Armenian garlic nut sauce Ashtarak. "Lick your fingers": Top ten dishes for the Christmas table from Sputnik Armenia

Nuts have long been loved by mankind. Everyone has their favorite gifts of nature: someone prefers to gnaw almonds, someone likes pistachios, especially for beer, and those who take care of their health prefer to add a handful of cedar to their salads.

Nuts are widely used for the preparation of confectionery, butter is made from peanuts, and ground nuts become the basis for dressings.

Nut sauce is a nutritious and very high-calorie seasoning. Most often it is served with poultry meat, seasoned with salads, and such a product is especially tasty if you spread it on a sandwich.

Every self-respecting housewife, if she wants to diversify the daily menu for her household, can prepare her own nut sauce, the crown recipe of which, of course, will be kept secret from everyone, even from close friends. However, in the annals of cooking there are many options for how to make walnut sauce. . Here are the most popular ones.

Georgian bage sauce

Nut sauce is traditional in Georgian cuisine: dishes with this dressing are incredibly popular in many countries of the world, especially in Italy, France, and Japan. Its spicy-spicy rich taste can set off any dish. The most famous is bage sauce. Its preparation does not take much time, so even a not very experienced hostess can make it. Most often, this sauce is prepared with walnuts, but in the absence of such, you can use others - hazelnuts, cashews or almonds.

So, to prepare Georgian nut sauce, you will need:

250 g walnuts;
200 ml (glass) boiled water or chicken broth;
2 cloves of garlic of medium size;
red ground pepper;
one teaspoon of the most popular Georgian spices: suneli hops, cilantro and yellow flower (Imereti saffron);
1 st. a spoonful of wine vinegar;
salt.

Cooking order:

Grind the walnuts in a blender or pass through a meat grinder twice.
Add all the spices, pepper, salt to the nut mass.
Knead the resulting mass with your hands until it becomes wet and greasy from dry (nut butter will stand out). A real walnut sauce can only be obtained if you knead the mass with your hands, and not with a spoon.
Dilute the nut mass with chilled broth or water to the desired density.
At the end, add salt to your taste and pour in the wine vinegar. Not apple, not table, namely wine vinegar. Only he will give the desired sharpness and taste.

This spicy Georgian sauce is served with fish, boiled or fried chicken.

Gamadari sauce

Not everyone eats meat or poultry. Does this mean that vegetarians will never taste delicious seasoning? No, a walnut salad dressing will not only add flavor to your salad, but it will also make your salad more satisfying. This is important for those who monitor their weight.

For example, chuka salad with gamadari nut sauce can be a completely independent dish.

Chuka is a lettuce that got its name from the brown algae Ulva lactuca growing near the coasts of Japan, China and Russia. They grow at a depth of about 100 meters, so from ancient times they were mined by the inhabitants of the coastal regions of China. In Japan, this salad is called "wakame" or "kaiso". The name "chuka" means "brought from China", because it was from there that this sea delicacy was obtained earlier.

Chuka salad sauce appeared much later to diversify the taste of the dish and supplement it with calories, because one serving of salad with such a dressing accounts for 195 calories. Since this salad is more common in Japan, Japanese traditional walnut sauce is served with it.

To make gamadari sauce, you will need the following composition of ingredients:

water 3 quarters of a glass;
peanut butter - 4 teaspoons;
sesame oil - 2 teaspoons;
soy seasoning - 4 tbsp. spoons;
rice vinegar - 4 teaspoons;
mirin (creamy-sweet rice wine) - 3 teaspoons;
sesame seeds - 3 tsp.

In the original version, a different main ingredient was used to create this dressing: they made cashew sauce, after roasting them, and roasted sesame seeds too. The seasoning had a unique taste. However, making cashew nut sauce takes some effort, and ready-made peanut butter can be purchased at any supermarket. Therefore, for seasoning, many use the finished product.

