Mushrooms baked in individual clay pots with butter, sulguni and a crown of crispy cheese on top, served bubbling in the pot. A classic Georgian clay-pot dish of the western regions, eaten straight from the ketsi with bread.
Soko ketsze (literally mushrooms in a ketsi, a Georgian clay pot) is a classic clay-pot dish of western Georgia, where mushrooms are baked with butter and sulguni until the top forms a golden crust of crisped cheese. It belongs to the Imereti and broader western Georgian ketsi tradition of baking in individual clay pots, served bubbling at the table and eaten with bread. The dish is a supra favourite for its dramatic presentation and simple, intense flavour.
Bubbling, buttery mushrooms under a thick golden lid of melted, crisped sulguni, the cheese pulling in strings when broken, the mushrooms deeply savoury underneath. Eaten spooned onto bread, it is rich, salty and moreish.
Each clay pot (ketsi) is brushed with butter, filled with sliced mushrooms, and topped with a thick layer of grated sulguni. The pot goes into a hot oven, where the mushrooms release their juices (which become the sauce) and the cheese on top melts and then crisps into a golden lid. The clay pot holds and distributes the heat evenly, and serving in the pot keeps it bubbling at the table. The cheese must be thick enough on top to form a real crust.
Variations
A richer version adds a splash of cream. Some cooks stir in garlic and herbs before baking.
On the Palate
Where Soko Ketsze sits in the Georgian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 15 min
- 14 min
Preheat the oven to 220C. Brush 4 small clay pots (ketsi) with 50g melted butter.
- 24 min
Slice 600g mushrooms; divide them among the pots.
- 33 min
Season each with salt, pepper and a crushed clove of garlic.
- 44 min
Top each pot generously with 80g grated sulguni, mounded high.
Watch outMound the grated sulguni thick and high on top — it has to be a real deep layer or it won't melt into a crisp golden lid over the mushrooms.
- 512 min
Bake 18-20 minutes until the cheese is deep gold and the pots bubble.
Watch outBake until the cheese is deep gold and the pot bubbles at the edge, eighteen to twenty minutes — the mushrooms have released their juices into a sauce by then.
- 62 min
Serve at once in the pots, with bread to scoop.
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