A Taste of Home: Spiced Up Fried Cheese Curds

Do you know what a cheese curd is?  If you don't, I'm sorry. You should go find them immediately.


Seriously, you can read this later.


They are the little lumps of cheese that have not been shaped into the bricks we usually buy them in.  They are good, better then a slice off one of those bricks, and they are highly appreciated in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area. 


They are good eaten fresh.  They are really good battered and fried, and this is the #1 item at any summertime festival in Minnesota with food vendors.


I have a co-worker also from Minnesota, and thru some favor trading I received a bag of cheese curds this week straight from home.  (For people outside the mid-west, I have also seen them at Trader Joe's.)


I ate a bunch of them fresh, but I could not resist the urge to fry some up.  Especially with a batter recipe right on the bag! I also could not resist the urge to add some cayenne pepper to the batter.


Things were a little tricky and messy at first. I don't fry things very often. And I found the batter recipe on the bag a bit too thin, so I added some more flour to thicken it up. This helped things a lot, and by the second half of my batch they were coming out beautifully.


I'm really happy with the added spices too. It wasn't too much pepper, just enough that you get a little tingle in your throat.  

Spiced Up Fried Cheese Curds

1lb Cheese Curds

2/3 cup Milk

1 cup Flour

¾ tsp Baking Powder

¼ tsp Salt

½ tsp Chilli Powder

2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Vegetable or Canola Oil (for frying)

Heat oil in a pan or deep fryer

Combine flour, milk, baking powder, salt, chilli powder, and cayenne pepper.

Coat cheese curds in mixture.

Fry in hot oil, flipping if needed, until batter is golden and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Eat while still warm. I would recommend ranch if you want to dip them in something, but I enjoyed mine plain.

Cheese Curd