Kharcho Soup

As always, let's start with the principles of cooking:
1. Kharcho soup is a thick dish, which is something between soup and stew. That means there should be a lot of ingredients, such as meat, greens, rice, etc., but not much liquid. It is better to add broth afterward than to make a soup too liquidy at once.
2. The key to the rich soup flavor is its broth. I use pre-cooked beef bone broth, in which I boil beef until soft. If you cook from scratch, take the bones plus pieces with fat and connective tissue, for example, ribs. Pour water over meat for two fingers and cook a thick rich broth like usual, with vegetables and spices. You can sear the meat beforehand in olive oil then the taste will be even more intense.
3. There should be a lot of greens in the soup. I use a (medium) bunch of parsley, dill and coriander. You can also add basil. Leave some greens for serving.
4. For sourness, add cherry plum in the form of Tkemali sauce or, if available, Tklapi (dried puree of cherry plum) to the soup.
5. Traditionally, chopped walnuts are added to Kharcho soup. I sometimes make a version without nuts.

So, boil the meat in broth until soft or cook a broth of bones, meat and vegetables from scratch. Then remove the vegetables from the broth, take out the meat and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Sieve the broth and return the meat to the broth. Add washed rice and bay leaf and cook it almost until tender.

Chop the herbs finely. Chop the garlic finely or (later) crush it in a garlic masher.
Grind the tomatoes in a blender to a purée or use a ready-made Passata.
Grind the walnuts in a blender to a fine crumb consistency.

Dice onions into small cubes and sauté them in a mixture of olive oil and ghee until they are soft and golden in color. Then add the tomato paste and saute them together for a few minutes. Now add the ajika and spices, stir and saute them together for one or two minutes so that the flavors open up.
Add tomatoes, pureed in a blender. Stir, add salt to taste and stew over low heat for about ten minutes.

Add the dressing to the broth and stir. Also, add walnuts, herbs and garlic. Bring the Kharcho to a boil and cook it for another five minutes until the rice is cooked.

Add the Tkemali sauce in small amounts to the cooked Kharcho, taste the soup and decide whether it needs more sauce or not. Season it with salt, if necessary. Bring the soup to a boil and immediately remove it from the heat. Then put the lid on it and let it stand for ten minutes before serving.
Serve Kharcho with a sprinkle of fresh herbs.