Saganaki
A slab of hard cheese floured and fried for ninety seconds a side, which is the entire window it has.
Not vegetarian — contains kefalograviera whose rennet the source does not name.
Ingredients
- 400 g kefalograviera, graviera or kasseri, in 1.5 cm slabs
- 4 tablespoons plain flour
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lemon, in wedges
- black pepper
Method
- NINETY SECONDS A SIDE IS THE WHOLE WINDOW. Under it and the middle has not softened; over it and the cheese breaks, gives up its fat and spreads across the pan into a lace that cannot be lifted. There is no judgement involved and no way to recover it -- watch the clock rather than the pan.
- SO THE CHEESE MUST BE A HARD ONE AND CUT THICK. A soft cheese has nothing to hold it together and 1.5 cm is the minimum: thinner slabs are molten all the way through before a crust has formed.
- AND IT MUST BE WET THEN FLOURED. Dry cheese sheds the flour in the pan and sticks to the metal. Dipped briefly in water and then pressed into flour, it carries an even coating that becomes the crust.
- Cheese cut into slabs about 1.5 cm thick and the size of a palm.
- Chilled 20 minutes. Cold cheese gives a few more seconds of margin.
- Each slab dipped in cold water, shaken, then pressed into the flour on both sides and all four edges. THE EDGES MATTER -- an unfloured edge is where it starts to run.
- Oil in a heavy frying pan over a medium-high heat until it shimmers. Not smoking: too hot and the flour burns before the inside softens.
- Cheese in, and left ALONE 90 seconds.
- Turned once with a fish slice, 90 seconds more. It should be deep gold and crusted, and will have puffed slightly.
- Straight onto a warm plate -- in the pan it keeps cooking and collapses within half a minute.
- Lemon squeezed over at the table while it is still hissing, and a grind of pepper. Eaten immediately; it sets to rubber as it cools and there is no reheating it.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Greece · All recipes