Kharcho soup is a classic of Caucasian cuisine. So beloved by Soviet catering, it really is extremely tasty and healthy.
A real kharcho, like a pilaf or shish kebab, is cooked without fail from lamb.
Only this meat, according to Caucasians, can saturate the broth of hot mountain soup with the necessary aroma and taste.
Classic lamb kharcho - general cooking principles
• Like any soup, the kharcho will turn out to be more rich if you take a piece of meat with a bone to cook the broth. One should choose not the pulp, but the scapular part or ribs.
• In the preparation of lamb broth there is an obligatory subtlety - the meat is dipped only in boiling water. In the future, it is cooked, as from any other meat: over low heat, not allowing to boil strongly and always with the lid closed.
• Mutton on the bone is boiled for at least two hours; using the pulp will take one and a half hours.
• Classic Kharcho is cooked with pearl barley, but rice soups are sometimes preferable, in particular if you cook for children. Rice choose ordinary, round-grain, although it is not uncommon to put in the kharcho a so-called rice chop - ground rice.
Spicy “Classic” lamb kharcho soup with nuts
Ingredients:
• ribs of young lamb - 1.2 kg;
• a glass of long grain rice;
• three large onions;
• a spoon of very sharp adzhika;
• two large tomatoes;
• two spoonfuls of hop-suneli;
• peppercorns;
• A handful of walnuts;
• a pair of bay leaves;
• Spoon of tomato paste;
• ground paprika - an incomplete teaspoon;
• dried basil;
• large head of garlic;
• refined oil - 2 tbsp. l .;
• saffron;
• fresh cilantro.
Preparation:
1. Fill a large pot with water, set to the maximum heating temperature. As soon as it boils, lower the mutton, peppercorns and onion. Pre-wash the meat thoroughly, do not cut it. 2. Bring the broth to a boil, then reduce the heat and leave to cook under a lid for two hours. In the process of boiling, be sure to remove all the foam. After about an hour from boiling add a spoonful of salt, but do not salt in the beginning, otherwise the lamb will be tough.
3. When the broth is cooked, the meat needs to be laid out. To remove small pieces of bone, onion and pepper, strain the broth with a sieve and pour into the same pan. Do not forget to wash it, “raid” always accumulates on the walls when cooking meat.
4. On medium heat, bring the broth to a boil, pour in the pre-washed rice. Add a spoonful of hop-suneli and leave to cook, setting the average heat.
5. Remove all meat from the bones. Smash the tomatoes in a mashed potatoes. Add the remaining hops-suneli, basil and saffron, mix. If there is no blender, remove the peel from the tomatoes and simply chop the pulp on a grater.
6. Onions cut into half rings, and if the head is large, then quarters of rings. In butter, fry the onion strips until golden. Add paprika and chopped tomatoes. Put a spoonful of pasta, adjika and ground nuts. Stir and leave to simmer covered for six minutes.
7. Put the prepared roast in the broth to the prepared rice. Bring to a boil, boil at a minimum temperature of about five minutes. In the end, put the crushed garlic and pounded greens, stir the soup well, turn off the stove.
Lamb Kharcho: a classic recipe with potatoes
Ingredients:
• half a kilogram of mutton with pits;
• round grain rice - 4 tbsp. l .;
• three large onions;
• garlic;
• a pound of potatoes;
• three spoons of “Tkemali” sauce;
• 400 gr. fresh tomato;
• greens: parsley, cilantro and dill - in small bunches;
• allspice and black pepper;
• dried basil - a few pinch.
Preparation:
1. Wash the lamb. Peel off the films and tendon residue, cut into medium sized pieces of oblong shape. 2. Quickly boil 2.5 liters. water and dip into it the pieces of lamb. Waiting for re-boiling, carefully remove the foam. As soon as boiling begins, slightly reduce the heat and boil the broth for one and a half hours.
3. Put the lamb in a bowl, and put the diced potatoes in the broth. Immediately add the washed rice, stir and leave to cook on low heat.
4. Fry onion half rings until transparent in vegetable oil. Put the pieces of boiled meat to it, season with “Tkemali” sauce. Add chopped ground tomatoes, stir and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Stir periodically and make sure that the roast is not burnt.
5. When rice and potatoes are ready, put the tomato roast in the broth. Pour all the spices in the kharcho, add salt to your taste. Boil at low heat for about a quarter of an hour, add finely chopped garlic and fresh herbs to the kharcho. Then, with the lid closed, about three minutes and remove from the stove.
Kharcho from “Classic” lamb, with prunes
Ingredients:
• lamb brisket - 400 gr .;
• 50 gr. dry rice, large;
• seasoning hops-suneli;
• two bulbs;
• large head of garlic;
• prunes without stones - 100 gr .;
• one third of a spoonful of ground pepper, red and black;
• 180 gr. non-acute tomato;
• fresh greens;
• Two teaspoons of acute adzhika, you can with hops-suneli.
Preparation:
1. Cut the bacon with water and cut it into boiling water. Wait until the contents of the pan begin to boil again. Without waiting for intense turbulence, remove all the foam. Boil the lamb, lowering the heat to medium.
