About 7 or 8 years ago I went to Poland to do a training for nails with one of the world champion Nail Techs. We’d never been to Poland so it was a good excuse to visit a new country. We were pleasantly surprised by the prices of everything, it was so cheap!! For dinner on Valentines day we went to a nice restaurant and for less than $30 total, we had appetizers, drinks, main dishes and desserts. And it was delish! But that wasn’t our favorite thing we discovered when visiting Poland. It was goat cheese salad. We went to a dinner one night and I ordered it for an appetizer not really knowing what I would get, I don’t think I’d ever had goat cheese. But this salad came filled with all the regulars, plus some dried raisins or cranberries, grapes, nuts and these pretty little medallions of warm goat cheese and drizzled in balsamic. Jared and I were on cloud 9. The warm goat cheese paired with the sweetness of the balsamic was divine! We talked about it every night and almost went back a few more times before we left just for the salad.
From then on we were hooked. Anywhere in the world we went, we always looked for goat cheese salad. Sadly, its incredibly hard to find!! We have had terrific versions on the streets of Montmartre in Paris and this one shown here in Spit, Croatia, where they did their goat cheese in balls instead of medallions but it was still perfect.
Every now and again, Jared will want a food that we’ve had and asks me to make this. Thus was the quest this week for goat cheese salad. Luckily our local Costco carries packages of goat cheese, so that part was easy. But making it was a bit tricky. Goat cheese is similar to feta or mexican cheese in that it likes to crumble. But I scoured a few recipes and someone suggested pressing it into your medallions then freezing it after you bread it. So I gave that a shot and it worked! Now the frying in olive oil is a little tricky. The recipe talked about holding the sides so they can be fried but any squeeze of tongs and the cheese would just melt out. So I had to very carefully tease the medallions over with a fork to fry the other size. The result was exactly what we were hoping for! Warm, melty goat cheese on a bed of delicious produce making a perfect salad. I totally forgot to take a picture the night I made it but I was lucky that 1 medallion was left so I could make a lunch salad the next day. I put it in the air fryer to warm and crisp up a bit so its darker than it should be, but the taste was just as delightful. Next time you are in Europe (or anywhere!) and see goat cheese salad on the menu, try it. Yummmmm
