Fried Cheese Curds, and other various batter fried goodies

The closing date for our new home is rapidly approaching (less than 7 days away, and still no word from the VA!), and I was recently up in Wisconsin for a doctor's appointment so I brought back some loot from up North. 

I figured I would get in the Wisconsin spirit and try fried cheese curds for my next recipe. These cheesy bits of fried goodness are very popular up there from what I've seen. We even found a frozen custard place that serves them on the side of burgers like you would with french fries. This was actually the first place our WI realtor suggested we meet before looking at houses, which is why I knew we would get along perfectly. 

Cheese is the fifth food group to me, and I worked at a frozen custard place as my first job in high school, so anywhere that can combine the two is alright in my book. 

(On a side note: the chocolate cheese picture below is the most awesome invention in the world. It combines my two loves, chocolate and cheese. Only it does not taste like cheese at all, it tastes like creamy fudge!)

Some of my WI loot

Batter ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon oil

2/3 cup warm water

1 egg white, beaten

very generous sprinkle of each: pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

regular sprinkle of each: cayenne pepper, curry powder

Mix up the batter

Freeze the cheese curds for at least 1/2 hour before frying. VERY IMPORTANT! 

(Tim has experimented a couple of times with homemade mozzarella sticks, and apparently nothing is worse to clean out of a fryer than melted, fried cheese.)

Dip in the batter then drop in the hot oil and fry til nicely browned

(the trick is to cook the batter, but not melt the cheese enough that it escapes!)

Set aside on a paper towel to cool 

(and try not to eat all of them while you cook)

This batter works really well for all kinds of things like chicken, onion rings, 

and various vegetables. 

This time we did fried mushrooms, red pepper, and broccoli 

Mmm. Fried cheese... 

Bubba who is usually not a fan of cheese loves his fried cheese curds.  We have been joking that he would get us kicked out of play groups for not wanting cheese and crackers at snack, but it seems he may fit in in Wisconsin yet!