Festive fried feta with cheer up your cheese-board game
By golly, I do love a cheese board. The holidays offer ample opportunities to amp up your cheese-board game, so to speak, and do something beyond the usual cheese ball (though I will happily help to demolish a cheese ball, especially if it’s coated in almonds).
My friend Angela, who knows me well, gave me a little framed artwork depicting an array of cheeses, and it has pride of place atop my fridge. “For the love of CHEESE,” it proclaims and, yes, “cheese” is appropriately in all capital letters. The picture depicts Camembert, Swiss, Parmesan, Jarlsberg, Gouda, Gorgonzola, pepper Jack, Muenster and Edam. But if I had my way, this all-star list of cheeses would also include feta.
This salty Greek cheese, traditionally made from sheep’s milk, is a real workhorse, good for everything from crumbling in salads to tossing in pasta to baking in the oven with a pan of cherry tomatoes until it’s soft inside and golden on top. One thing I have not done with feta is fry it, although I’ve recently been taken with fried feta recipes running rampant on the internet. If there was ever a right time to fry feta, it’s now. (I could say that just as vehemently in mid-June.)
I thought this might serve as inspiration for your Christmas or New Year’s parties. It seems impressive — fried cheese, a Christmas miracle! But it’s actually quite easy, as this firm cheese manages to keep its shape while actually becoming gorgeously melty. The recipe is simple. Take an 8-ounce block of feta (I used cow’s milk feta) and cut it in half horizontally, so it’s just as wide but half as high, which will enable it to melt better. Then take each half and dip it in beaten egg. Coat each egg-drenched half in panko breadcrumbs. (These crispy Japanese breadcrumbs are found in most grocery stores.) Then fry it in olive oil for no more than two minutes each side. Be careful while handling the feta, as it is apt to crumble. My first attempt broke apart as I lifted it into…
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