Originally from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pwcooks/~3/8_ONuIoT5dA/
This is something cool to do with tasty food so we wanted to show it for you! Bon Appétit!
Once upon a time, I wanted to make fried goat cheese. I’ve made it a few times before as an appetizer, as a treat to put on salads (you heard me!), and as a tasty snack. I simply love the stuff.
And then I went to the pantry to fetch my breadcrumbs—an essential component of the crispy outer coating—and found I didn’t have any.
I cried.
And then I cried again.
And then…I glanced at another shelf in the pantry and saw a bag of pretzels. And my day got a whole lot brighter.
Throw the pretzels into the food processor…
And grind them up until they’re supah fine.
Pour the crumbs into a bowl and set ’em aside. Vow never to buy breadcrumbs again because pretzel crumbs are the cat’s meow.
In a separate bowl, mix a couple of eggs (also known as aigs) with a couple of tablespoons of water.
Then line up the pretzel crumbs and egg mixture with a bowl of all-purpose flour. This is your assembly line!
Now you need some goat cheese. Fortunately, I had a few packages in my fridge from when my sister Betsy visited, because she and I like to sit around and eat goat cheese together. It makes our sister bond stronger. And just a little tip: this works a little better if you throw the cheese into the freezer for about 20 minutes or so! Firms it up just enough to make slicing neater.
And speaking of slicing, you need to do just that! First, slice it in half…
Then slice each half in half to create four nice, thick slices. These result in pretty darn substantial goat cheese pieces, so if you want to go a little thinner, you can do five evenly spaced slices instead.
Drop a piece into the flour…
Turn it over to coat it…
Then shake off the excess and ignore whatever is going on with my hand in this highly unfortunate photo.
Quickly dip it in the egg mixture (you’ll need to turn it over a couple of times)…
(You can go ahead and ignore my hand in this photo as well. Thank you for your cooperation.)
Then drop it in the pretzel crumbs…
And turn it over to coat it completely!
Keep going until they’re all breaded.
I mean pretzeled.
Heat about half an inch of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat (you don’t want it too hot!) and place four of the goat cheese slices in the pan using a slotted spatula. See that gentle sizzle around each piece? That’s what you want. If it violently sizzles when you put it in the pan, it will brown too quickly!
Fry the slices on the first side for only about 45 seconds to 1 minute, until it gets light golden brown and crisp. Then use the spatula to carefully turn them to the other side, and fry for another 30 to 45 seconds (a little more if need be.)
Remove them to a paper towel, then fry the remaining four slices! I like to do them in small batches just to maintain control over how brown they get; if you see they’re getting brown, you can turn four a lot more quickly than you can turn eight.
It only took me 47 years to figure out these things out.
Serve the slices relatively soon, so the cheese is nice and warm and soft inside. I love them with a side of warmed marinara…or, of course, you can put them on top of a gorgeous arugula or spinach salad! (I have a recipe for this coming on a future Food Network episode. Great for guests. Yum!)
And the pretzel crust was perfect!
Fried Goat Cheese. I don’t know what to say, except if you haven’t ever tried it…well, you must.
Unless you hate goat cheese. And then it might not be your cup of tea.
I myself hate tea! But oh, do I love goat cheese.
And what’s not to love?
Here’s the handy dandy printable.
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