2. Cut the washed prunes into thin strips and lower it into the broth, after an hour, from the moment of boiling.
3. Boil for twenty minutes, add the rice and chopped garlic. Wash the cereal with cold water. Cook until soft rice.
4. While the rice grains are boiling, pour two spoons of butter into the pan and heat it well over a low heat. Then lay out the onion half rings, and when they are well browned, add tomato and adjika. While stirring, cook the roast for seven minutes, then transfer to the pan to the prepared rice. 5. Season hops-suneli, adjust the taste of kharcho with salt. Add the greens, set aside and let it brew for about half an hour.
Kharcho lamb classic recipe with plums, Georgian-style
Ingredients:
• lamb on bone - 400 gr .;
• four onions, medium size;
• 100 gr. round grain rice;
• five large plums;
• five small cloves of garlic;
• 100 gr. walnuts;
• tablespoon flour;
• a little fresh cilantro;
• three tablespoons of lean, fragrant oil;
• spices - to taste;
• third tsp. hot pepper, ground.
Preparation:
1. Rinse the lamb with running water. Immediately chop the meat into portions and fill with boiling water. At maximum heat, removing the foam, bring to the beginning of a boiling boil. Then set the heat so that it boils in the pan, but not intensely. Cook the meat for an hour and a half.
2. Chop onion finely and heat in butter until softened. Add flour, continue cooking, without stopping stirring, until a golden blush.
3. Prepare a plum sauce. Rinse the fruit, dip it in cold water and, boiling over a small heat, boil until softened. Flip the plums on a sieve and grind, choosing skins and bones.
4. Transfer the cooked plum puree to the pan, push the garlic to it, mix. While warming the sauce over low heat, and while stirring regularly, bring to a thickening.
5. From the finished broth, remove the meat and strain it into a clean pan. Put the lamb pieces back into the pot and place it on the fire again. When boils, put cereal. Add the blended nuts, put the onion and plum sauce in the soup, fried with flour. Cook, not allowing to boil, until rice is cooked.
6. Send chopped greens to the pan and boil the soup for another five minutes.
Recipe for classic lamb kharcho soup, for multicooker
Ingredients:
• lamb brisket - about 700 grams; • half a cup of rice;
• two tablespoons of unsalted, thick tomato;
• polgolovki garlic;
• hops-suneli - a couple of spoons, to taste;
• marinade from hot peppers (if any);
• Three onions - two per roast and one per broth.
Preparation:
1. Having programmed the extinguishing mode, and indicating on the timer the execution time at two hours, pour water and drop the onion head into it along with the meat.
2. Meanwhile, on a stove in a skillet, fry two shredded onions. Add tomato paste at the very end.
3. On stopping the program, remove the lamb, remove the meat from the bones, cut, if necessary, and return to the broth. Add onion, fried with tomato, then washed rice. Stir and put the greens.
4. Start the extinguishing mode, wait five minutes, and add hops-suneli to the dish. Now you need to close the lid, and cook the kharcho in the same mode for another hour.
5. Put chopped garlic in the soup, add saliva, remove the sample. To taste we add marinade from hot pepper and we maintain up to half an hour in the heating mode.
Classic lamb kharcho soup with tomato
Ingredients:
• a pound of mutton pruning;
• medium carrot;
• large onion;
• three pods of Bulgarian sweet pepper;
• a glass of large, not steamed rice;
• three spoons of tomato;
• garlic;
• Fresh dill - necessarily, a leaf of parsley and young cilantro - at will.
Preparation:
1. Having prepared a slow cooker for frying mode, grease the bowl abundantly with oil and fold it into sliced mutton. Grill the meat for about a quarter of an hour.
2. Cut the peppers into straws, and after washing and peeling the carrots, rub them into large chips. Add vegetables to the meat, as soon as the first stage is completed.
3. Expose the same mode of operation for another ten minutes and half of this time fry vegetables. During this time, cut the onion into quarters of rings and, together with the tomato, put in a slow cooker. Stirring occasionally, waiting for the completion of the program. 4. Lay the washed rice to the other products, add the required amount of boiling water. The processor is started for an hour and a half, having programmed “Quenching”.
5. Put garlic, peeled and mashed garlic, in ready-made kharcho, heat it up in a special mode for about 15 minutes. At the same time, we put cilantro, basil or other greens with a sharp taste.
Classic lamb kharcho soup - cooking tricks and useful tips
• Garlic is recommended to be added to the kharcho immediately at the end of cooking. So it will keep the maximum flavor, which during long-term heat treatment is usually lost.
• The broth is excellent in a pressure cooker, although there is still a wonderful option - to simmer it in the oven using a clay pot.
• Observe the exact recommended proportions of rice so that instead of soup you do not accidentally cook porridge. With the same goals, carefully follow the cereal after laying in the broth, it should not be boiled soft.
• If there is no blender, the nuts can be crushed with ordinary potato mash, and finely chopped kernels will do.
