Karides Güveç

Cooked and served in the same small earthenware pot, with cheese melted over the top under a fierce heat.

Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, shellfish.

Ingredients

• 600 g raw prawns, peeled
• 200 g mushrooms, sliced
• 4 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 long green peppers, chopped
• 40 g butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes
• 150 g kaşar or mild hard cheese, grated
• a handful of parsley, chopped
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. IT IS COOKED AND SERVED IN THE SAME SMALL EARTHENWARE POT, WITH CHEESE MELTED OVER THE TOP UNDER A FIERCE HEAT. Four individual pots, not one large dish divided up. The sauce is made on the hob and divided between them, the raw prawns are pushed down into it, grated cheese is piled on, and they go under a very hot grill or into a very hot oven for eight minutes. Earthenware holds heat for a long time, so the pot arrives at the table still bubbling and the prawns go on cooking gently for the first minute of eating. In a metal dish the whole thing cools on the way and the cheese sets into a solid lid.
2. THE PRAWNS GO IN RAW AND ARE NEVER COOKED TWICE. Pushed down into the hot sauce in the pot, and the eight minutes under the grill is all the cooking they get. Fried first and then baked, they are rubbery and small -- prawns are the one thing in the dish that cannot take a second heat.
3. THE SAUCE IS COOKED DOWN THICK BEFORE IT IS DIVIDED. Fifteen minutes, until it holds a shape on a spoon. The prawns and mushrooms both release liquid in the pot, and a sauce that starts loose ends up as a thin soup under a cheese crust.
4. THE MUSHROOMS ARE COOKED SEPARATELY AND HARD FIRST. In butter over a high heat until they have given out their water and started to brown. Added raw to the sauce, they release that water in the pot and dilute everything.
5. THE CHEESE IS PILED ON THICK AND NOT STIRRED IN. A generous handful per pot, covering the surface. It is meant to brown and blister into a crust that is broken through with a spoon; stirred in, it goes stringy and makes the sauce claggy.
6. THE HEAT IS AS HIGH AS IT WILL GO AND THE TIME IS SHORT. A grill on full, or an oven at 230°C, for eight minutes. Long enough to brown the cheese and just cook the prawns; any longer and the prawns tighten.
7. The olive oil and half the butter heated and the onion softened 8 MINUTES.
8. The garlic and green peppers in for 3 MINUTES.
9. The tomatoes, purée, Aleppo pepper and seasoning added and cooked 15 MINUTES, until the sauce HOLDS A SHAPE on a spoon.
10. SEPARATELY, the mushrooms fried in the remaining butter over a HIGH heat until browned and dry. Stirred into the sauce.
11. The oven heated to 230°C, or the grill to full.
12. The hot sauce divided between 4 small earthenware pots.
13. The RAW prawns pushed down into the sauce.
14. The grated cheese piled THICK over each.
15. Baked or grilled 8 MINUTES ONLY, until the cheese is browned and blistered and the prawns just opaque.
16. TESTED: the prawns should be just set and the cheese blistered. Rubbery prawns mean too long under the heat.
17. Scattered with parsley and taken to the table STILL BUBBLING, in the pots.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes