Beer Battered Cheese Curds

Beer Battered Cheese Curds
Yield: 1 ½ cups, about four rich servings

Ingredients:
32 ounces canola oil, or other neutral oil suitable for high-temperature frying
1 c. all purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur.)
1 ¼ c. beer (I used a dark Belgian ale.)
1 ½ c. cheese curds
fine salt

Method:

• Pour the oil into a small, deep saucepan, and place a candy or deep frying thermometer into the pan. Bring the oil up to 380 degrees F.

• While the oil is heating, place the flour in a small bowl and season it fairly liberally with salt and pepper. Add the beer and, using a fork, stir together the flour and beer.

• Line a jellyroll pan with a couple of layers of paper towels and place a couple of cooling racks side by side on top of the toweling. Rest a slotted spoon or spider on top. Place the set up next to the oil.

• When the oil reaches temperature, place the cheese curds into the beer batter and give them a stir with the fork to coat them evenly.

• Using the fork, lift up a cheese curd and allow the excess batter to drip off a bit. Place a few cheese curds into the oil one by one like this and fry them, turning occasionally, until they are deep golden brown, about one to two minutes. Don’t crowd the pan or your oil temperature will drop too much and the curds will clump together.

• Mind the oil temperature during frying, adjusting your heat to maintain 380 degrees.

• When the cheese curds are ready, transfer them to the racks using the slotted spoon or spider. Season them with finely ground salt while they are hot.

• Working in small batches, fry the rest of the cheese curds.

These are best served hot just a few minutes after they are fried.