Elarji is made from three ingredients: coarse white cornmeal, sulguni cheese and corn flour. Sulguni is an elastic cheese similar to mozzarella, but it's a bit saltier. First, the cornmeal is boiled in a large pot over heat until it has a porridge-like consistency. Next, the cook adds some corn flour to the pot and continues to stir. Then, slices of fresh sulguni cheese are added and mixed into the porridge with a large wooden spoon. As the sulguni melts, the most important part of the process begins... the stretching! (You can see a video of my friend's grandmother cooking elarji here.) The cook uses the wooden spoon to stir and stretch the elarji. The best elarji can be stretched above the cook's head!
In the region of Samegrelo, many staple side dishes are made from cornmeal, whereas bread is more common in other regions of Georgia. There is lots of corn grown in this region, which is why this ingredient is featured so often in Megrelian cuisine.
