Gemma Before we had children, we often found ourselves feeding a crowd in a hurry. People would call in at 2 pm and still be there chatting – with stomachs rumbling – at 6 pm. Perhaps the wine had something to do with it.
Because of this, I have cooked King Prawn Saganaki for most of my friends and family over the years. It is a hearty, fresh dish and a joy to cook. While the four of us love anything fish or seafood even my mum, who isn’t mad keen on king prawns, loves ‘KPS’.
If you are having a get-together, especially as the nights are drawing in, and you want to serve your guests a bowl full of flavour then this is the dish for you. This is also a winning family dish: the kids love it because it’s rich and creamy from the feta, and it is packed full of healthy tomatoes.
Good food and great friends!
It has been 10 years since we first had KPS… We got hooked on KPS the instant our great friends Emma and Martin cooked it for us! I’ve never once been to their house, even for a brew, and not eaten something. It’s a kitchen much like my own… There’s always something you can rustle up for an unexpected visitor. Thanks, Emma, Martin and the girls for sharing your table, friendship, food and love with us over the years!
Martin shared his recipe with me way back then… and over the years it’s been adapted into a dish that I can dress up or dress down. You can go all out and add a bunch of shell-on king prawns which gives the dish a real sense of adventure and wows your hungry crowd. More often than not though I tend to use frozen king prawns so that we can make this dish with little effort – and at less notice.
Prep is key
Like with all my meals, you will notice the biggest part of the effort is food prep… and even that is straight forward in this recipe. I grew up in a house that was always making food. Feeding a crowd in a hurry was our house special… So food prep for me is like therapy. I am a better cook for taking the time to get everything organised at the start. That’s especially true now that my attention is split. It also means that the dish comes together in minutes and, you can prep ahead. I hate missing out on anything so I tend to cook food that is prepped in advance so that I am not stuck in the kitchen while everyone else is having fun!
The key with this dish is making sure your oven is preheated and that everything else is ready to go so you can serve as soon as it’s out of the oven. I mostly serve KPS with hot crusty bread and salad but it is also yummy with tagliatelle stirred through at the end… As with all my meals, adapt it to suit you!
A cast iron investment
Ideally you need a pan/dish you can transfer from hob to oven… If you haven’t got one then I suggest you stick an oven dish in the oven as it pre-heats so that when you transfer the KPS there is residual heat in the dish helping it to cook.
I use a cast iron dish which I’ll admit is a big investment for your kitchen. If you are planning on buying one be sure to shop around. One of my cast iron pans is from M&S and was half the price of a Le Creuset. That said, Le Creuset is built to last and handles so well. So if you do want to splash out and treat yourself to their Oval Cast Iron Gratin Dish then it will be at your side for many years to come. This recipe serves four hungry adults but I have cooked it for more than six in the past and it’s just as easy.
Share your crown pleasing favourites
Feeding a crowd in a hurry is a daily task now that we have children… I love that this dish can be brought to the table so quickly and yet taste like we are in a little Greek Taverna. I’ll always wash this down with a glass of something good and be thankful to Emma and Martin for sharing this delight with us! We are always looking for new recipes to add to our journey… If you have a crowd-pleasing feast up your sleeve we would love to cook it! Get in touch to share your recipes and ideas with The Family Feed community and follow us on Instagram @familyfeedinsta to share your King Prawn Saganaki next time you are feeding a crowd in a hurry!
King Prawn Saganaki – Feeding a Crowd in a Hurry
Equipment
- cast iron dish/or similar
Ingredients
- 400 g king prawns my prawns are frozen in this recipe. You will need to adjust the cooking times if your prawns aren’t. Ovens vary so always check your prawns are properly cooked before serving
- 500 g vine tomatoes
- 200 g feta
- 2 large red onions
- 1 red chilli
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 4 large cloves garlic I use five in the video because they weren’t big enough and we love garlic
- 75 g pitted black olives
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Preparation
- Getting your ingredients ready at the start makes cooking this dish a joy!
- Roughly chop your tomatoes into chunks. Don’t spend time trying to get this uniform, they will cook down in the oven.
- Chop your onions – you want a medium chop. It’s nice to get some bite from the onions in this dish so you don’t want to finely chop them or they will melt into the sauce.
- Slice your garlic.
- Finely chop your olives and chilli. Watch those fingers (I am the world’s worst when it comes to cutting myself so please don’t take any knife skills from me!)
Cooking your KPS
- In a cast iron dish/or similar add a good drizzle of olive oil and turn to a medium heat.
- Gently fry your onions for 3-4 minutes.
- Add your garlic and chilli, stir through and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add your tomatoes, olives and oregano then add salt to taste (big moment in our house as we don’t cook with salt much, but the kiddies were in bed so this was a well-seasoned treat).
- Now add some more olive oil, enough to loosen the ingredients in the pan. It’s important to mention that the tomatoes, olive oil and feta will bake in to a sauce… If your dish is dry that sauce will be a bit thick… and we want to mop it up with crusty bread!
- Mix everything through and let it cook for a minute.
- Crumble your feta over and mix to incorporate.
- Finally, add your prawns, give it a good stir so they are coated and transfer to a preheated oven to bake.
- I baked this at 200ºC/392º/GM6 for 20 minutes. You prawns might be smaller or your oven different to mine so use your gut instinct to get it right. I find that these big prawns cook well from frozen in that time and stay juicy and plump.
Video
Notes
Get in touch to share your recipes and ideas with the Family Feed community and follow us on Instagram @familyfeedinsta
[…] mean we eat wonderful food round the clock. It’s a balance of baked potatoes one night and King Prawn Saganaki the […]
Thank you for yet another lovely comment and giving our recipe a go Brent and Lynne! We are thrilled that you love this, we do too. It’s a year-round dish as I find it lends itself to the summer, eating in the garden, but then it transitions well into the dark winter months as it’s comforting. We are also pleased that you found the site easy to browse. I am sorry that I took a little while to respond to your comments – I have limited time on the site, as you can imagine, but I will make a conscious effort to keep on top of the comments more regularly. If you have any feedback as the site grows or should you wish to collaborate on a post we would love to hear from you! You can drop me an email gemma@familyfeed.co.uk