I cannot tell you how the evening ended, only that I played a smashing round of Pants and passed out while at some point a certain moderator on these boards left a voice message expressing his disappointment at my lack of latenight moxy. I also dimly recall my girlfriend stating how it "lacked class" to drink liquor directly from the bottle, at which point I invoked some nonsense about "reduce, reuse, recycle".
What does this have to do with curds?
I credit the curd as quite possibly being the perfect food to compliment one's guzzling of beer. That was my epiphany from yesterday's All-Day Sunday. Here I will help the curd to reveal some of it's secrets so that you might partake of the delicacy.
First off, and I cannot stress this enough, start with frozen curds. If the cheese isn't frozen at the start of frying, it will spew from the batter in a molten state before the batter itself is done. If you make them yourself, batter a large batch and keep them in a sealed freezer bag for easy access (eat it Rachel Ray). You can also buy them in bulk from several retail/wholesale outlets as many bar proprietors do.
Also, about oil. Reuse your oil. That's right, get off your lazy ass and filter that shit back into the bottle. Vegetable oils can be reused many times, and in fact, a used or "seasoned" oil actually fries better with more flavor and less splattering.
Let's watch...
As they near completion, the curds will rise to the top and should appear golden brown. Frying temperature is set at 350 degrees F with total cooking time at approximately 4 minutes. Keep a wooden chopstick handy (bite me Martha Stewart) to keep them from clumping.
Avoid 3rd degree burns by using a stainless steel strainer to remove the curds.
Ahhh. This is what were after, a basket of hot curds served with a your choice of condiments. Mustard scores well with both cheese and beer, but don't overlook the virtue of a good barbeque sauce either. The Canadians are also fond of serving this type of fare drizzled in a good brown gravy.
The perfect deep fried cheese deserves the perfect beer. Much to my good fortune, one of the local candy stores is running a sale on some outstanding Lambic, unbelievably only $3.49 per bottle and just entering it's aged prime. Mead the Gueuze (7.9% abv) is a blend of 30% mead and 70% spontaniously fermented Gueuze Lambic, produced by Hanssens Artisanaal in Dworp, Belgium. Quite seriously, it is better than French Champagnes that sell for fifty times it's price.
Cheers you superlative bastards!
