Czech & Slovak Fried Cheese: Smažený Sýr/Vyprážaný Syr

In Czech it's "Smažený Sýr," pronounced kind of like "shmah-zhawny seer," and in Slovak as "Vyprážaný Syr," pronounced like "vee-prah-zhawny seer," they both simply mean "fried cheese." Typically they use Edam cheese in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. Edam cheese is a round-shaped, off white colored Dutch cheese, encased in red wax, but Edam is also made outside of the Netherlands. If you can't find Edam, you can use gouda, another cheese originally from the Netherlands, but also produced elsewhere, or in the U.S. you can even try Monterey Jack, an American cheese that is pretty much available in any supermarket. The thing is, these cheeses all have relatively low moisture, which is what you want. I hadn't bought Edam cheese for many years. It's not that I don't like it, but for whatever reason, it just wasn't on my mind, but when I went to buy it recently, I couldn't find it at cheese shops or at the supermarket. I don't know if this is because of the pandemic, which disrupted the suppy of some items, especially from outside the country, or if Edam has fallen in popularity (of course, it's possible that your local store will have it). Anyhow, I ended up buying it online. Gouda is readily available in cheese shops and supermarkets, and I actually bought some of it too, just to have it.    

Serve with french fries, Czech tartar sauce and don't forget a nice cold glass of beer. The Czechs have a good reputation for pilsner beer.

Ingredients (2 to 4 servings):

 

4 pieces of Edam, gouda or Monterey Jack cheese, cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick, 2 inches wide and 2 1/2 inches long

2/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup breadcrumbs (fine type)

oil for frying

 

Add enough neutral flavor oil to provide a quarter inch of oil in a skillet, then heat the oil over medium high heat (NOT just medium heat). Spread the flour out onto a plate, then beat the eggs in a separate shallow bowl/plate, then spread the breadcrumbs out onto another separate place. Roll a cheese slice in the flour to coat it, shake off excess, then dip the cheese slice into the beaten egg to coat it, then roll the cheese in the breadcrumbs to coat. I dip my cheese slices back into the egg and then back into the breadcrumbs to make sure they are well coated (no need for another dose of flour). Do the same with each cheese slice. Fry the cheese quickly over medium high heat, turning the cheese pieces to brown them on both sides. Frying the cheese quickly helps to prevent the cheese from running out (the double breadcrumb coating naturally helps too). Stay alert, because the frying does not take long, and if you blink twice, the breadcrumb coating may become too dark, or even burn. Not that I know anything about that ... Actually, the first time I fixed this recipe, I turned around to simply rinse a dish off in the sink, and when I turned back to the stove, the breadcrumbs were so dark and burned, they looked like I had doused them in soy sauce, which gave me an idea, but that's another story. 

 

For the Czech tartar sauce:

 

1 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon vinegar

1/4 cup sweet gherkins, finely chopped (you can use somewhat less, to your own preference)

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped or grated

1/4 teaspoon chopped dill

1/3 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, add all of the ingredients and stir well to mix. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour, but preferably for several hours. Stir the sauce before serving it.  

 

Fried cheese with fries, Czech tartar sauce and a glass of beer ...

WORD HISTORY:

Howitzer-This word is related to "heap" (both noun and verb), which are from the Germanic roots of English. "Howitzer" goes back to Indo European "k(h)oup," which had the notion of "raised surface;" thus, "hill." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "houpaz/haupaz," which "seems" to have reduced the meaning from "hill" to the lesser "pile or stack of something," although the reduced meaning may have first come in the West Germanic branch of Germanic. This gave Old High German "hufo" (heap), which then became "hufe (heap) (this also was used in the sense "group/band/crowd"). This was borrowed by Czech (often called "Old Czech" for the time period until the early 1500s) as "houf," which meant "heap, crowd, flock," and this gave Czech the noun "houfnice," initially a "catapult," seemingly from the trajectory (an arc) of the objects hurled by the device. German borrowed the word from Czech during the Hussite Wars (wars within Christianity in Bohemia, but before Christian "protesters against the Church" took the name "Protestants") for a "catapult" in the 1400s, apparently initially in German as "huffnitze," but also as an occasional name for some small Czech cannons. As artillery became more common, the name shifted to the shell-firing mortar-type gun that can be used to fire indirectly upon targets; that is, upon targets that cannot be seen by the gunners, as the shells are fired over all types of visual obstructions, and in German the term became "Haubitze," which was then borrowed by Dutch as "houwitser," and this was borrowed by English, initially as "hauwitser," in the latter part of the 1600s.