Kuzu Tandir

Tandoori Culture

One of the most used types of red meat in Turkish cuisine is lamb, and dishes made with red meat and having lamb delicacy are very popular. The Turks use lamb delicacy for many home dishes, and the fact that this meat is cooked in a tandoor makes it even tastier. You can easily make lamb tandoori (Kuzu Tandır) dishes at home using a tandoori and experience it in many artisan restaurants and luxury restaurants. Thanks to the tandoori, all the meat gradually becomes soft during cooking. It does not lose any of the healthy nutrients. Having come to Turkey, it will be an unforgettable experience for you to taste the delicious meats of the country and observe the different cooking methods.

If you don't know what a tandoor is and are wondering, we can try to satisfy your curiosity. When wood and fire come together, they create different cooking techniques. Many delicious dishes come out thanks to the embers that appear when the flaming firewood begins to extinguish softly. Tandoor is also one of the known methods such as barbecue, grilling, and skewering. It adds a deep flavor to dishes cooked by heating them in a pit. Tandoori bread, made by the Turks for centuries and is very tasty, is also very popular. Although tandoor culture appeared as a warming tool for the Turks initially, it began to serve different purposes in time.

Lamb Tandoori- Kuzu Tandır

One of the best ingredients you can cook in a tandoor cooking method is lamb as lamb delicacy is a prominent, well explored, and known recipe. Nowadays, since tandoor is no longer available in many homes, meat in lamb tandoori is also cooked in ovens. The Turks have used tandoori in their homes for a long time. Perhaps their dishes have reached this level of taste thanks to tandoori being always available for cooking. It is still used if there is no electric oven in Turkish village houses. Many villagers cook their pastries in tandoori. There are many dishes that you should not skip when experiencing Turkish cuisine because this kitchen is quite spacious. When cooking meat dishes, vegetables come next to it, and delicacies that you will not forget are waiting for you. 

Thanks to the large, closed tandoor houses, a larger amount of meat has begun to be cooked. This tandooris are quite different from the tandoori of ancient times and have become a technique used primarily in restaurants for cooking on a large scale. Kuzu tandır is cooked in different regions of Turkey and is known as tandoori kebab, It is specially cooked in Denizli province. Lamb delicacy is known to every part of the country. Although tandoor cannot be used in homes to achieve this taste, tandoor dishes are still eaten in some restaurants.

There may be another presentation and innovation method of each region in the country for making kuzu tandır. For example, in Denizli province, kuzu tandır is made in the form of kebab, and it is put on skewers and cooked for long hours. After that, lamb delicacy is brought to your table, and you eat only your kuzu tandır with lavash bread without using a fork or knife. When making kuzu tandır, it has become a tradition to bake homemade lavash bread, usually in a tandoor, the one hand.

The way of making a kuzu tandır is quite simple because it will be enough just to buy a low-fat lamb from a good butcher. Before the meat is left in the tank for cooking for many hours, it is beautifully basted and left to dry. A few scrapes are thrown on the lamb meat so that the heat passes well into it when cooking. Before you start cooking kuzu tandır, the meat is beautifully massaged with various aromas, such as olive oil and laurel, which make it even softer. 

The meat, further flavored with garlic and various spices, is optionally wrapped in foil and left to cook for at least 2 hours on a tandoori fire. Thus, you will have reached lamb delicacy and will be captivated by the taste of soft meat