Who says you shouldn't drink and fry?

So on Saturday night we had a few friends over for game night.  Unfortunately for our livers the game of choice quickly became beer pong.  For those of you unfamiliar with beer pong please refer to the bottom of the post*.

 So after umpteen games of beer pong it appears to be 3 in the morning and we are hungry for some gooey cheesy delivery pizza.  Apparently pizza delivery companies do not deliver at 3 in the morning.  So what is the appropriate alternative?  Deep fried string cheese of course! 


Amanda's Amazing Beer Pong Fried Cheese

Half a package of string cheese (or as many string cheeses that are left over in your fridge)
Panko bread crumbs
1-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons of corn starch
1/2 cup of milk
4 tablespoons of flour (just keep about a cup around I'm not really sure how much I used)
Paprika
kosher salk
Cooking oil (like canola)

Fill a medium sauce pan about half way with the cooking oil to about 400oF on a candy thermometer or until things really bubble when they get dropped in.

In a bowl whisk the cornstarch, 2 tbsp's of flour and  milk together.  Add more flour by the tablespoon until you get a batter thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, I would say a little runnier than pancake batter.  Add a a couple of dashes of paprika and a good pinch of kosher salt.  In another bowl combine the panko bread crumbs, the Italian seasoning and another good 1-2 pinches of kosher salt.

Unwrap the cheese sticks and cut them in half.  Dip the cheese first in the batter and then in the bread crumbs making sure to cover up as much of the cheese as you can.  Bare cheese will ooze out in the frier.  If the batter isnt thick enough to coat the cheese add a little more flour, if its too thick at a little more milk.  Once coated in the bread crumbs drop them into the oil.  Watch the first batch closely.  I typically only drop in 1-2 cheese sticks at a time to avoid them sticking together.  When they turn a golden brown color they are ready to be removed and drained on paper towels.  Don't let them set on the towels too long, sometimes the cheese will ooze out and stick to the paper which no one wants to eat.  Repeat with the rest of your cheese sticks.

Serve immediately with ketchup and runny ranch dressing.

Runny Ranch Dressing

My husband LOVES his ranch kinda runny like you get at restaurants thick enough to coat a french fry but not so thick to have stiff peaks.

1 Hidden Valley Ranch BUTTERMILK packet
2 cups of mayonaise
water

Mix the mayo and the ranch packet in a jar, attach the lid and shake.  Add small amounts of water until you get the consistancy he likes...serve with fried mozzerella sticks

Note: We used reduced fat mozzarella sticks and I think those work better because I think they are stringy-er.  And the reducded fat makes it .... less horrible for you?


*Beer pong is played on a folding table with ten red plastic cups lined up on each side of the table in triangle formations. 2-3 cans of cheap beer is distributed amongst the 10 cups (20 cups and 4-6 beer total for the table).  Each set of 10 cups belongs to a team of two , and each team member gets on shot per turn.  The object of the game is to throw a ping pong ball from yourside into your opponents cups.  The first team to clear the other teams cup wins!  The losers also have to drink the remaining cups on the winners side.  There are more rules and stratagies that I don't want to go into, sorry.