Breakfast here at The Inn on First, a luxury bed and breakfast inn in Napa, is a big deal. I really appreciated a recent guest review on TripAdvisor that stated that B&B really stood for "Best Breakfast". Thank you! Currently I am on breakfast 121: Cheese Fritters.It started with Fondue. I love breakfast Fondue: yes that is one of the 121 breakfast recipes (served with quail eggs, roasted potatoes, and roasted and buttered bread cubes- homemade bread, of course).
I was thinking about fondue and remembered how my brother Andrew loved fried cheese when he was a child. I wondered it I could create something similar, with a fritter, where the cheese would come oozing out as you cut it open and yet retain the crustiness of fried cheese that you get in a pan. After some experimentation with eggs and flour, I found what I wanted. I could use a small round of bread as the base, create a cheese paste mixture with gruyere, cheddar, and pepper jack cheese, egg and flour to be scooped on top, and then deep fried until everything was crusty on the outside and oozy, delicious on the inside.Next came the decision about what type of egg to serve: poached, fried, scrambled. Poached seemed like the obvious choice so that the yolk and whites could easily be mixed into the melted cheese on the plate.
I also wanted more flavor infused into the dish and so I added basil oil. I realized I can play with infused oils over the next few years and try a wide combination of cheese flavors with different oils.Lastly, I wanted something to finish off the dish. Homemade toasted bread to finish wiping up the cheese from the plate, and homemade jam to finish with any leftover toasted bread.
Thus, Cheese Fritters with Poached Eggs, Basil Oil, homemade toasted bread with homemade jam was created. This is going to be a delightful addition to my winter menu.
