About Food – Dark Grape Pelamushi

Pelamushi (Georgian: ფელამუში) is a favorite Georgian dessert made mainly with pressed, condensed grape juice (badagi) and flour or flour plus corn flour. In this recipe we show how to make dark grape pelamushi with flour plus corn flour. It has a different texture to pelamushi made solely with flour.

Pelamush garnished with crushed walnuts

Ingredients: 1 liter of badagi, 140 grams of flour, 60 grams of fine corn flour and 2 tbs of sugar.

Dark Grapes

Preparation (badagi): Wash and remove stalks from the grapes. Mash the washed grapes in a colander positioned over a large bowl.

Crushing Grapes to make Badagi

Keep mashing until only skins and seeds are left. Use your hands to remove as much juice as possible.

Using a Colander to crush grapes

Transfer the juice into a large pot and bring to the boil on a medium heat. Then reduce the heat to a low temperature and allow to simmer for up to 3 hours. The juice should reduce by a little less than half. The process produces a sugar (fructose) content of around 60%.

Preparing Badagi

Monitor the simmering process and remove the extraneous matter whenever it forms on the surface of the grape liquid.

Making Badagi

After 3 hours of simmering, the juice should have reduced by a little less than half. Allow to stand overnight, then use a fine sieve to pour out the juice into a bowl.

Using a Sieve in making Badagi

The badagi should be clear, like the picture below.

Badagi

Preparation (pelamushi): Add the flour, corn flour and sugar to a bowl. Gradually add up to 500 ml of Badagi and mix with a wooden spoon. Once the flour, corn flour, sugar and badagi have been mixed with a spoon, use an electric blender to ensure that the mixture is absolutely smooth.

Mixing Flour and cornmeal with badagi

Add 500 ml of badagi to a deep cast iron pot and gradually add the flour/corn flour/sugar/badagi mixture.

Pouring the flour and cornmeal mixture into a pot of badagi

Stir thoroughly. It should look like the picture below.

Stirring the pelamushi mixture

Heat on a high temperature, vigorously stirring all of the time. Bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to a low temperature and continue to stir for 8-10 minutes. During that time it will thicken and you should test it to make sure that it does not taste of flour or corn flour.

Stirring the pelamushi

The consistency of the mixture should look like the picture below.

The correct consistency of Pelamushi

Remove from the heat and immediately pour into serving dishes or a bowl. It can also be poured into jelly molds to create an attractive shape.

Pouring Pelamushi into a bowl

Allow to cool. After a maximum of 2 hours the pelamushi should be firm enough and cool enough to serve. It can be stored in a refrigerator for several days. When removed from the refrigerator the surface of the pelamushi may be speckled with fructose, like in the picture below – this is normal. We garnished ours with crushed walnuts.

Pelamushi made with dark grapes

At Georgian supras (feasts), pelamushi is usually served upside down (smooth side up) from an upturned mold or bowl, like in the picture below.

Pelamush with walnut garnish

Enjoy your dark grape pelamushi!

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Comments
3 Responses to “About Food – Dark Grape Pelamushi”
  1. rumpydog says:

    Wow! That’s a lot of work to make that dish. Tell us how it tastes please!

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