Ingredients used for Mtsvadi are sirloin, ribs, and entrecote.
Cut the meat, add salt, black peppers and cut onions. Mix well. Let it sit for 3-4 hours in a cool place. Meat prepared in such a manner is called Basturma.
Arrange meat on a spit and roast it on Tsalami (dried vine twigs remaining after trimming the vine) plural embers. Turn the spit from time to time, to ensure the meat is roasted from every side. Remove meat from the spit into a deep dish; add onion rings and juice squeezed out of a pomegranate.
Useful advice: tenderness of Mtsvadi depends on several factors – the meat, heat of the plural embers, and length of roasting process. Less its cooked, more tender is the meat from inside, since it is roasted fast from outside, squeezed and keeps the juice inside. However, if the meat is kept on a fire for longer time, it is dried from inside as well and will become stiffer. The meat will not dry out if little bit of wine is added as it is roasted.
Another way of preparing Basturma is to add salt, black pepper, minced onions, bay-leaf and vinegar to diced meat. However, using wine is better than using vinegar, as the latter dries the meat.
© Mzia Simonidze, Larisa Kirmelashvili /Georgian Wine Club
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