Cooking order:

To make the peanut sauce for the wonderful chuka salad, put the prepared peanut butter in a saucepan, pour in a little water, then put it on a small fire and mix thoroughly.
While constantly stirring the resulting mass, add the remaining water, as a result of which the liquid seasoning will become of medium density.
When you remove the saucepan from the heat, add soy seasoning and sesame oil to its contents, pour in vinegar and mirin.

The resulting product is cooled, and chuka with nut sauce will be tastier if you sprinkle the salad with sesame seeds, after roasting them to a light brown shade. They will give the dish a real sesame flavor. Japanese restaurants and sushi bars, in addition to wasabi, pickled ginger and soy sauce, actively use nut sauce for sushi.

Aromatic Thai sauce

Such a seasoning is a sign of a special Thai cuisine. Its feature is the sharpness of all dishes. Funchoza, rice paper string rolls, setay noodles with shrimp and other delights of Thai cuisine are unthinkable without a special seasoning.

Thai nut sauce complements the taste of national dishes. It can be purchased ready-made, or you can cook it yourself.

You will need the following products:

1 st. a spoonful of peanut butter;
1 st. a spoonful of chili sauce;
1 st. a spoonful of red curry paste;
3 art. spoons of fish sauce;
2 tbsp. spoons of lime juice;
2 tbsp. spoons of peanut butter;
2 tbsp. spoons of brown sugar;
2 tbsp. spoons of roasted peanuts;
1 teaspoon of sesame oil;
a quarter cup of chicken broth;
a quarter cup of coconut milk.

All ingredients are sold ready-made. Therefore, it will not be difficult to prepare such an exquisite dressing.

You need to heat the peanut butter, fry the curry paste in it until the smell appears.
Add all the ingredients to the resulting mixture and leave for 2-3 minutes on an open fire until the mass thickens.
When serving, some gourmets add a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro, and another tablespoon of grated ginger root.

Such a spicy dressing is suitable for traditional cuisine. You can use walnut sauce on boiled chicken to enhance the bland flavor of the meat. And lovers of mono-diets will appreciate cheese cookies with Thai nut seasoning.

Garlic Nut Sauce

In the summer, especially in the heat, many people switch to light salads. If you live in the country and your first radish has ripened, there is nothing better than a salad of the first greens and radishes. Filling such a dish with mayonnaise would be wrong, and even dangerous if there is no refrigerator. With regular sunflower oil, the salad will be too lean. Garlic-nut sauce can be an ideal dressing option.

To prepare it you will need:

100 g walnuts;
2 cloves of garlic;
50 ml of sunflower oil (preferably unrefined);
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar;
a pinch of salt.

Cooking seasoning with nuts:

In a blender, crush the nuts into small crumbs.
Rub the garlic in a mortar with salt.
Combine nuts with salt, add oil and vinegar.
Stir contents and serve.

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In Armenia, it is customary to prepare two classic dishes for the Christmas table: boiled fish, symbolizing Christ, and pilaf with dried fruits and raisins. Rice in pilaf represents all of humanity, while dried fruits are Christians. On Christmas night, the five-day short fast ends, which begins on December 30th.

Although the Armenian Apostolic Church does not call on everyone to fast, it advises to purify the soul, heart and thoughts, leave the burden of bygone days and enter a new life with a light heart.

Sputnik Armenia offers top 10 recipes that will diversify the Christmas table and surprise guests.

A dish of Georgian cuisine is the salad "Tbiliso", the author's recipe of the chef of one of the Georgian restaurants in Armenia. For its preparation, mushrooms (champignons), bell peppers, tomatoes, chicken breast fillet, lettuce, spices are needed.

Cut the chicken breast fillet, Bulgarian red and green peppers into thin slices, divide the mushrooms into four parts. The ingredients are fried in sunflower oil. Salt, add tomatoes and green onions. We fry again. Put it all on a plate, decorate with thin slices of tomato and lettuce.
The salad recipe is so simple that anyone can make it.

