A Little Trial And Error Makes It All Taste Better

A couple weeks ago, when Casey and Nika, Brady and Jenne were home for the weekend, we went to my niece Kristal’s basketball game in Darlington on a Saturday morning. Since Casey and Nika were home for the weekend, my plans were to make lunch and dinner for all of us. My dinner plan for that night was lasagna, but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to make for lunch. So before we left the school, I asked the "kids" and we decided on hamburgers and deep-fried homemade french fries. I needed to make a quick trip to the store to pick up some buns and a couple other little things, but while in the store I thought as long as I have the deep-fryer going, maybe I should make some homemade cheese curds, too. Nika had never had cheese curds, and Casey was telling her she was missing out on something special.

Earlier in the week, my office had gone out for a birthday luncheon and we went downtown in Madison to a new restaurant that had opened up recently, Graze. The birthday boy got to pick the place and this is where he wanted to go. Tim had said he had heard they had the most amazing cheese curds and that once you had them, you would never want for them any other place. He was right!

So, after I had told this story to the kids, I felt my next task would be to compete with Graze’s version of cheese curds.

Once we got home we got the burgers started and I pulled out my beer batter recipe. I told Casey he was going to have to suck it up (since he doesn’t drink and never has), but he said it was okay, he could handle it being in just the batter! We cut up the potatoes into french fries, placed them in buttermilk and let them soak for a couple minutes. Next we gave them a quick rinse and patted them dry, then they were put into the deep fryer for their first dunk. Once they had begun to crisp up a little, we pulled them out and let them drain for a bit. Then they went back in to crisp up. Once the fries were done and the burgers were topped with cheese and had melted, we served them up and then onto the trial and error for the cheese curds.

We dunked the cheese curds in the batter and then dropped them into the deep fryer. These turned out good, but I was not totally satisfied. I needed to perfect this, so I saw another opportunity for my next food experiment.

The next night after everyone had left, I decided that I would give the leftover batter a swing with some onions. I love onion rings, but Bob (not being an onion fan) is not particularly fond of them. What he does not care for is a stringy onion, that when you bite into the onion ring the whole onion ring comes slithering out and sometimes, unfortunately even I have had this problem, you can end up slurping that onion ring whole which makes for a very uncomfortable swallowing experience. The original recipe I had did not call for any seasonings, which on the curds I felt it was something it needed. So now to find the perfect combination of seasonings for the batter. I added a little garlic powder and some pepper to the first batch. I used white onions and cut them into some what thin ringlets. I put them in the batter and then set the bowl into the refrigerator to somewhat harden the batter and set them on the rings. I kept them in the refrigerator for about an hour. This did prove to be a good idea, because the batter hung to the ringlets much more properly. When I deep fried them, they came out so tender that they actually melted in your mouth. Bob thought the same. But this batter still needed some perfection.

Last night, I decided to try the onion rings again, but this time I added another half cup of flour and then added some Cavender’s and garlic powder, along with some black pepper. Ummmm, much better. I even cut the onion slices a little larger and, walla, so much better. (One star for me). Bob thought the larger slices would be bothersome to him, but they weren’t. Ahhhhh! (Two stars for me!) After draining, I sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper, and yes, they were so, so much better.

Cooking is so much like life -- a little trial and error never hurts – in fact, it always makes things better.

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And here is my refined recipe:

Beer Batter

1 egg beaten
1 can of beer
1-3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2-3/4 T. Cavender’s Greek Seasoning

Beat the egg with a fork, then add the beer; next add the dry ingredients and whisk until throughly incorporated.