Georgian Chicken Stew with Garlic Green Beans

This dish is a version of a stew called Kharcho and comes from Georgia. They have some amazing recipes over in that part of the world and I have been intending on making one for months. The sauce that the stew is cooked in is predominantly walnuts, with a tablespoon of dried marigold flowers. These are not as hard to get hold of as I thought (internet) and were surprisingly cheap (a few pounds for a huge bag).

Even before tasting the dish I knew it would taste good - the smell was beautiful. I served this with saffron rice and having picked some green beans from the garden, I sautéed them in freshly chopped garlic. Absolutely delicious!

 

Ingredients:     (Serves 4)

3-4 chicken breasts (skin removed & chopped)
1 tbsp. oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp. tomato paste
2 bay leaves
250ml water (1 cup)
250g walnuts (2 cups)
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp ground fenugreek
1/4 cup dried marigold flowers
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
salt & pepper

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan and cook the chicken on a high heat until beginning to brown a little. Add the onion and fry for 2 minutes. Cover and leave to cook 2 minutes on a low/medium heat. Then add the bay leaves, tomato puree and water and cook on a medium heat, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.

In a food processor, blend the walnuts, garlic, spices, vinegar and marigold. Then add about 60ml water to make a paste. Process a little more. Add this paste to the chicken and stir well. Add the sugar with good helping of salt & pepper and cook for 20 minutes on a low heat, covered. Then you can eat.

I served this with some saffron rice and garlic beans. For the green beans, I simply chopped 3 cloves garlic and added them to a hot pan with 1 tbsp. oil and 1 tsp. butter. Then I stir fried the beans for a few minutes. Then added a couple of tablespoons of water and cooked until the water evaporated. Plate up the rice and stew and top with the hot garlic beans. Delicious!