If you hurry down to Colonel D’s spice counter at Findlay Market you may get some of the last few ounces of a Georgian spice blend I ordered called Khumeli Suneli. I picked mine up on Saturday when I was giving my brother, his wife and my nephew a food tour of Findlay. I heard about this funny sounding spice blend from my college friend Mark who says it the secret to the best chicken soup you’ll ever have.
Even though Colonel D is my go to spice counter, they don’t always have everything on premise. However, like in this case, they will order and make a blend if you ask them to. That’s pretty spectacular in my opinion – I know of no other spice company that will do that. That way, you don’t have to spend three times the amount on all the spices needed to mix into the blend.
Although the rhyminess of it makes it sound like a newly created brand, Khumeli Suneli, translating into ‘dried spices’, is an ancient herby Georgian spice blend that’s been around for thousands of years. And like the Baharat is the basis for dishes of Mediterranean origin, like moussaka and Cincinnati Chili, Khumeli Suneli is the basis of nearly everything in Georgian cooking.
It’s a fragrant green herby blend that typically contains Georgian blue fenugreek, basil, parsley, dill, celery seed coriander seed, mint, bay leaves, summer savory, and marigold. Summer savory is an ancient spice used in the West before black pepper from the East was discovered and widely traded. It’s described as a cross between mint and thyme with a piney, mild peppery flavor. I’ve never used flower petals in cooking before, so the marigold is an interesting new bitter flavor to experiment with.
Flower petals were once used a lot in candy and gum flavor – particularly carnations – which probably made Delhi’s J.C.Witterstaeter, the US Carnation King very happy.
Since Georgian cuisine uses a lot of walnut, it’s supposed to be the best pairing with them as in a Georgian dish called badrjjani nigzvit (eggplants rolled with walnut paste), or another, pkhali, (spinach, walnut and pomegranate molasses puree). Every Georgian family has its own ratio of spices and maybe adds another herb or spice or two to their mix. It’s been called the Georgian garam masala or curry, or even the Georgian ras al hanut.
Historically, Georgia was right in the center of the spice trading routes from China to the Mediterranean, so their cuisine is a fusion of East and West. Today in Georgia, the blend is used in sauces , meat and even vegetarian dishes as an all purpose spice.
It’s particularly good in soups and stews and fish, chicken or lamb, especially when made into a marinade with garlic, olive oil and pomegranate molasses. My application was in chicken soup which bumped it up to a huge level. To me the blend kind of has a similar flavor to what we in America call poultry spice, with a little bit of bitter and some other interesting flavor. Poultry seasoning is typically high in herby thyme and sage, and small amounts of ginger, black pepper and nutmeg.
The blend is also recommended in deviled eggs and I think it would probably also be good in chicken salad, egg salad, or on roasted potatoes or any roasted root veggies for that matter. It would also be good in my mom’s Thanksgiving giblet dressing, mushroom dishes, and with oysters Rockefeller.
Khumeli Suneli is my new summer experiment and I hope to integrate it into many dishes.
dannwoellertthefoodetymologist 