Karsian barbeque

Kars is situated in the North-East of Turkey and holds an interesting place in the history of Turkey and the South Caucasus. But we'd better leave this to the history blogs and let us discuss delicious facts about Kars. Fact #1: Shawarma is a Leventin-Arab meal. Fact #2: In Turkey Shawarma is called Donner Kebab, which means "spinning meat." Fact #3: Donner and Shawarma are both ancient, complete dishes as they consist of all the products which human body needs for functioning – vegetables, bread and meat. To cut it short, Georgians also spin the meat, roast barbeque and make Kebab, but the question is – why don't we have Georgian Shawarma, Georgian spinning meat, a middle product between Kebab and barbeque? The following recipe is for Kars barbeque, which will stand as a Georgian version of Turkish Donner accompanied by aromatic bread and Matsoni sauce.

Aspiki or muzhuzhi

First of all I want to stress that this dish is coming from Georgia and is already counting at least 3 centuries of existence. In Russia it came from France and like everything French, 19th century Russian high society took it enthusiastically and made it its own. The basis of this dish is collagen extracted from animal bones and tissues. Hydrolyze turns it into condensing gelatin. To leave the biochemistry aside, condensation can be done with simply boiling bony meat hard. Add some aromatic ingredients to the broth and voila - you get a nice jelly including all those pleasant tastes and scents, that a delicious soup has, but in a way comfortable form for eating.