How To Make Fried Cheese
Fried Cheese!
We will call him Gabe. Gabe is my cousin. I have only love for Gabe. When the incident occurred, Gabe was younger. We were taking in the energy of New York City in little Italy, surrounded by the sights and smells of authentic Italian at its best. The opportunity to swing by a local Italian restaurant in little Italy, NYC should be a bucket list item. Of course, one must treat authenticity with authenticity. This is not something you necessarily understand, rather it seems it is something that you experience instead. It should be known that Gabe, and many others of his generation were taught that authenticity was only available in places like Bennigan’s and TGI-Fridays. The power of authenticity, or lack thereof, was unleashed upon us with the simple words – “Do you have Mozzarella Sticks”?
The restaurant was a small place. The look on the server’s face, who was certainly from Italy, said it all. But the silence and looks from the other visitors rang home the point. At an authentic Italian restaurant, it is unlikely that you will find the Bennigans-esque form of mozzarella sticks. Those gooey sticks that start in the freezer, are fried up post haste and served with canned marinara sauce whose full intention it is to cover up the clear lack of taste these sticks have. No. In an authentic Italian restaurant you find Mozzarella in Carroza. When Fresh mozzarella, whose buttery taste is sandwiched between bread and then encrusted with a delicate crispy crust, dances pleasurably with a good marinara. I gather the server had seen this before. He was immune to the chain restaurant mindset. Inoculated by years of exposure to the many Gabes that he served. We should not have giggled at Gabe, but we couldn’t help it. And we could not help from laughing out loud, with the rest of the restaurant, when the server brought the best Mozzarella in Carroza ever and, while placing it on the table, yelling in his rich, deep Italian accent – MOZZARELLA STICKS – for all of little Italy to hear. Years later, and a bit ironically I might add, Gabe married an Italian-American women whose Italian roots run deep. We are not sure if she is aware of this story and we don’t plan on telling. We are comforted to know though that TGI-Fridays no longer serves mozzarella sticks.
Just Kidding!
The Marriage of Cheese and Bread
Whether it be Mozzarella in Carroza or Mozzarella sticks, each exemplifies what humans have been trying to do for the past millennia – marry cheese and bread together. We have done this many ways before and have been very successful – a Swiss fondue a baked brie, a grilled cheese sandwich. But our ingrained ability to add extra calories to any dish can never seem to be suppressed. So fry we must. I like to think that in our brief human history, fried cheese was just another inevitability – just as cheese food was. How lucky we are to be able to make this crispy, gooey treat!
What Cheese In Fried Cheese?
Although our propensity to fry cheese is strong, it seems that our collective imagination does not run much past mozzarella. This is a shame! Putting a good frying on piece of goat cheese or small wedges camembert can really change the fried cheese game! Heck, an aged gouda (or even a smoked gouda) should even be considered.
The how-to of fried cheese is very straight forward. As with meat, a simple breading technique is all we need to make great fried cheese. A dip in flour, egg and seasoned crumb is the perfect foundation for a crispy fried cheese. The crumb can be anything from panko bread crumbs to regular old plain bread crumbs. And, although weird, even a crunchy cereal like plain special K can be used as a coating for a little added texture and crunch.
That, and a pot of hot oil will get you to fried cheese nirvana. Any vegetable oil will do. I like sunflower oil. It does well at high heat and it is a generally healthy oil. Of course, frying cheese negates this, but every little bit helps. My reco is to use a deep fryer if possible. It is just a lot easier to control the temperature in a deep fryer. And make sure you let the oil temperature return to the appropriate cooking temperature between batches.
To serve, look beyond marinara. A savory cheese, fried or not, will always go well with chutney or other fruity relish. A good cranberry relish is nice. Yep, use the recipe you make at thanksgiving. It will be great.
Did I mention you can also just drizzle honey right on top of fried goat cheese or camembert?
Fried Cheese Recipe
Here is how I fry up goat cheese and camembert…
- 1 1/2 lb wheel of camembert
- 1 1/2 lb log of goat cheese about 1-1.5 inches in diameter
- 1/2 cup of flour
- 2 tsp of seasoning salt - like Lowerys
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup of plain bread crumbs
- 1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper or to taste
- Cranberry relish for serving.
- Fill a deep fryer with oil and pre-heat the oil to 350F according to the manufacturer's instructions.
- Slice the wheel of camembert into 6 wedges.
- Slice the goat cheese into rounds about 1/2 inch thick.
- On a medium plate or bowl, mix the flour and seasoning salt.
- In a medium bowl beat the egg with a fork.
- On a medium plate or bowl, mix the bread crumbs and pepper.
- Line up the plates in order, flour, egg, bread crumbs.
- Dredge pieces of cheese one at a time in the flour, dusting off any excess,then the into the egg allowing the excess to drip of, then into the bread crumbs, pressing the crumbs delicately into the cheese. Set the breaded cheese pieces aside until all of them are coated.
- Fry the cheese pieces a few at a a time until they are golden brown and crispy about 1 -1/2 minutes.
- Serve hot with the cranberry relish or other chutney.
- You can make your own cranberry relish or use store bought.
- Lots of different cheese ante fried. A great one to try is a gouda.
Keep Eating! Keep Innovating!
Have you ever made Fried Cheese? What do you dip it in? Let us know all about it in the comments or on Facebook.
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