Güveç Cooking Pots, Rumanian, Bulgarian (ghivetch), Turkish and Levantine cooking pots

 

These two cooking glazed earthenware pots are Güveç - Rumanian, Bulgarian (ghivetch), Turkish or Levantine cooking pots. I bought the one on the left for a few pounds from a charity shop it's very heavy and the top goes into the base by about three cms so when the stew cooks all the steam stays in the pot. The one on the right is designed to make individual servings probably for recipes like Feta Gyuvech click here for recipe I've never seen another one of those...

Stew/casserole dishes cooked in them from Romania or Bulgaria regions are called ghivetch, and these pots were historically used in the embers of fires to cook the fare. Ghivetch recipes are made with beef, chicken or veg, and are all cooked slowly, but yet the thing in common in these meals is that little or no water is included in the cooking process. The result is that you taste each individual ingredient and spices as it is. And that simplicity appeals to me. 

Not only do my ghivetch pots look lovely but I know I'll be using mine more and more and would suggest to you that when wandering around charity shops that you keep an eye out for one.

The pot I have below is similar I use all the time especially when I make this recipe, Click for recipe for Italian Rustic Chicken