This dish was also born as a result of the improvisation of one of the Armenian chefs. It is low in calories and is perfect for the Christmas table, as it includes fish. The recipe is based on salmon, but you can replace it with trout or other fish.

Fish fillet is smeared with sunflower oil sauce with wine, grilled. Cut broccoli, bell pepper, capers. On a pre-prepared very thin dough (available at the supermarket), we spread chopped vegetables, fish. Salt, pepper. We put sunflower oil on the dough and wrap it in the form of an envelope. Re-grease with sunflower oil and send to the oven for 20 minutes.

The dish can be garnished with lemon slices, lettuce and cherry tomatoes.

Armavir

This dish is part of the golden collection of Armenian traditional cooking, especially popular among Western Armenians. "Armavir" is a roast made from veal, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, garlic-nut sauce, flour, sour cream, sunflower oil, celery.

We heat the pan, fry the thinly sliced eggplant and onion. Pre-seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, white wine and sunflower oil, cut the meat into thin pieces and fry. Still frying the tomato.

Put the finished ingredients on a plate. Pour the sauce of celery, sour cream, flour, garlic-nut mass.

You can quickly and easily cook Georgian-style chicken, which is known as Chkmeruli, for the Christmas table. The recipe is simple: we divide the chicken in half, pepper, salt and fry in a pan. In parallel, prepare the sauce: mix chopped garlic with sour cream. We put the chicken in ketsi (special dishes), season with sauce and put in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

The basis of the traditional Armenian dish "Aragatsotni Agani" is dried buttermilk and chicken breast. Pre-boiled chicken meat is fried in sunflower oil, bell pepper, dried buttermilk are added and simmered over low heat for about 20 minutes. Decorate with greens when serving.

Udoli

The recipe for this tolma, found among the manuscripts of the Matenadaran (Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, ed.), is more than 10 centuries old. "Udoli" is one of the many options for preparing the Armenian national dish.

The basis of the tolma is lamb loin, in which the filling of onion, chopped greens and finely ground bulgur (wheat groats) is wrapped. Next, the loin is wrapped in a cabbage leaf and simmered along with dried apricots.

Tolma "Udoli"

In 2017, the recipe of this tolma became the winner of the first international gastronomic forum-festival "Gastronomic roads of the Great Silk Road. Journey for the taste of Astrakhan-2017".

It is believed that this dish was invented by the Armenians of Van. It is prepared on the basis of bulgur, onion, spices, meat, preferably marinated for the winter. We warm the stewpan well, put the onion sliced into slices in the fried oil, add pieces of meat (you can use any). When the meat is fried, add bulgur, tomatoes. Simmer until ready. Season with spices and dill.

Tigranakert

The Armenian dish "Tigranakert" is made from veal, lamb and chicken meat. They are fried in sunflower oil, then fried potatoes are added to it. Add garlic-nut sauce "Ashtarak", dill and wild garlic.

Nuts are an extremely useful product. They are used to decorate desserts and pastries, to add to salads and snacks. Another option for using nuts is walnut sauce. This dressing is typical for the cuisines of the peoples of the Caucasus, but a similar sauce is also prepared in other countries. Here are a few options for preparing this healthy and tasty dressing for dishes.

First of all, let's figure out what you can serve walnut sauce with. In principle, this dressing is almost universal, it is well suited for the following dishes:

fried, stewed or baked poultry;
pork and lamb dishes, nut sauce is less commonly served with other types of meat;
offal, especially harmoniously combined with dressing from nuts boiled tongue;
boiled vegetables in different combinations;
to sushi and rolls, this serving option is extremely popular in Japan;
to the pasta.

In addition, thick nut sauce can be used to make sandwiches, it is served with chips or bread sticks.

Now let's figure out how to make walnut sauce. Nuts, in principle, can be used any, but most often, walnuts are used. It is best to buy nuts in the shell, as shelled nuts have a very short shelf life.

