One of my most favorite events in the Midwest is the Minnesota State Fair. Where else can you get all of your favorite foods on a stick - or deep-fried? No where else.  Let's not forget the excellent 4-Her's who work their butts of exhibiting their animals - or the All-You-Can-Drink Milk Stand.  I'm getting carried away, back to the point.

One of my best friends challenged me to make deep-fried cheese curds with Grafton cheddar curds. The curds turned out fabulous. The dough was just slightly cakey, but we loved them nonetheless. I found the original recipe on AllRecipes, but read a comment posted by a lady that works in the cheese curd stands at the Minnesota State Fair. I knew she had to be legit.  So, I followed some of her guidelines and I think it made a huge difference.

Apparently a lot of people have a hard time getting the dough to stick. The State Fair lady advised to dust the 'room temperature' curds w/ a little bit of flour. This allows the dough to adhere to something other than the curds. A challenge I had was that the curds are so small compared to what I'm used to. So I ended up clumping a bunch together after a while, just to get rid of them. I kind of wish we had some people over to eat these - there's no way two people can finish them without feeling nasty afterwards... but we'll take our chances.

Another tip is to use beer, not milk. Now - if you know me at all, you'll know that this is a tough decision. How can you not use milk? It's the most essential thing to one's nutritional existence! But then again, how can you not use beer. In Heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here. My husband likes to remind me of that.  So, I came to the conclusion that - there's already cheese involved, so I'm going to use the beer. End of story.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt (I would recommend a little more)

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 c. beer (add more if batter seems too thick, then finish off the can yourself)

1 pound curds

1 quart oil for frying

A few more tips: make sure the fryer is at 375*F or it simply won't be hot enough. Let the curds fry just to the point where they might start leaking. Ours weren't crispy enough.

Thank you Minnesota State Fair for allowing me to love the deep-fried cheese curd.

Thank you to my friend Lana who asked me to make these. I'll make them for you when you come visit next.