Butter, cheese, flip, flambé then douse the flames out with lemon!

Saganaki is a Greek dish, one of many cooked in a small pan. The pan is actually how this appetizer got it’s name – traditionally a small, heavy pan with two handles, that originated from the Turkish word “sahan” or “sagani.” Tim Hiller put his own spin on this recipe by crafting a pan out of mild steel, which is small enough to fit into his saddle bag.

The secret in the perfect Saganaki is choosing the right cheese. Graviera, Kefalograviera and Kefalotyri are all traditional options used in Greece. However, there is a specific “Saganaki” cheese that can purchased in North America which is labelled as such. Typically, the cheese is made from cow or goat milk. 

When the dish is prepared it can be a show-stopper recipe, as it’s often flambéed table-side. This involves frying the cheese first, pouring Ouzo, Brandy or Sambuca overtop, lighting the whole thing on fire and finally, extinguishing the flames with lemon juice.

However, the flaming dish is actually frowned upon in Greece, as the flambé originated from a restaurant in Chicago in the 1960s. In its traditional form, the juice of a lemon is squeezed overtop of the fried cheese only.

The dish can be eaten alone (as a starter), or mixed in with other ingredients for a main dish like prawn saganaki. Still, whichever way you prefer to eat it, we like Hiller’s Trail Ride version the best!

INGREDIENTS

1 Block Saganaki Cheese

Egg White

1 Cup Flour

1 Tbsp Butter

1 Small Shooter Bottle Sambuca

1 Small Ziplock Bag

1 Lemon

For cooking, you will need a small cast iron or steel pan that fits the cheese and don’t forget the matches! If you are preparing this dish on the trail, pre-dip the cheese in egg and close it in a Ziplock baggie with flour, before you pack it into your saddle bags. 

Otherwise, dip the entire piece of cheese in egg white then dredge in flour. Preheat your pan over a fire. Melt the butter but do not brown it! Carefully set the cheese into the pan, avoiding any splashing of the butter. Brown both sides and remove your pan from the fire. 

Now you can pour a quarter ounce of Sambuca over the cheese and light the flambé. Do so by simply returning the pan to the fire to ignite the flames, or use a long barbecue match. Once the flames started to die down, squeeze your halved lemon overtop of the cheese. The longer you leave the alcohol to burn, the more flavour will remain. Or as the Greeks do, leave out the flambé and use only the lemon juice.