Homeschool Cooking Class: Georgian Plum Tklapi
Sometimes a random rabbit trail can take your homeschool somewhere delicious.
We live in Georgia, and sometimes when we go hunting for information about our state, we turn up information on the country Georgia instead. Discoveries like this always seem to lead up down interesting rabbit trails, and this connection has been no exception. While our Georgia was home to the Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole nations before British colonizers arrived in the 18th century, the Georgia on the other side of the world has played a different role in world history for centuries. Cochis, in Georgia, was the place the Argonauts headed to find the mythical Golden Fleece, the Roman Republic stretched there in the first century BCE, it was part of the Muslim Empire during the 7th century CE, and it was absorbed by and then liberated itself from the Soviet Union in the 20th century. That’s a lot of action!
The other Georgia also has a rich culinary history, and we’re not the kind of homeschoolers who can resist food-based learning. We tried the warm and gooey cheese-stuffed bread called khachapuri, meat-stuffed dumplings called khinkali, and this tklapi, a surprisingly delicious take on fruit roll-ups.
An easy way to dry fruit is to let is sit in the sunshine for two or three days, until its surface is smooth and not sticky. (If you’re drying it outside, bring it in overnight.) If you’d rather (or if the weather is uncooperative), you can also dry your tklapi in a 140° oven for about an hour. It’s done when its surface looks smooth and is no longer sticky to touch.
Plum Tklapi
You need:
7 lbs. plums
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 400°.
2. Wash plums. Cut in half and remove pits. Arrange, cut-side-up on large, rimmed cookie sheets, and roast for 20 minutes, checking frequently. (You want your plums to be soft but not burned.) When plums are soft, remove from oven and let cool completely.
3. In a food processor fitted with a blade attachment, blend plums until smooth. Transfer to large bowl, and sweeten to taste — usually between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of sugar tastes right to us.
4. Lined rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper, and carefully pour the pureed plum mixture so that it is between 1/8- and 1/4-inch thick.
5. Let the fruit dry, using your preferred method. Slice into strips with a pizza cutter, and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
