Fried Feta Cheese with Fig and Brandy Jam
There are some days where all you want in the world is fried cheese. This recipe provides a classier alternative to mozzarella sticks, so we're pretty excited about it. Plus, fig and brandy jam...let's be serious about how good this sounds.
Saganaki—it sounds to me like some kind of sushi, but it’s Greek. Meaning, “little frying pan,” saganaki refers to a number of Greek dishes that are cooked in just that. Among all differernt kinds, there’s shrimp saganaki and sausage saganaki, but the most popular—and it’s not hard to see why—is cheese saganaki. Oh yes, it’s fried cheese, and I’m not talking mozzarella sticks.
Cheese saganaki is a traditional Greek meze, or small plate. Similar to Spanish tapas or Italian cicchetti, meze can be served like appetizers before a big meal or with a table full of other meze to be shared with friends and family for a social eating experience that is entirely its own. Though I often dream of enjoying many meze on a cliff side of Santorini, my only experience with them so far has been making Zucchini Feta Fritters. Meze were this month’s Five Star Makeover group’s theme, and though I never even heard of it before, I chose to make saganaki. I mean, it is fried cheese.