Nuts need to be shelled. At the same time, we immediately reject the kernels with signs of damage. Not only are they tasteless, moldy nuts are also unhealthy. Peeled nuts are recommended to be slightly dried in a pan or in the oven. It is not necessary to fry strongly, as soon as the nutty aroma begins to spread, we stop heating.

Then the nuts need to be chopped. Traditionally, the kernels are pounded in a mortar with a pestle, but modern housewives can use a blender or a meat grinder. You can grind the nuts to a paste, or leave them in the form of small crumbs. The choice of grinding option depends on the taste and type of sauce.

The nut mass is diluted with broth, cream or just water. Then add the rest of the ingredients according to the recipe.

Interesting facts: Many people mistakenly believe that walnuts grow in Greece. Meanwhile, the birthplace of this plant is Asia. The name appeared due to the fact that for the first time this type of nuts was brought to Russia by Greek merchants.

Georgian nut sauce

Let's prepare the Georgian nut sauce. The base will be walnuts and pomegranate juice.

250 gr. walnut kernels;
125 ml pomegranate juice;
150 ml of water;
4 cloves of garlic;
30 gr. fresh cilantro;
5 gr. hops-suneli;
5 gr. red hot pepper;
1 pinch of Imeretian saffron;
salt to taste.

We clean the nuts, sort out. If spoiled ones get in, they are immediately rejected. Lightly toast the nuts in a dry frying pan. Then we grind the nuts, you can grind them in a mortar, but it's easier to use a blender.

Rinse cilantro, shake off moisture, dry. Chop the greens as small as possible. Pass the garlic through a press. Dilute pomegranate juice with warm water. We dilute the nut paste with juice and water, add garlic and herbs to the sauce, mix well. Salt the sauce to taste and add dry spices. We mix everything well.

Read also: Oyster sauce - composition and 5 cooking recipes

This version of the sauce is ideal for fried or baked poultry, it can be offered with boiled beef tongue, as well as boiled vegetables. You can use the sauce for dressing vegetable salads.

Garlic Nut Sauce for Chicken

Great for chicken and walnut-garlic sauce with lemon. In addition, it can be served with grilled vegetables or simply with bread tortillas.

1.5 cups of walnut kernels;
0.5 lemon;
4-5 cloves of garlic;
1.5-2 cups of warm boiled water;
salt to taste.

We clean the nuts, sort them out and dry them in the oven or in a dry frying pan. Then you need to grind the nuts to a state of fine grains. For grinding, use any convenient method. You can pass through a meat grinder or use a blender. If there are no kitchen gadgets, then you can simply crush the nuts in a mortar.

We clean the garlic, pass it through a press and rub it with a spoon with the addition of salt. Add garlic and salt to crushed nuts, mix very well. If you used a blender to grind nuts, then garlic and salt can be placed in a bowl and turn on the device again to mix everything.

Add a little warm boiled water, stirring well. The consistency of the sauce should resemble kefir. Therefore, do not pour out all the water at once, you may need a little less than indicated in the recipe.

Take half a lemon, squeeze the juice. We filter the juice so that the bones and pieces of pulp do not get into the sauce. We mix everything. The sauce is ready.

Advice! You can use white wine vinegar instead of lemon juice when making this sauce.

Peanut sauce for fish

200 gr. walnut kernels;
2 boiled egg yolks;
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil;
1 teaspoon of prepared mustard;
1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs;
2-3 cloves of garlic;
200 ml of vinegar (3%);
salt, pepper, soy sauce to taste.

It is convenient to prepare the sauce in a food processor or in a blender. We sort out the nuts, dry them in a dry frying pan. We shift the nuts into the blender bowl, grind.

Boil chicken eggs in advance, cool them, peel and separate the yolks. Put the yolks in a blender bowl with nuts. We add vegetable oil. Ideally, walnut oil should be used, but if it is not available, any refined oil can be used. To the rest of the products, add the garlic, passed through the press. Turn on the device and grind the products to a paste state.

