Making Greek Saganaki with Feta instead of kefalotiri

[spazita]

Hello all! Anyone out there tried this?

[Gastronomos]

Baked feta is a traditional dish in Greece. Usually prepared solo, with a sprinkle of oregano and hot pepper flakes or as the classic dish bougiourdi, with onion and a semi-hot green pepper olive oil and baked in the oven. Though baking isn't really "saganaki", it has become a popular way of preparing the dish.

[eviemichael]

you can also wrap feta in phyllo pastry or puff pastry and deep fry or bake. then drizzle with honey and fig jam. VERY tasty!

[loukoumades]

I've had the baked feta eviemichael mentions with honey and sesame and it's delicious.

There are dishes called Prawns saganaki and Mussels saganaki where the seafood is baked in tomato sauce with feta and it's really really good. The only combination of cheese and fish I think I've tasted and liked.

But maybe spazita is referring to the deep fried cheese version of saganaki, which I've never tried with feta. I wonder if the feta would be firm enough to not crumble?

[doughgirl]

Saganaki in Greek means, small frying pans. And in cooking, it refers to anything cooked and presented in small frying pans. To make a traditional cheese saganaki, you need a hard cheese of some kind, either kefalotyri (translation, headcheese, i think head here refers to the hardness of the cheese) or Halloumi, that can hold up during the cooking process. You can do something similar with feta,. In Greek it's called feta psyti (pysti refers to anything roasted in the oven, or grilled) At home, you can do this by wrapping the feta either in parchment paper or aluminimum foil , add some spices, olive oil and small amount of rough chopped tomatoes, and cook it under a broiler , under a watchful eye, and at fairly low temperature, or alternatively, you can do it over a burner in a griddle pan. You will see the results are different, while saganaki cheese holds up and forms a nice crust, the fetapsyti, will soften and some of the brine will leach out and mix in nicely with few other ingredients you've added