Deep Fried Awesomeness: Mozzarella Sticks

I see you there, wanting me.

Don't try to resist.

::drool::

Mozzarella sticks are one of my {many} weaknesses. Growing up I would take the money I saved from babysitting and head to the Friendly's Restaurant in my town for their $3.49 Mozzarella sticks on a regular basis. So.freaking.good. This recipe is as close to them as you can get, in my opinion.

Mozzarella Sticks - Printable Version!
Ingredients:
12 cheese sticks (or cut up chunk mozzarella, if you prefer)
1/4 cup flour
2 eggs1 tablespoon milk
1 cup Italian Style bread crumbs
oil for frying

Ingredients

If deep frying, heat the oil in your deep fryer or pan to 365 degrees as you prepare the Mozzarella Sticks. Cut string cheese in half (or chunk mozzarella into about 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch rectangles). Whisk milk and eggs together in a bowl, and put flour on one plate and breadcrumbs on another.

Cheese and other ingredients ready to go!

Coat each stick in flour, then dip in the milk/egg mixture, and then roll in breadcrumbs. Then here is the secret - dip each stick (already covered in breadcrumbs) BACK in the egg/milk mixture, and in the breadcrumbs once more. This extra layer means that less cheese will escape while frying.

Coat well in each ingredient

Put the sticks in your fryer basket being careful to give them some space. I find that 7 sticks fit perfectly in my Cuisinart Mini Deep Fryer. Fry for about 1 minute, but check them around 45-50 seconds and take out if the cheese is escaping. OR if you pan fry, use about a cup of oil and cook for about a minute on each side. Drain on paper towels.

My deep fryer - aka my second lover

Ummm....yum? Enjoy with marinara or just shove them into the ol' pie hole plain, like I do ;)

Heavenly cheesy goodness

Since you need quite a bit of oil for this, I always recycle mine. I put a coffee filter inside a funnel in the opening of an empty vegetable oil container. The oil filters through (sans breadcrumbs and gunk) and you can use it again and again. My only exception is seafood - it smells too awful to save in that case ;)

Good news! I have added Printable Versions of my recipes to all of the recipes I have published (which isn't many...as I fail at cooking most of the time). If you're interested, here's what I've got:

Onion Rings

Easy Stuffed Shells

Apple Crisp

Cinnamon Twists

Mushroom Gnomes

Cheesy Chicken & Stuffing

Pregnancy craving: the best Onion Rings recipe ever

I get some pretty intense pregnancy cravings and usually nothing can make them go away until my belleh is full. A couple days ago was no different. Onion Rings popped into my head and I had to have them. There was no stopping me.

Amazing Onion Rings - Printable version!
Ingredients:
1 large onion
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 to 1 cup milk
1 cup bread crumbs
oil for frying

Ingredients: the metal canister is flour

Heat the oil in your deep fryer to 365 degrees as you prepare the onion rings. Cut the onion into 1/4 inch slices.

Slicing the onion

Separate the slices into rings.

Rings!

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Flour mixture

Dip the onion slices into the flour mixture until they are well coated, and then set them aside.

Coating with flour mixture

Whisk the egg and milk (slowly - you might not need a full cup) into the flour mixture until the batter is smooth, but don't let it get too drippy. You want it to be able to coat the rings well.

Egg and milk in flour mixture

Dip the floured rings into the batter to coat.

Coating rings with batter

Place the battered onion rings on a wire rack. I put my rack in the sink so all of the excess batter just drips into the sink. Makes for easy clean up.

Dripping off the excess batter

Spread the bread crumbs on a plate. I prefer to use unseasoned bread crumbs, but we only had Italian Style this time around. The onion rings will taste fine either way. When the batter has finished dripping, place rings in the bread crumbs and coat them well.

Getting all breaded up

Since the rings aren't sticky, you can pile them up in the deep fryer basket (like below). Fry for about 2 minutes, and voila! NOM.

Fryer time!

Enjoy. Hopefully you won't realize you ran out of ketchup right before finishing these, like I did. I dug through drawers for 10 minutes until I found 5 rather dilapidated looking packets of ketchup. I don't even want to know how old they were.

Perfection

This recipe makes a lot of onion rings. The picture above is one of about 6-7 batches. If you're pregnant and hungry (like me), it might only be one serving, though ;)

Since you need quite a bit of oil for this, I always recycle mine. I put a coffee filter inside a funnel in the opening of an empty vegetable oil container. The oil filters through (sans breadcrumbs and gunk) and you can use it again and again.

Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com

This is just the first of my pregnancy cravings recipes. Stay tuned: I will share my to-die-for Mozzarella Sticks and Oreo Truffle recipes in the near future.