Georgian Khachapuri with Bubbles
Khachapuri is a gooey Georgian cheese bread, made with wonderfully fluffy yogurt dough. The ultimate comfort food, and you can make it in no time. This kind of bread can be round, rectangular or boat-shaped, but it is always covered with lots of khachapuri cheese and a sunny-side-up fried egg. Add a Georgian bubbly and you can celebrate Easter this year in Eastern Orthodox style.
Georgians celebrate Easter with great passion and on a grand scale. The flag is flown, and people eat, sing and raise a toast. Georgia became a Christian country relatively early, because some nun or other marched decisively into the country as early as 330 AD with a cross made from two grapevines. That is why wine is still the national symbol and Easter their biggest celebration.
They love food, wine and conviviality anyway. Preferably all of them at once and in abundance. And now that backpackers have long since started discovering the capital Tblisi, Georgian cuisine and its wines, it is high time we did the same.
Georgian ‘atten’ is by no means a punishment
Georgian wine ‘atten’
Their (Orthodox) Easter celebration is marked by a classic Georgian supra, a festive and exuberant dinner. With an impressive amount of food: delicious small dishes based on lots of vegetables, herbs, lamb and local cheese. And there are toasts. Lots and lots of toasts. A permanent toastmaster—the so-called tamada—continually raises his glass to love, family, peace, the future or the past. Name it and the glass of wine will be raised to it, after which the liquid must be knocked back ad fundum. A fun ritual. Fortunately, local winemaking has had thousands of years to mature, so Georgian ‘atten’ is by no means a punishment.
Beautiful Easter bubbly
Their sparkling wines are a fine example. Made like champagne, but at a much more appealing price. That is already a good reason to drink it. And often made from grapes that are completely unknown to us, such as the white Chinuri grape. The Bagrationi Finest Brut is one of them; this bubbly is Easter-yellow in color, citrus-fresh and wonderfully dry. Its subtly creamy, slightly tropical character, with a striking almond bitterness on the finish, makes it perfect with Easter brunch. Add a piece of khachapuri and you will naturally find yourself in a suitably Georgian mood.
Afterwards, you can take bites of steaming-hot cheese bread, with the egg yolk dripping down your chin.
The ultimate comfort food
A khachapuri (or khachapuri) is best compared to the French croissant. It is available as a quick snack in every café and on every street corner. But the fluffy yogurt dough is also incredibly easy to make yourself. The style and shape often vary, but as long as the gooey cheese-and-egg mixture made with khacho—a type of feta cheese—is on top, it is good. Crack an egg on top during the final few minutes in the oven—it is also fine without one—and afterwards you can take bites of steaming-hot cheese bread, with the egg yolk dripping down your chin. The ultimate comfort food.
Perfect Dutch Easter brunch
Bubbles, cheese and eggs, followed by toast after toast. That sounds like the perfect Dutch Easter brunch, doesn’t it? You will also immediately know where to hide the last eggs.
Georgian bubbly with your Easter brunch?
Bagrationi Finest Brut 2013 | € 19,- | at AndereWijn.nl
