Very popular in La Mancha cuisine, especially in Cuenca, zarajos —the small intestine of the lamb rolled up on a stick— are also eaten in Madrid and have very similar cousins, although without a stick, in Navarra and La Rioja, where they are known as embuchado, and Aragón, where they respond to the name of skeins.
The zarajos are consumed fried or grilledalthough this time we are going to make them fried, which is how we think they have the most charm.
key part of the lamb casing cutting and lambs, the zarajos are perfect as an aperitif, well fried and accompanied by a little garlic and parsley or lemon juice, which refresh the bite.
The key, in addition to buying very fresh zarajios and clean, it is in the previous cooking so that they are already soft and then finish them off with a controlled frying.
They must stay crispy and goldenbut we must not over-fry or they will be very dry and lose most of their charm.
This recipe will be more or less brief if we have the zarajos already cooked or not. If they are not, you will have to cook them for half an hour in salted water over low heat. If they are, we skip this step and directly fry them.
To do this they have to be very dry and we must heat a good amount of oil in a deep saucepan so that completely cover the zarajo.
When it is at about 170 ºC, we fry and leave it there for about five minutes, until we see that it is golden outsidebut without burning.
Drain on a rack and serve hot, being able to cut into three pieces each zarajo to make it easier to eat. We can also make a separate garlic and parsley rehash, lightly browning the sliced garlic and pouring it into the already served zarajos, adding a little chopped parsley.
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With what to accompany the lamb zarajos
the zarajos they work great as an appetizer, which we could support with something more offal such as some lamb sweetbreads or with some little kidneys in sherry. If we want to change the pace, a grilled cuttlefish or some Roman squid would also come in handy for our traditional snack.
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