We took a break on the river bank by the road, and spent some time admiring nature and picking berries.
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As whether was finally getting colder, we got a sort of heatwave (at least it's still much better than the summer weather). Soba. Walnut dipping sauce (walnut, miso, vinegar, a touch of sugar). Sesame paste dipping sauce (with soy sauce, miso, mirin). Reduced soy dipping sauce (soy sauce, miso, vinegar, mirin). Scallions. Wassabi (we needed much more than shown in the picture). It's a nice light make-ahead meal.
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Baked ciabattas. I did the mistake of not letting the oven bottom heat enough and crowding the breads too close to each other. Both things caused an uneven raise and alveoli. Oh well, tasted great. Filled them with fresh mozz, tomatoes, basil and some salt. A short reheat to crisp up and melt the cheese a little.
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So as I mentioned, we were heading back south, which meant we were passing back by our so far favorite restaurant, Chveni Ezo. The waiters remembers us and seemed truly delighted when we told them that we enjoyed our past visit so much we just had to return. We had roti puri, which was warm, but not as crisp as before. This type of bread is really as its best when super fresh. Nadughi - farmer's cheese with plenty of of mint. I meant to order it in a traditional preparation where it is wrapped in a thin slice of sulguni cheese (see here). SoIt was slightly tangy, creamy (though not rich), and refreshing. It was nice spread over the bread. Fried eggplants with walnut spread. The eggplant was tender and rich. The walnut spread creamy and mild, mostly nutty. The garlic was used very gently. Over all, it was very enjoyable, but I prefer the version we had on our first day at the hotel breakfast - the "meaty" texture of that eggplant (possibly steamed) and the usage of more herbs were unbeatable. Generally speaking, I don't really like fried eggplants, I often sub them for grilled ones. But the georgians seem to have the way with them and they were rarely oily or over-fried. We also had some German weissen and a local lager. For mains we had Abkhazura, which is referred to as spicy meatball, but was akin to a kebab. It made with various spices and herbs, out of them dill is notable (though not overly so), pomegranates give some sweetness and some chili which made it pleasantly more spicy than most Georgian dishes we had. It seemed grilled, but my understanding is that it is wrapped in caul fat and pan fired. It was served with raw onion, which is a popular topping to various kebab-like dishes. I was told it was very good. We also had tkemali, which is a sour plum sauce and was very tasty, enough so that we ended up dipping bread into it and eating as is. A dish of various forest mushrooms and crimini, in a rich broth made of their own juices and butter, browned onion, tomatoes paprika and plenty of dill and parsley. It needed some salt, but once this was take care of, it was truly delicious. I used some bread to soak from the remaining juices. Two meat filled khinkali, one called "urban style" and one "mountain style" (I can't recall the Georgian names). The first flavored with parsley and cilantro, the other gently spiced with cumin and/or caraway. One cheese filled khinkali (the cheese a combination of imaruli and farmers cheese), was slightly tart, and chewy like melted fresh mozzarella. But I didn't like it much, it didn't work in dumpling form. I prefered the mushroom version from last time and hadn't tried the potato version (seemed somewhat boring). I was impressed with the availability of vegetarian versions everywhere, possibly due to lents dicatating meat free meals. Before the meal, I was eyeing the pelamushi on the dessert menu, but since we were stuffed to the brim, I had to pass it.
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Chinese style steamed egg, two ways - sesame, sesame oil, white soy sauce. Dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, scallions. Served with hot ginger rice. A tad too tender for my taste, so less liquid next time. Also, I should let the mixture sit onger, as the first batch still had bubbles in it.
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Pad thai. But I forgot to buy bean sprouts, so I used onion instead, to have some crispness. An extra scatter of fresh chilies on top for me
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Thanks I think it should be on your list regardless. April to May should be the prime season for green fields and rivers full with water.
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After breakfast, we headed back south, for a day of hiking near Sno and Juta. We stopped for rest and wine by a small river.
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We had breakfast at a local small cafe-restaurant. It was stuffed by a woman and her older mother, who were very friendly. We had an OK turkish coffee as well as a Penovani khachapuri and a salad with walnut sauce. The khachapuri, made with a laminated pastry, was very crisp, flaky and quite tender. Its flakiness was more akin pie-crust than a puff pastry, but it was tender and yeasted like a puff pastry. The cheese filling was mild and not as acidic as in the one we had before. It was very much like a bourekas. The salad was great, the sauce of finely crushed walnuts, wine vinegar and herbs was great. The walnuts and vinegar together created a thin paste of sort, which coated the vegetables nicely. The vinegar was quite sweet and this worked well with the walnuts. Chopped parsley and basil added another layer of flavor. Simple and very good.
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Indeed. The pictures are taken at Gergeti church, Tsdu and Gveleti waterfall.
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Almost, I believe the egg is cracked raw on the khachapuri as it goes out of the oven. By the short time it took it to be served and photographed, it cooked enough to thicken a little, the egg white was just starting to set. The egg is traditionally mixed into the cheese (or so I understood), but we couldn't resist dipping the two bready knobs into the yolk. The white we mixed into the cheese. It's nice how you dip into the cheese pieces from the vessel in which it's contained. I'm sure going to, once the weather here chills enough for ovens and hearty, cheesy food. Do you have insights to share from your previous attempt at it? I barely skimmed through a couple of recpies, but my impression is that the dough is very pizza/pita like, enriched with yogurt. Lacking the proper georgian imeruli and sulguni, I plan on using a mixture of sirene, fresh mozz and some greek yogurt for flavor.
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Late lunch. Tarragon "lemonade" - Georgian use the term lemonade to refer to various flavored sodas (popular flavors are pear, orange, grapes, tarragon, vanilla and a few others). It was fizzy and sweet, but not overly so. Very slightly acidic, mostly gently minty, and hints of tarragon which I might have missed had it was not written on the label. Kazbegi porter - this was a very decent and basic porter. A tad too light and sweet. I hoped to taste other beers by the brewery, but apparently it is not commonly sold Adjarian khachapuri - nice and tender, slightly crisp, steaming hot. The egg fully liquid. The dough tastes lightly of yogurt. The filling is melting, not stretchy. Lightly salty. Some tartness and taste of lactic fermentation. We enjoyed it very much. Lobio - similar preparation to last time. The beans softer, breaking easily. Less herbal and complex than last time, some flavor of bay leaf. It worked well with the lobiani. We occasionally placed from the bean stew on the pieces of the cheesy khachapuri. The beans balanced it's milikness and acidity. It's richness complimented the beans. I hope I haven't performed a crime against Georgian cuisine. Just imagine what an Italian would say if one was to dip Neapolitan pizza into pasta e fagioli 😲.
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