Ingredients
Cheese
- 1 kgfresh sulguni or unaged mozzarella
- 1 litrewhole milk
Filling and sauce
- 500 mlmatsoni or thick yoghurt
- 1large bunch mint
- 2 clovesgarlic
- salt
To serve
- bread
Directions
- Chop half the mint very finely with the garlic and a pinch of salt, then mix it with 200 ml of the matsoni into a paste.
- Heat the milk in a wide pan to about 70°C (160°F), which is hot but nowhere near boiling.
- Cut the cheese into slices and lower them into the hot milk.
- Keep the milk below a simmer. Cheese in boiling milk seizes into a rubbery lump; in hot milk it softens and becomes pliable, which is exactly what you need.
- Work the cheese with a wooden spoon as it softens, folding and stretching it for 3 to 5 minutes until it becomes one smooth elastic mass.
- Lift it out onto a wet board and, working quickly with wet hands, flatten it into a sheet about 1 cm thick.
- Work fast and keep everything wet. The cheese stops stretching the moment it cools and will tear rather than fold.
- Spread the mint and garlic paste over the sheet and roll it up tightly into a log.
- Cut the log into pieces about 4 cm long.
- Thin the remaining matsoni with a little of the hot milk, stir the rest of the chopped mint through it, and season.
- Sit the rolls in a shallow dish and pour the minted sour milk around them.
- Chill for at least 2 hours and serve cold with bread.
- It is a Samegrelo and Abkhazian speciality, and the cheese being melted, stretched and rolled is what distinguishes it from any other cheese dish in the region.
Technique
- Only a cheese that stretches will work. Aged or hard cheeses simply melt into a puddle and never come together.
- Fresh mint in quantity. It is one of two flavours in the dish and it is not a garnish.
- It is served cold as part of a spread rather than as a course of its own.
Substitutions
- Low-moisture mozzarella, which stretches reliably and is far easier to find.
- Thick Greek yoghurt thinned with a little water in place of matsoni.
Variations
- With more garlic, which is common in Abkhazia.
- Served warm rather than chilled, straight after rolling.
- With a scattering of dried mint over the top as well.
History
A Samegrelo and Abkhazia speciality in which the cheese is melted, stretched and rolled around a minted cheese filling.
Frequently asked questions
What is Gebzhalia?
Gebzhalia is a salad & side from Georgia: fresh cheese rolls kneaded with mint, served in mint-flecked sour milk. A Samegrelo and Abkhazia speciality in which the cheese is melted, stretched and rolled around a minted cheese filling.
How long does Gebzhalia take to make?
Gebzhalia takes 30 min plus 2 hr chilling of preparation and 15 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated hard to make.
What can I substitute in Gebzhalia?
Yes, within limits. Low-moisture mozzarella, which stretches reliably and is far easier to find. Thick Greek yoghurt thinned with a little water in place of matsoni.
What is the most important thing to get right in Gebzhalia?
Work fast and keep everything wet. The cheese stops stretching the moment it cools and will tear rather than fold.
