How to Cook Ready-Made Kokorec at Home. Recipe for Cooking Lamb Kokoreç in a Pan.?
What is Kokorec?
Kokoreç is a type of kebab made from the thin intestines and sweetbreads of lamb and sheep. It is wrapped around a skewer with fat and cooked over hot coals. Ready-made kokoreç is sold pre-cooked and chopped. It is crucial that the thin intestines of lamb and sheep are thoroughly cleaned. Once cooked, kokoreç is served between slices of bread, separated into small pieces with tomatoes, green peppers, and spices, without being placed between the bread slices.
The key points for cooking ready-made kokorec at home and what to pay attention to. Illustrated recipe for making kokoreç at home.
Kokoreç is a fantastic delicacy with its own special fan base, possessing an irresistible quality that doesn’t heed one’s full stomach.
Even if you’ve had your dinner and your stomach is full, passing by a kokoreç vendor, you might find yourself saying, “Just a quarter, please,” unable to resist the invitation conveyed by its aroma.
Of course, this special flavor, just like tripe, requires careful hygiene and meticulous cleaning. Unlike tripe, making kokoreç from scratch at home is quite difficult; its cleaning and wrapping are quite laborious.
Fortunately, ready-made kokoreç is available, pre-sliced and ready to cook.
If you wish, you can buy ready-to-cook raw kokoreç from a kokoreç vendor, but for those who don’t have access to a wood fire or a garden setting, ready-to-cook pre-sliced kokoreç is the only solution.
How to Cook Ready-Made Kokoreç?
First of all, there are two key points to consider when cooking kokoreç: 1. How to use tomatoes, and 2. Cooking without melting the fat while evaporating the water during the cooking process.
Now, let’s move on to the recipe. After reading the text, you will understand the cooking process of kokoreç by looking at the pictures at the bottom.
We remove the skin and flesh of our tomatoes. We’re not talking about peeling the thin membrane; the part of the tomato we’ll use for the kokoreç is the fleshy part with the skin. (The seedy and watery part of the tomato will make the kokoreç soggy, and if you wait for it to evaporate, the fats in the kokoreç will melt, resulting in a greasy, gooey kokoreç. To prevent melting the fats, you don’t have to wait for the water to evaporate; otherwise, your kokoreç will turn into scrambled eggs waiting for two eggs to be cracked into it.)
We chop our peppers into small pieces and put them in a separate bowl. (You can use any type of pepper you like.)
We add our spices to a small bowl. (Salt, cumin, red pepper flakes, oregano)
Let’s start preparing. We heat our pan quickly and put the kokoreç in. We start cooking by stirring occasionally without covering the pan while the kokoreç releases its juices. Kokoreç cooks quickly, so we need to ensure that the water released by the kokoreç evaporates completely.
You can easily tell that the water released by the kokoreç is evaporating from the sound of the sizzling. While the kokoreç is releasing its water, we move the cooked fats and meats to the side and collect the fats on the top, waiting for the water to evaporate.
The kokoreç juice will evaporate quickly. The whole process begins after the sizzling sound. (You can understand it by looking at the picture below; by pulling the kokoreç towards the edge of the pan, we collect the fats on top. The goal is to prevent the fats from melting; otherwise, they will melt excessively, and the pieces of kokoreç will float in the oil. If you also pull the fleshy part of the tomato to the side, your kokoreç will be very tasty.)
After the steam has completely disappeared, reduce the heat and add the peppers. Stir occasionally until the peppers soften.
Immediately after the peppers soften slightly, add the fleshy part of the tomatoes and mix them together.
After a few minutes, when the tomatoes soften (remove the skins), add the spices from our spice dish and turn off the heat.
Mix the spices into the kokoreç while steam is still coming out, then place them between the quarter-cut bread slices and serve.
You can get about 7 quarters with an average of 2 packets of kokoreç.
Enjoy your meal. 🙂
Note: If possible, use slightly heated bread. I recommend serving with fresh bread and, of course, ayran on the side. 🙂
