This is a veg dish with a twist – even Olia Hercules admits: “I would never in a million years think to pair courgettes and berries.”
However, this dish, which Olia first tried in a restaurant called Pheasant’s Tears, run by chef Gia in Signagi – a town in the eastern region of Kakheti, Georgia – makes it work.
See for yourself…
‘Polyphony’ courgettes
Equipment
- Large frying pan
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp sunflower oil
- 4 shallots or small onions halved
- 2 courgettes cut into 2cm rounds
- 5 garlic cloves cut in half vertically
- 2 long green chillies bruised but left whole
- handful of fresh sour cherries and/or redcurrants
- sea salt flakes
- freshly ground black pepper
To serve
- sourdough bread
Method
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the shallots or onions and cook over a medium-low heat until they soften and start turning golden. Remove from the pan.
- Add the courgette rounds and brown on each side.
- Reduce the heat, add the garlic and chillies and season everything really well. Cook for three minutes.
- At the very end, add the sour cherries and/or redcurrants and switch off the heat. Taste again and season with some extra salt and pepper if it needs it.
- Serve with sourdough bread or as part of a bigger feast.
Nutrition
Kaukasis by Olia Hercules, photography Elena Heatherwick, is published in hardback by Mitchell Beazley, priced £17, Amazon.
Try Olia’s kohlrabi, sorrel, radish and chicory salad
Wise Living Magazine may receive a small commission to help support the running of this site from purchases made from links on this page. Affiliate links do not influence our editorial or articles published by Wise Living.