Recipe of the week: fried cheese / rántott sajt

Hungarian gastronomy is known to consist of rather heavy, often greasy foods. A common spice is paprika, and we love to add sour cream to most things. Hungarians also like to deep-fry things, resulting in the popular Hungarian lángos as well as this week’s recipe: fried cheese.

Fried cheese probably appeared somewhere in the 19th century. Once people discovered how delicious a Schnitzel was, there was no stopping, and they tried to prepare other things the same way, too.

Today, many varieties exist all over the world. Mozzarella sticks are a popular version of fried cheese, while Camembert can also often be found on menus. Frying halloumi cheese is becoming increasingly popular, too, while some people choose to fry Parmesan cheese – an added benefit of this is that harder cheese types are easier to prepare for frying.

In Hungary, the most popular form of fried cheese is made from Trappista cheese, the cheese kind that makes up about 70% of the country’s cheese consumption. Fried cheese in Hungary usually comes in a rectangular or triangular shape. It is a common vegetarian alternative in Hungarian restaurants.

Ingredients

500 g (Trappista) cheese

2 eggs

5 tbsp. flour

250 g breadcrumbs

some milk

sunflower oil

Instructions

Cut the cheese into slices, about 5 millimetres or however you prefer it. Since a common problem when frying cheese is that the cheese spills out midway through, you can go ahead and prevent it by dipping the slices in the milk and then starting the process of preparing the batter.

First, beat the eggs and put the flour and breadcrumbs in a bowl each. Start with the flour – let the cheese slices be covered in it on all sides. Dip them in the eggs and then let the bread crumbs stick to it all over. Repeat this process once more – cover the cheese slices in eggs and breadcrumbs -, as another key part of ensuring the cheese stays inside is preparing a double-batter. It can also help if you let the cheese now in the double-batter cool down in the fridge (or even in the freezer) for a while. Otherwise, heat up the oil and fry the slices until both sides are golden brown. It is best to eat them as soon as possible so that the cheese is still nice and sticky. It goes nicely with rice and tartar sauce.

Enjoy!

For more recipes, check out last week’s edition of the floating island.

Featured image: facebook.com/Nagymama-Konyhája-Várkerület

Source: Daily News Hungary