Cheese and a Beer all in one !

I remember when I was young going to my grandma's birthday party wearing a badly fitting shirt accompanied by a Scooby Doo tie which had an elastic neck collar to keep it in place. Their I was all shiny and clean looking a bit sharp girls if I say so myself.
The only thing I wanted to pull though was the tablecloth that the buffet was sitting on in order to get the cubes of cheese and pineapple sticks that were finished with a little cocktail sausage closer to my peering eyes over the table. OOO baby...!
Since then my love affair with cheese has been sometimes soft and creamy and on other occasions hard and a bit smelly if I'm honest ! ha ha !
As I got older I discovered an occasional new lover to court. Its name was beer ! Once a week we would go out and have a fun time together snogging in public, treating ourselves to a lavish late night feast from the high streets finest takeaway emporiums. It was a fiery affair though with the resulting morning never wanting to see each other again, well at least for another week.
Anyway I have gone off on one a bit their and basically I have found a way of combing beer with cheese.

Kev's tasty beer batter bites.
Nettle Cheese and Black Sheep Ale Fritters.


You can use any cheese for this dish but on this occasion I used the Northumberland Nettle Cheese which is a pasteurised cows milk cheese with real nettles in it. I did not know you could get fake nettles but that's what it said on the package.

Make your batter, empty a large cup of plain flour into a mixing bowl. Put a big splash of vinegar into the bowl and then add a teaspoon of baking powder. I used a Yorkshire bitter beer called Black Sheep which we have on tap in the hotel but it is widely available in most supermarkets but you can be creative. Pour the beer slowly into the flour mix and whisk until you have the consistency of a batter. I like mine thick mainly because it usually means their is a little left over of the beer for me to swig !
I slice the cheese and then for presentation I use a small round cutter to get a nice disc shaped bit of cheese.
Coat your cheese in flour so the batter sticks to the cheese then dip it into the batter. Unfortunately their is no clean way of getting it out of the batter and into your 160 degree c fryer oil so just get messy !
Drop them into the fryers basket and then carefully shake the basket. The fritters should just rise to the surface. Cook for about a minute then with a slotted spoon turn them over. Cook until golden and then lay them out on some kitchen paper to soak up the oil.
These really do take only few minutes to cook. If you overcook them they will burst and fill your fryer with melted cheese and that's a cleaning nightmare you do not want.
Serve with ketchup or Mayonnaise or Chilli jam and of course a pint of beer ! Absolutely delicious. Enjoy.