Who does not love a a fried hybrid? A frybrid, if you’ll! This one is of two of my favourite mozzarella-based appetizers: caprese salad and mozzarella sticks. The consequence are what I am calling “Fried Caprese Balls”: mozzarella-filled mini-tomatoes which can be breaded, fried, and served with loads of basil and balsamic discount.
Step one to an ideal caprese salad is discovering the precise tomatoes, and the identical will be stated for its fried cousin. However whereas I often search for the largest, juiciest tomatoes for contemporary caprese salads, I wished to make use of firmer, golf-ball-sized tomatoes right here as a substitute. They’re the proper measurement for particular person popper-size balls.
I makes use of an apple corer to hole out the facilities of the tomatoes, however a mini melon baller would additionally work. After scooping out the seeds, I gently push ciliegine (small 1/2-ounce balls of mozzarella) into every one, being cautious to not rip the tomatoes. At this level, they’re able to be coated.
I hold the skins on the tomatoes as a result of they assist maintain all the pieces collectively, however meaning they’re tougher to bread. The secret’s to dip them in flour first to present the egg and breadcrumbs one thing to stick to. A double-dip within the egg and breadcrumb then ensures that the tomatoes are absolutely lined and the breading is thick sufficient to maintain the mozzarella from oozing out throughout frying.
When fried, the tomatoes soften, breaking right down to a sauce-like texture in spots. Together with the melted cheese and breadcrumbs, all of it jogs my memory of what it might be wish to put heat marinara inside a mozzarella stick. In different phrases, it is superior.
For the sauce, I scale back a combination of balsamic vinegar and honey, which I then drizzle over the Caprese Balls earlier than serving. Simply ensure to attend till you are nearly to serve them to drizzle, lest they get soggy.
For a of entirety, I garnish every fried ball with just a little contemporary basil.
It is so damned good, I am already considering of what different tacky dish I can rework right into a fried snack…should not take me lengthy to come back again with a solution.
August 2018
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