Prawn Saganaki

Ah!  Spring is upon us (sort of).  As such, I’ll be scaling the posts back to once a week.  The yard calls to me, and I find myself spending an absurd amount of time “tweaking” the plants, mosses and anthills (where the hell do these guys come from?!) into a suitable and eye-pleasing formation.  My time to make meals has been scaled back, let alone the time to document and take photos of them. 

This time of year always messes with my head.  On the one hand, we start seeing more fresh local ingredients available.  On the other, we’re still stocked up with 10 trillion root veggies and squash (can you say “winter hoarding?”) which need to be used up.  The following recipe barely addresses either.

However, it comes from a my friend Liz in Australia.  Since it’s technically autumn in Oz, yet spring here, I thought this recipe was a great way to celebrate the no-man’s land of seasonal transition, and the “What the hell do I make in unsettled weather like this?” question.

Prawn Saganaki (recipe and instructions cut and pasted with a few annotations and conversions from Liz’s blog.  I also quite admire her technique for getting the recipe.  Technology and good manners concisely wrapped up in one gesture)   

In our house this served two.  Adjust accordingly.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
400 g vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (I think that’s about 3-4 tomatoes)
1 red banana chili, seeds removed, coarsely chopped (or chili to taste)
1/2 c dry white wine
1/2 tbsp dried thyme or 2tbsp of fresh.
1 fresh bay leaf
100g feta (I used Macedonian feta.  Creamier, less salty, and doesn’t have the same “pong” as Greek feta.  Not saying anything against pongy feta…)
12 large prawns, peeled, cleaned

1. Preheat oven to 220C (about 400F).
2. Heat oil in a large casserole over medium-high heat, add onion and garlic and sauté until starting to soften (2-3 minutes), add tomato and chili and sauté until starting to soften (2-3 minutes).
3. Add wine and herbs and reduce until slightly thickened (1-2 minutes).
4. Crumble feta over top, transfer casserole to oven and roast until sauce thickens and feta begins to melt (15 minutes). 

5. Remove from oven, gently push prawns into sauce, return to oven and roast until prawns are heated through (3-5 minutes).

Serve hot with crusty white bread and green salad.

I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did.  As Liz mentions in her blog, I agree that prawns are generally best left unadulterated.  This is a screaming exception to that notion. 

I can already picture serving this outside as a summer dinner (ANOTHER season this bad-boy invokes).  Friends tottering on wine-softened legs, a playlist featuring Journey’s “Don’t Stop” battling with the neighbour’s fumbling attempts to pick out Paul Simon songs on the guitar, and a big oozing mound of prawns and feta-laden, tomatoey goodness plonked down on the table to the slurred exclamations of “Awwwwwnnngg… thad smellsh amAYshing…”

Prawn purist though I be, I’m glad I allowed myself to delve into this little ditty.  To quote the wise words of drug pushers from the 60’s onward:  “Try it.  You’ll like it.”