Fried goat cheese with asparagus, pears, and honey
I can't over-emphasize how good this is!
Fried goat cheese with asparagus, pears, and honey
Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: 3/5 | Recommendation: Weeknight dinner
This recipe came about when I knew I really wanted to fry some goat cheese for myself (because the cheese wasn’t going to last many days longer on its own), but didn’t know what to pair the cheese with. I ended up staring at my fridge and deciding to add asparagus, and just for fun, I added half of a pear I randomly bought, too. As I was going, I grabbed whatever looked good from the pantry, and at the end drizzled honey over the whole thing. It was SO GOOD! Honey and goat cheese are just a match made in heaven, but the addition of crunchy green asparagus and the fruity pear (not too ripe, so it retained some crunchiness too) made the whole thing feel like some decadent restaurant meal. When in reality, it was all whipped up in one pan! (PS. save the fried goat cheese part of this recipe for later, it truly goes with anything and it’s a joy to make.)
Ingredients:
A handful of asparagus
Half a pear
Goat cheese (I used garlicky goat cheese from Ardith Mae)
1 garlic clove
Herbes de Provence
Mango vinegar (or rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, or any other vinegar you have on hand)
Chili flakes
Honey
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Butter
Vegetable oil
Panko breadcrumbs
1 egg
Method:
Prepare the goat cheese: Pour some Panko breadcrumbs into a small bowl, and whisk an egg in another bowl. Get a freezer-safe plate for the goat cheese.
To prep one goat cheese coin, spoon out a clump of goat cheese, and roll it lightly into a ball with your hands. Squeeze it down so it creates a big coin shape. Dip it in the egg, then coat well with the breadcrumbs and set it on the plate. Repeat three more times. Put the plate of cheese in the freezer while you prep the other ingredients.
Snap the woody, fat ends off the asparagus (bend the stalks with your hands and let them tell you where they want to snap off!), and slice the pear into 1/2-inch strips. Roughly chop the garlic.
To a skillet, add olive oil, a pat of butter, and the garlic. When the butter is melted and the garlic is starting to sizzle, add in the asparagus. Let them sit until the bottoms are starting to brown, then move them around so all the sides get just lightly browned. Turn off the heat and add salt, pepper, lemon juice, and mango vinegar.
Add the asparagus to a wide bowl, and add the pears on top. Add the chili flakes, herbes de Provence, and some more vinegar.
Wipe out the skillet. Add about a half inch of vegetable oil and heat it. Test the heat of the oil by dropping a breadcrumb in—if it sizzles, you are good to go! Add in the goat cheese coins and fry until golden brown, a couple minutes on both sides. Drain briefly on a paper towel.
Add the goat cheese to the bowl, and drizzle honey liberally over the whole thing!