Shrimp baked with Haloumi

This fantastic recipe comes from my favorite book on Turkish Food, Turquoise, written by Greg and Lucy Malouf, published in 2008. From it I’ve already made Soft White Cheese and Walnut Dip, and I’ve got many more bookmarked.

My husband and I have visited Turkey twice, and the food is outstanding. If I was forced to categorize Turkish cuisine, I’d say it was quite similar to Middle Eastern. There are lots of fresh salads, beautiful vegetables, great dairy, breads, grains, and sweets. Plus, my most memorable Turkish dish is çilbur, eggs in yogurt.

I got to buy a new ingredient to make this dish – pekmez, which is similar to pomegranate or sour cherry molasses, but it’s a syrup made from grapes only, not any other fruit, and with no added sugar.

From the authors: “The combination of shrimp and melted cheese makes this dish rather rich. It would make a light supper or lunch for 4 people, with a salad of bitter green leaves and plenty of crusty bread to mop up the sauce and melted cheese. You could also serve it as part of a nice selection for 8 people.”

My only issue with the ingredients is that I could not locate a “long red chile”, and even drove 75 miles to Whole Foods to find one. Nope. Nothing. So I used about 5 red jalapeños instead and the heat level was perfect.

Shrimp baked with Haloumi in a Clay Pot
printable recipe below

8 raw jumbo shrimp, peeled, heads and tails removed
2 ounces unsalted butter
1 small red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 long red pepper, seeded, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 long red chile, seeded and shredded
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, roasted and lightly crushed
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, roasted and lightly crushed
Pinch of saffron strands (I forgot)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Few strips of lemon peel
Sea salt
2 teaspoons pekmez
2 large vine-ripened tomatoes, skinned, seeded, chopped
1/4 cup roughly torn basil leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 ounces haloumi, washed and finely grated (I used 3 ounces)

Preheat the oven to its highest setting. Use a sharp knife to butterfly the shrimp and carefully pull away the intestines.

Melt the butter gently in a heavy-based frying pan. Add the onion, garlic, pepper, chile, spices and peel and season lightly with salt. Sauté over a low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft.

Add the pekmez and cook for 5 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes and bring to a gentle boil.

Gently add the shrimp and basil to the sauce, then put it all into a heavy-based casserole dish or an earthenware pot if you have one.

Sprinkle with olive oil, then scatter on the haloumi and bake in the oven for 3-5 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and brown. (The shrimp were perfectly cooked.)

My mistake was to not “finely” grate the haloumi. It’s not a super cheesy dish, it’s just meant to be “dotted” with bits of haloumi.

But all of the components were fabulous, as you an imagine. I would double the number of shrimp, and would prefer ground caraway and coriander seeds over the crushed bits, but that’s just me!