Satsivi

As tradition built it

Serves 6 to 8. About 1.5 hours.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken or turkey
• 1 kg walnuts
• 250 g onion
• 2 to 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp coriander
• 2 tbsp dried marigold ("yellow flower")
• 1 tsp blue fenugreek (utskho suneli)
• ½ tsp each cinnamon, cloves
• to taste salt, red pepper

Method

1. Poach or roast the chicken, reserve the cooking broth.
2. Grind the walnuts twice or three times through a meat grinder, or pulse in short bursts in a high-power blender.
3. Combine the ground walnut with the minced garlic and the spice blend of coriander, dried marigold, blue fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves, salt and red pepper.
4. Knead the paste by hand until the oil visibly emerges. Reserve this oil.
5. Let the paste down with sautéed onion and hot broth, beating until pourable.
6. Add to the remaining broth, simmer 5 to 10 minutes.
7. Combine with the cooked poultry, pieces coated in the sauce.
8. Finish with the reserved walnut oil drizzled over the top.

What a modern chef changes

The oil release controlled, not fought.

Rung 2

Method

1. Pulse the walnuts in short, checked bursts, never running the blender continuously to a smooth purée, which over-releases the fat and breaks the intended texture into a grainy paste rather than a fine emulsion.
2. Do not discard the separated oil as a mistake. Spoon it off deliberately, exactly as the traditional hand-kneading method does, and use it as the finishing drizzle the dish already calls for.
3. Cook the sauce gently once the poultry is added, since heat can cause the fat to separate a second time; keep the pan at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil from this point on.