Fried Goat Cheese Salad

Does anyone else watch that Next Food Network Star? I love food competition shows, but this one is basically just an advertisement for Food Network. All they do is promote their network, so that is kind of lame. But I like the contestants and the challenges.

I always wonder what my platform would be if I were in the contest to be the host of a show about food. One guy makes any meal into a sandwich, some people focus on a particular type of cuisine and some flip flop around on what they want to do. I think I’m sort of a flip-flopper, too, but I’m sure it is because so many things interest me. Well, if I were on the show (which I would not want to be because of all the pressure and attention that comes with that sort of thing), I think I would bring intimidating concepts down to the everyday home cook’s level. Because I am a home cook who taught herself (or was taught by the Internet or TV shows) how to cook, so I would want to relate to viewers like me. They probably have people like that already on the Food Network; I’m not sure. I do not actually watch the network, just the one show and I watch it for free on the Internet (In your face, Food Network).

Fancy and exotic ingredients sound intimidating to some people, so they tend to stay with familiar flavors. I, myself, despise long and complicated recipes and quickly lose interest if a list of ingredients for a recipe exceeds 10 items. Well, goat cheese is quite popular on blogs and gourmet shows. Some people (*cough*my husband) are afraid of goat cheese. It weirds them out to think about eating a goat product. I don’t know why, because it is not too far from normal cheese, just a little tangier and richer.

Ok, so this recipe has 3 ingredients. Well, more if you count the salad, but you get my gist.

Today at lunch I made fried goat cheese salad. How gourmet does that sound? Took me all of 5 minutes.



Those are fried goat cheese discs on top. To make some, you need:



*Goat cheese (This is homemade goat cheese from a lady at my husband’s work. He told her I liked goat cheese and she showed up the next day with a tuperware container of the stuff)
*Egg (or egg substitute)
*Bread crumbs (I use Italian flavored)
Oops, 4 ingredients. You also need olive oil (or whatever kind of oil you have on hand)

1. Get your skillet on the stove and turn it to medium-medium high heat. Put in 1-2 tbsp of oil.
2. Scoop out some goat cheese (I used my cookie scoop), roll into a ball and flatten into a disc.
3. Get out two small bowls, put egg in one and breadcrumbs in the other. Dip the goat cheese in the egg first and breadcrumbs second.
4. Once your pan is hot, put the discs in (hopefully there will be a slight sizzle) and brown on each side.
5. Put it on your salad. Use whatever ingredients you want on your salad. I used a spinach and spring mix blend, light balsamic vinegar dressing and leftover zucchini and squash. I would have used more toppings, but that is all I had.
6. Enjoy!

The fried goat cheese tastes almost exactly like fried mozzarella sticks (without the deep fried greasiness or string of cheese coming out after each bite). So gourmet, yet so easy. Make it and impress your friends.



I enjoyed my salad along side a homemade parmesan and herb pretzel I made Sunday (don’t judge, I need my carbs) using this recipe: http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/2011/06/soft-pretzel-dogs.html (I also made pretzel dogs—yum).

Oh, by the by, you can pick up goat cheese at most grocery stores, the kind I usually buy looks like this: