rhapsodic.org is a weblog by Valette Keller

New Experience: Cheese Curds

I popped into the south side farmer's market this morning. I think I've only ever stopped there once before, and my Saturday schedules are such that I'm only out thinking about farmer's markets around 1pm. AKA After All The Good Stuff Is Gone.

But today I had scheduled an early photoshoot which had me driving right by this farmer's market before 10am. I was able to get some fresh king salmon, scallops, shrimp, a fresh loaf of potato sourdough, a giant head of lettuce, and a bag of cheese curds.

I have never had a cheese curd in my life, but I have heard of them and have been intrigued. I jumped at the chance to try these locally made curds.

Then I got them home and I didn't know what to do with them. I put a plea out to Twitter and was directed towards poutine: french fries covered in cheese curds then drenched in gravy. GRAVY. It's like the second worst fate to befall good crispy french fries (the first is, of course, microwaving them) (DO NOT MICROWAVE FRENCH FRIES).

I tried one straight from the bag, it was good. Tasted like... cheese. Not as squeaky as the internet claims they should be, so I'm pretty sure these weren't freshly made today. Alaskans are used to getting un-fresh foods, so I'm not surprised.

But I didn't want to WASTE these fancy new cheese curds by just eating them out of the bag, that seemed silly.

I deep fried them instead.

The batter was simple: 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 egg beaten, 1/4 cup milk. But then we were out of milk, so I substituted soy milk, which is PRETTY MUCH the same thing. And by PRETTY MUCH I mean that they both have the word "milk" on the jug. By which I mean basically not the same thing at all, but better than using water and worth a shot.

I threw them in the deep fryer where they puffed up and turned a light golden brown. The cheese inside melted into gooey balls of heavenly cheese.

Towards the end of the batter I was having a harder time getting each curd coated thoroughly, and a few of them leaked hot melty cheese into the oil. Steve got one that had no cheese in it at all.

They were... okay. They tasted an awful lot like mozzarella, but the texture was so much smoother. Substituting soy milk meant that the batter didn't crisp up in the hot oil.

I don't think I'll get them again unless I'm in Wisconsin and am pulling them fresh out of the vat of a cheese plant.