Iberia in Georgia

There is a legend that Georgia (Sakartvelo) was once called Iberia and that the Georgian and Spanish people are of the same origin. Following this legend we decided to embark on a Spanish-Georgian feast to make a picnic to visit the Tbilisi Art Gene festival that is organised by Nutsa’s mum and is the most important Folk-Art Festival in Georgia.

The idea was to have food and drink that was tasty and portable, thus we made Tortilla de Patatas and Georgian Sangria.

Tortilla de Patatas con Queso (lazy way)

The usual way to make Tortilla involves peeling and boiling the potatoes, we decided that because our potatoes were relatively small we would just slice them thin with the skins on.

Ingredients

About 500g Potatoes

Approx 100ml oil (olive, sunflower… whatever)

1 Chilli

Approx 200g Sulguni Cheese (you can use whatever kind you like

10 eggs

Salt

Black Pepper

Method

Chop the potatoes into slices and put in the pan

Fry the potatoes until soft, turning often

Add the chilli and the salt at the end and fry for apron 2 mins to add flavour

You may decide you want to add garlic (if you do add it now)

Then turn down the heat and add the grated cheese

Turn the oven on to a medium heat

Beat the eggs and then free the potatoes from the edges of the pan (make sure none are sticking)

Add salt and black pepper

Pour egg mx over the potatoes

Cook slowly until a crust is formed on the bottom

Put the whole pan into the oven and bake for about 10–15 mins until the top is golden and crispy

You can serve the Tortilla hot or cold, as you prefer… we like to cut slices and take it on picnics

Sakartvelos Sangria

This is a quick Sangria, this is why we use heat to mix the flavours

Measurements are what we made, feel free to adjust according to what you can find.

Ingredients

2 litres Khareba European White Wine (Rkatsiteli)

1 litre Khareba Saperavi

1/2 Bottle Sarajishvili 5* Brandy

300g Sour Cherries

2 Lemons

5 Nectarines

300g Sugar

You can play around with the fruits but the principle of 2 white wine to 1 red white plus brandy or rum would make the best flavour

Method

Add the Red wine to the pan with the sugar, warm the pan until the sugar is dissolved

Add the 2 bottles of White wine and the Brandy

Add the lemons and fruits chopped into 2cm pieces

Depending how long you will leave the Sangria to cool and the flavours to develop you may decide to heat the sangria then cool it as the flavours will mix faster.