Chvishtari

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gfine cornmeal
• about 400 ml warm water
• 1 teaspoonsalt

Cheese

• 500 gsulguni cheese, grated
• or 500 g low-moisture mozzarella, grated
• or a mix of mozzarella and feta

To cook

• 3 tablespoonsoil or butter
• a heavy frying pan

To serve

• Svanetian salt
• or plain salt
• kubdari, Svan meat bread
• pickled vegetables

Directions

1. Use the finest cornmeal you can find. Salt is ground with garlic and herbs. Put the cornmeal and salt in a bowl.
2. Add the warm water in gradually. Mix it with your hand as you pour. Warm water helps the cornmeal absorb. Bring it together into a soft dough.
3. Let it rest for a good ten minutes. It should be soft, moist and hold together. Press a piece flat between your palms. If the edges crack, add more warm water. Add the grated cheese to the dough.
4. Work it in thoroughly with your hands. The cheese should be evenly distributed. Take a handful of the mixture. Press it into a flat round cake. Aim for about ten centimetres across.
5. Make them about one and a half centimetres thick. Smooth the edges with your fingers. Set them on a plate as you go. Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan. Use a medium heat rather than high. Lay the cakes in without crowding the pan.
6. Cook them for about five minutes. Do not move them while the crust forms. Turn them in a single confident movement. They break if you hesitate halfway.
7. Press the centre gently with a spatula. It should feel soft and yielding. Break one open to check the first batch. The cheese should pull into strings. Serve Svanetian salt alongside for dipping. They really do not keep well at all.

Technique

• Svaneti sits high in the Caucasus and grows maize in its valleys, and these cakes are eaten alongside kubdari, the Svan spiced meat bread.
• Sulguni is made by a pasta filata method in which the curd is heated and stretched, which is why it pulls into strings when melted.
• Svanetian salt is a blend of salt ground with garlic, blue fenugreek, coriander seed and marigold rather than plain salt.

Substitutions

• Low-moisture mozzarella melts and pulls the same way as sulguni, and a little feta adds the missing saltiness.
• Finely ground polenta stands in for Georgian cornmeal.

Variations

• Some cooks enclose the cheese in a disc of dough rather than mixing it through.
• A version baked rather than fried is made in some households.
• Ghomi, the plain maize porridge, is served with sulguni in the same region.

History

Svanetian cornbread from the maize-growing highlands, eaten alongside kubdari and Svanetian salt.

Frequently asked questions

What is Chvishtari?

Chvishtari is a bread & pastry from Georgia: cornmeal cakes packed with sulguni and fried until the cheese pulls. Svanetian cornbread from the maize-growing highlands, eaten alongside kubdari and Svanetian salt.

How long does Chvishtari take to make?

Chvishtari takes 20 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 8 cakes. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Chvishtari?

Yes, within limits. Low-moisture mozzarella melts and pulls the same way as sulguni, and a little feta adds the missing saltiness. Finely ground polenta stands in for Georgian cornmeal.

What is the most important thing to get right in Chvishtari?

Make them about one and a half centimetres thick. Smooth the edges with your fingers. Set them on a plate as you go. Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan. Use a medium heat rather than high. Lay the cakes in without crowding the pan.