Then add mustard, add breadcrumbs and mix. Gradually add vinegar, stirring constantly. Our task is to get a sauce that is similar in thickness to thick kefir. When the sauce has reached the desired consistency, salt to taste, pepper. You can add soy sauce instead of salt.

Peanut sauce for meat

Let's prepare a delicious peanut sauce for the meat. This dressing has a very interesting and unusual taste. Best of all, serve dressing with fried pork, or with a baked leg of lamb.

300 gr. peanuts
200 ml olive oil;
25 gr. sesame seed;
35 gr. onion;
1 clove of garlic;
60 ml orange juice;
40 gr. granulated sugar;
150 ml rice vinegar (3%);
60 ml soy sauce.

Read also: Carbonara sauce - 5 recipes at home

We clean the peanuts from the peel, fry it in a dry frying pan. Cool the nuts, then peel the peanuts from thin dry husks. Put the peanuts in a blender and grind.

Roast the sesame seeds. Finely chop the onion and garlic. We put all this in a blender to the nuts and turn on the device again, grinding all the products to a homogeneous mass.

Separately, mix orange juice with soy sauce, dilute sugar in this liquid. Pour this mixture into the nut mass, mix. Then we begin to gradually add rice vinegar. Add little by little, stirring well each time. The sauce should acquire the consistency of kefir. We taste the sauce, if necessary, add sugar and add salt.

Peanut sauce for vegetables

We recommend this sauce for vegetables. It can be raw, boiled or baked vegetables. You can, for example, cut raw carrots, celery into small sticks and serve these vegetables with walnut sauce. Guests can dip the stick in the sauce and put it in their mouth.

100 gr. walnut kernels;
1 bunch of greens (preferably, use a mixture of dill, parsley and cilantro);
a few green onion feathers;
1 clove of garlic;
3-4 tablespoons of apple or wine vinegar;
black and red ground pepper to taste;
salt to taste.

We wash all the greens, including green onions, chop coarsely and send them to the blender bowl. Lightly fry the nuts in a dry frying pan and send them to the blender to the greens, put the garlic passed through the press there. Grind all this until smooth.

Then we begin to gradually add vinegar. Beat the sauce well again. If it is thick, dilute it with boiled water. Salt to taste, add both types of pepper. The sauce is ready.

Preparing sushi sauce

Walnut sauce is very popular in Japan. The recipe below doesn't claim to be authentic, but it's great for sushi.

100 gr. walnut kernels;
1 clove of garlic;
1 onion;
1 bunch of parsley;
1 tablespoon of table vinegar;
spices to taste, we recommend using suneli hops, saffron, coriander. But you can take other spices to your taste.

We sort out the peeled walnuts, grind them in a convenient way. The easiest way is to use a blender. It is important not to grind the nuts into a paste, they should look like small crumbs.

Add the garlic sprouted through the press to the nuts, add the prepared spices. Chop the onion very finely or rub it on a grater, finely chop the parsley. Mix onion and parsley with nuts. We turn on the blender for a minute so that everything mixes well.

We shift the prepared mass into a bowl, pour vinegar into it. Then we begin to gradually add water, constantly stirring. The sauce should acquire the consistency of a paste that can be laid on top of the sushi. You don't need to make the sauce too thin. Let the sauce rest in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Walnut sauce for rolls

Another variation of "Japanese-style" walnut sauce. This sauce is suitable for rolls, sushi or chuka seaweed. You can serve this sauce with rice or rice noodles.

100 gr. cashew nuts;
4 tablespoons of soy sauce;
2 tablespoons unrefined sesame oil;
3 teaspoons rice vinegar (can be replaced with apple cider vinegar);
250 ml of water.

First of all, you need to prepare the nut flour. To do this, grind the cashew nuts. The easiest way to do this is with a coffee grinder, but you can also use a blender. In this case, you need to grind very finely, you should get a mass similar to flour, only in this case, the sauce will be homogeneous and tender.