Saganaki

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Saganaki Cheese

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Course Appetizer, Side Dish
Cuisine Greek

Ingredients
  

  • 4 oz block of hard cheese, 1/2" or 1 cm thick See #1 below
  • 1 tbsp water See #2 below
  • 3-4 tbsp flour
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp flammable alcohol (brandy at room temp is traditional)
  • 2 wedges lemon
  • 1-2 tsp fresh chopped parsley (1 tsp dried also works)

Instructions
 

  • Wet the cheese with the water.
  • Coat the cheese with flour.
  • Heat the oil in a pan on medium-high heat. This should be a very non-stick pan. See #3 below
  • Gently place the cheese on the oil and fry until the bottom has a crust and is golden brown. This should be approx 2 minutes.
  • Flip and fry until the bottom is golden brown, approx 30 seconds.
  • Remove the pan from heat, put it on a damp cloth on a temperature-safe tray, bring it over to your guests.
  • Pour the alcohol on top, light it with a long match.
  • At this point, everyone should shout OPA! or it won't taste right.
  • Squeeze a lemon wedge over the cheese to extinguish the flame (blow it out if needed).
  • Garnish with the parsley, place a lemon wedge on the side, and enjoy.

Notes

    1. If using a hard cheese, it's likely dry. If you're using feta, you can probably skip adding water to help the breading stick. If using egg in the batter, pat the cheese dry with paper towel. Feta usually needs to be cut thicker because it's prone to crumbling.
    2. You can whisk up an egg and dip the dried cheese before battering in the flour. Make sure to shake off any excess egg.
    3. Some recipes call for a cast-iron pan, but these need very good seasoning to prevent the cheese from sticking, so I recommend a non-stick pan the first few times you make this.