Kavarma

Ingredients

• Pork shoulder — diced700 g
• Mushrooms300 g
• Bell peppers3
• Onions2
• Tomatoes3
• Eggs4
• Brined white cheese150 g
• Paprika1 tbsp
• Summer savory1 tbsp
• Dry white wine150 ml
• Vegetable oil60 ml
• Parsley20 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Brown the diced pork in oil on all sides.

   12 min

2. 2

   Add the onion and peppers and fry seven minutes, until soft.

   9 min

3. 3

   Add the mushrooms and cook over a high flame until their water has gone.

   8 min

4. 4

   Take it off the heat, stir in the paprika and savory, add the wine and return it to the heat for three minutes.

   6 min

5. 5

   Add the chopped tomatoes, season, and divide everything between the pots.

   8 min

6. 6

   Bake at 180 °C for forty-five minutes, covered.

   48 min

7. 7

   Take the lids off, break an egg into each pot, scatter the cheese and give them eight minutes more.

   12 min

About the dish

It is cooked in portions, in clay gyuveche pots. A shared pan gives a different dish: in a small volume the meat and vegetables trade flavour more closely.

An egg is broken over the top five minutes before the end and baked until the white sets with the yolk still liquid. Added earlier it turns into an omelette.

The meat is browned in advance rather than stewed raw. Without that step both meat and sauce stay pale and the pot turns watery.

Worth knowing

• — Chubritsa, Bulgarian summer savory, is obligatory here. Without it kavarma stops being recognisably Bulgarian, and thyme does not stand in for it.
• — Unglazed pots go into a cold oven. Sudden heat cracks the clay.
• — The yolk has to stay liquid. Eight minutes at 180 °C is the limit; beyond that it sets and the point of the serving is gone.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

46 g

Fat

40 g

Carbs

16 g

More from Bulgaria

• Shopska salad — Tomato, cucumber and pepper under a cap of grated white cheese. The vegetables are cut large, the cheese grated fine.
• Banitsa — A filo spiral with white cheese and eggs, doused in yoghurt and bicarbonate before baking.
• Tarator — A cold yoghurt soup with cucumber, garlic, dill and walnuts.