My husband and I love Greek food.  This dish is based on one of our favorite appetizers in a Greek restaurant we frequent.  They call it Shrimp Saganaki.  The bold, earthy tastes of an unpretentious people steeped in an ancient culture stand out in their cooking.  This dish came about one Sunday when I was foraging in my kitchen for something to make for dinner.  Now how about these ingredients for foraging?  Shrimp, feta cheese, fresh basil and tomatoes.  Now there is one ingredient that sort of sneaks in.  Since I wanted this to be an entrée, it needed to be bulked up.  To do this, I put the entire dish on a bed of, dare I say it, orzo!  This is a quick to make dish that has loads of flavor.

Feta, whose name means slice, is an interesting cheese. While the origin is thought to be Greek, several other countries in the area claim it.  Originally it was made with unpasteurized sheep or goat’s milk or a combination of both by shepherds.  Today, for commercial purposes, it is most often made with pasteurized cow’s milk.  The curdled milk with rennet is drained in a mold or cloth bag, after which it is cut into slices that are usually square.  It is then salted and cured in a brine mixture of water or whey and packed in barrels for several months which is sometimes why it is referred to as “pickled cheese”.   The cheese is white, compact, salty with a bit of a grainy texture and can range from firm to semisoft with a mild or sharp taste.

Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Denmark and France make a product called feta.  However, since 2002 it has been a protected designation of origin produce by the European Union which means only the cheeses produced in the mainland or the island of Lesvos using traditional methods and being made with sheep’s milk or a mixture of sheep’s and goats’ milk of up to 30% can be labeled “feta’.

I buy feta in one piece and crumble it myself.  I always feel like the pre-crumbled feta consist of “floor sweepings”. Continue reading Individual Greek Shrimp Casseroles