In some
parts of Greece I understand this dish is called youvetsi – after the name of
the dish it is cooked in, but to me it will always be Prawn Saganaki, as it was
when I first tried it in gorgeous Corfu.
A lovely
Greek lady, Angelliki, gave me the basics for this recipe when I enjoyed it at
her hotel taverna back in 2008, when I was working as a holiday rep and would hungrily
demolish many a meal prepared by this lovely lady. She was an inspiration in
many ways – as well as working many hours with her husband Costas at the hotel
they only managed, not owned, she prepared the majority of the food that was
served there, and had two beautiful young children who she was always running
around after too. They were a very generous couple always trying to feed me up
and happily, were open to sharing the odd recipe too. A tiny couple of tweaks,
to accommodate what is readily and affordably available in sunny Essex and here
is the recipe below.
If you can
get hold of them the sauce is much improved my having large shell-on prawns, and
these also make for an impressive looking dish too, but for an affordable
mid-week meal, ordinary prawns are just fine. I serve with a side salad and
some simple fresh bread and it makes for a delicious taste of the Med,
especially comforting now the colder nights are drawing in.
Here’s
how:
200g
fresh, raw prawns
Tin of
chopped tomatoes
1 large
onion
2 cloves
of garlic
2 tbsp
fresh oregano
1 tbsp
fresh parsley
1 tsp
brown sugar
1 tbsp
fresh lemon thyme
150g feta
cheese
Salt and
pepper to taste
1 tbsp
olive oil
2 tbsps
dry white wine (Retsina for traditionally Greek saganaki)
Firstly
you need to make a good tomato sauce as the basis. I do this in an oven-proof
skillet above the hob so you can continue the cooking all in the one pan. The
depth to which you prepare the sauce depends on how much time you have –
obviously if you want a rich sauce, cook for longer, but if time is short, then
a quick sauce is more than sufficient – especially mid-week.
To prepare
your sauce add the olive oil to the pan and place over a low-mid heat. Dice the
onion as finely as possible and crush the garlic and add both to the pan. Once
softened (after 5-10 minutes), add the
wine and cook off – this will take another 5 minutes or so on a medium heat.
Next add
the chopped tomatoes. Again you can of course use fresh tomatoes for this dish
as and when they are available. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper here and the
teaspoon of brown sugar and stir through. Add half of the chopped parsley and
oregano and all of the lemon thyme to the sauce and cook over the hob for
thirty minutes – or longer if you have the time.
In the
meantime, chop the feta in cubes – I prefer this to crumbling the cheese as in
the finished dish you are left with lovely gooey, delicious feta.
Taste the
sauce and if you feel it needs it add further salt and/or pepper. Remove the
lemon thyme stalks as they are unpleasant to bite into and will have imparted
their flavour into the sauce now
Arrange
the feta around the dish and sprinkle the rest of the parsley and most of the
remaining oregano and place into a pre-heated oven at 180-200 degrees for
fifteen minutes.
Remove the
dish and add the prawns, scattering around as evenly as possible.
Return to
the oven for a further five minutes, checking that all of the prawns have
turned pink to show they are cooked through, and remove, ready to serve. Prawns
take very little cooking so remove from the oven as soon as they have all
turned pink to avoid being left with rubbery, overcooked prawns which are not
tasty! Instead you should have delicious, succulent and juicy just-cooked
prawns – lovely. Scatter over the remaining oregano before serving – enjoy!
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