Tkemali

What makes it tkemali

• Sour plums, cooked down and sieved.
• Garlic, dill, coriander and ombalo.
• Sharp first, sweet only a little.

Where it comes from

Tkemali is also the name of the sour plum it's made from. Green, unripe plums make a sharp green sauce in spring; ripe red ones a deeper, sweeter one later in summer.

It's cooked down, sieved and seasoned with herbs — traditionally ombalo, a wild pennyroyal-like mint — and kept in bottles for the year.