Kokoretsi ---- Greek Easter meze

Well..... what can I say? It goes the same with the comments I made yesterday about the mageiritsa soup. Kokoretsi is not for everybody, only for those who are familiar with cooked internal organs of an animal and the.... bold ones. Kokoretsi is the main meze dish on Easter Sunday table. While the lamb or the goat is on the spit (slowly cooking) the kokoretsi - cooked on the spit as well - is done already and along with other tasty mezedes and wine and/or ouzo keeps company to the people under the sounds of cheerful Greek folklore music. The recipe may vary a bit from region to region but, again, the idea is the same. One of the areas of Greece which is famous for the kokoretsi and other kinds of meat on the spit (as well as many other delicacies like pies etc) is the prefecture of Fthiotida in Central Greece and its capital Lamia is full of great meat tavernas with all these delicacies in the best quality. All these mezedes can be found in tavernas all year round (in Athens as well) but some of them, like kokoretsi, are related more to Easter period. Like mageiritsa it has its preparation but the result is worth the trouble

Ingredients (for 6-8 people at least):

From 2 lambs:
the spleen
the heart
the lungs
the liver
the sweetbreads
2-3 caul fats
2 Kg of lamb intestines
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
plenty of olive oil and lemon juice for basting

Method:
You start with the intestines which is the most tricky bit to the whole procedure. As I described yesterday in the mageiritsa soup recipe, they have to be cleaned inside out very well and a small wooden stick would help. Follow those instructions, but remember that in kokoretsi you keep the intestines whole.

After you have finished with the intestines, let them soak for some time in a big bowl full of water along with some plain vinegar. Then drain, wash them again, turn them inside out once more and wash them again. Let them drain well and rub them with some salt and lemon juice to make them change their colour to white-ish.

Continue with the guts. Wash the spleens, the hearts, the lungs, the livers, the sweetmeats very well and cut them into medium pieces, all in the same size of about 7cm. Let them drain in a colander and sprinkle with plenty of salt, pepper and oregano.

Wash the caul fats and let them soak in water for some time to soften them up, then cut the one caul fat into smaller size pieces than the guts and keep the other two in tact.

When the guts are drained start passing a metal spit through pieces of them in turns. One piece of liver, then one piece of heart, one piece of lung etc and every 2 or 3 pieces of the offal add a piece of the caul fat.
Keep doing the same until you have used all the offal pieces and the caul fat.

When you finish, wrap the kokoretsi with the rest of the caul fat and start wrapping using the intestines. Get one intestine and pin one end of it on the top side of the spit to keep it stable and then dragging down (lengthwise) the intestine you get to the bottom side of the spit where you pin it again.

You keep doing this backwards and forwards (always in a vertical way) 2-3 times and then you start to wind the intestine around the kokoretsi until the first intestine finishs and then you tie it up with the begining of the next intestine and continue to wind around until all the intestines are used and the kokoretsi is well wrapped with no pieces of guts uncovered.

In a bowl put together oilive oil, lemon juice and oregano and mix well.

If you use a charcoal fire to cook the kokoretsi you have to place it quiet high from the fire and give it the chance to cook slowly and not get burnt while the inside is still raw. When it is half cooked then you can bring it closer to the fire.

While is cooking you have to keep basting it many times with the olive oil mixture so to keep it moist and also to give it an extra taste.

When it is cooked you cut it with a sharp knife into thick-ish pieces while you push it down and off the spit.

Note: For those who don't know, the caul fat is the fatty membrane which surrounds internal organs of cows, sheep, and pigs and it looks like this

In Cyprus they use it to make various local delicacies like the "seftalies". A very tasty dish which you will eventually have the chance to see in this blog

Alternative:
You can, also, cook the kokoretsi at home in your oven. Yes you can! I once made a kokoretsi using the spit and cooked it in a portable electric oven which  was not bigger than the average size of a microwave oven!

So, preheat the oven at 170°C.

Use a metal spit, long enough to fit in your oven (maybe even two if the oven is not big enough) and follow the same instructions as above. The only difference will be the amount of the ingredients. You will probably use the ingredients from one lamb only.

When you have finished the wrapping, place the kokoretsi in an oven pan greased with some butter. You will keep basting it in the same way as above and you will cook it for 1 1/2 hours.