Kokoretsi

Multiple rolls of Kokoreç/Kokoretsi roasting on wood fire in Turkey

Kokoretsi or kokoreç is a dish of the Balkans and Anatolia consisting mainly of lamb or goat intestines, often wrapping seasoned offal, including sweetbreads, hearts, lungs and/or kidneys. The intestines of suckling lambs are preferred.

Etymology

The word 'kokoretsi' (κοκορέτσι) comes from the Albanian kukurec, whence also Aromanian kukuretšu and Turkish kokoreç.

Preparation

The ingredients are sliced and seasoned with lemon, olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper. The intestine is cleaned especially thoroughly. The filling meats are threaded onto a long skewer and wrapped with the intestine to hold them together.

Cooking

Kokoretsi is usually roasted on a horizontal skewer over a charcoal, gas, or electrical burner.

A quite different preparation mixes the chopped innards with chopped tomatoes and green peppers, and then cooks them on a large griddle with hot red pepper and oregano added. The cook constantly mixes and chops the mixture using two spatulas. When done, the dish is kept warm aside on the griddle until someone orders a serving.

Serving

The cooked kokoretsi is chopped, sprinked with oregano, and served on a plate.

Sometimes it is served on a piece of flatbread. Some add tomatoes or spices in it.

It may also (especially in Turkey) be served in a flat-bread or baguette sandwich, plain or garnished.

In Turkey, common side dishes are pickled peppers or cucumbers.

National and regional

Greece

Kokoretsi is generally available in restaurants and tavernas year round in Greece, but for the most part it remains a festival dish ordinarily only prepared at home during Orthodox Easter celebrations when it is traditional for Greek families to spit-roast an entire lamb. It serves as a "meze" or appetizer and helps allay the hunger of the celebrants while the whole lamb roasts.

There are naturally, an infinite number of variations in seasonings from region to region and family to family, many having "secret" recipes, but the basic preparation of a kokoretsi remains the same. The "pluck", heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, fat and sweetbreads are removed from the lamb, washed and then sliced into 1/4" to 3/4" pieces and lightly seasoned with salt, black pepper, oregano and sometimes garlic. The pieces of raw meat are then alternately threaded onto a spit about as long as that used for the lamb. Any other desired seasonings are ordinarily added at this point.

The intestine, which has been turned inside out and carefully washed, is rubbed thoroughly with coarse salt and then soaked in vinegar or lemon juice and water. One end of the cleaned intestine is tied to the spit and while one person holds the spit horizontally in both hands and rotates it, another "feeds" the prepared intestine onto the skewered meats from one end to the other and back, forming a compact roll usually about 16"-24" long by 1 1/2" to 3" in diameter. The free end of the intestine is tied off and the completed roll is placed over the coals to roast alongside the lamb and occasionally basted with lemon and olive oil. When done, the skewer is removed, the kokoretsi cut in thick slices about the width of a thumb and served as an appetizer with more lemon and typically accompanied by wine, raki, or ouzo.

Due to outbreak of mad cow disease in the late 90's, banning the consumption of offal was considered. However, the idea was abandoned.

Gardouba (γαρδούμπα) or gardoubakia (γαρδουμπάκια) is a variant of kokoretsi, but roasted in a pan in an oven, instead of over an open fire.

Turkey

Kokorec in Turkey is widely appreciated.

Kokorec was made by nomadic Turks (Yörüks) from Central Asia to Anatolia.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of sandwiches