I’d bet you all never even thought of making coin prata at home, right? You are probably intimidated by the idea of having to flip your own prata dough in order to make these delicious little snacks! Well, I have just the hack you need! In this recipe, we will be using spring roll skins to make the coin pratas! Are they good? Well, you’d be surprised! They turn out to be even crispier than the real thing and when you fill them with some cheese, they quickly become the talk of the party!
In case you want the challenge, you can check out my Roti Prata recipe where I will even show you how to do the Prata flip!
Now, this is more of an idea than a recipe per se. All you need to do is to take the spring roll skin, oil the tabletop with some ghee, butter, margarine or oil, fill it with cheese and roll it up! You can serve it plain or with a bit of honey or even curry!
Links to purchase cheeses shown:
Now, let’s talk about the cheese!
If you walk down the supermarket aisle, you’d probably come across the cheese section which seems to be growing exponentially over the years. When I was growing up, there was only one type of cheese and it came wrapped in aluminum foil in a blue box! Nowadays we are spoilt for choice!
Today I want to throw the spotlight on Cheeses from the USA. You may have already seen them on the supermarket shelves but perhaps it never occurred to you that they came from the USA. I haven’t actually looked at USA cheeses until quite recently and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of some of the brands! It might surprise you to learn that it was a USA cheese, the Rogue River Blue, that won the coveted title of World’s Best Cheese in 2019! So, if you are like me and have always thought of American Cheese as the orangey stuff that is put on hamburgers, then perhaps it’s time to take second look!
The USA is actually the largest cheese producer in the world and make a diverse range of cheeses. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise since the US is a vast country with a history deeply rooted in immigration and multiculturalism. From the melting pot of diverse cultures comes a legacy of hundreds of years of cheese making experience infused with the innovative spirit of the new world.
USA cheesemakers make more than 600 cheese types ranging from fresh and soft cheeses to hard and aged varieties. Some cheeses like U.S. Monterey Jack and U.S. Colby actually have their origins in the USA. In this recipe, I used the U.S. Colby Jack cheese which is a combination of two. These are mild and creamy cheeses which melt nicely and can be used as “everyday” cheeses for sandwiches and to top baked dishes like gratins and lasagna. I especially like the U.S. Colby Jack because of the lovely variegated colour that it adds to baked dishes.
There are also many artisan cheeses coming out of the US, like the Point Reyes Original Blue that I used in the recipe. This is a farmstead cheese, meaning that cheese was made on the farm itself, using milk produced on the premises. This blue cheese has won many awards and it is not difficult to understand why. It is creamy and wonderfully umami without being too pungent. If you have found blue cheeses a little off-putting in the past, this one might just change your mind about the blues. This cheese is available at selected Cold Storage and MarketPlace.
Some of the other brands that I have highlighted are Tillamook and Organic Valley. Both of these are dairy co-ops which mean that they are owned by groups of farmers which have banded together to preserve the culture of the family farm which was under threat from industrialization. The dairy cattle in these farms look quite well taken care of and happy cows should produce better milk which in turn make for better cheese!
Check out other USA Cheese Recipes
Conclusion
Hope you enjoy the recipe and do have a look out for USA Cheeses the next time you are at the bewildering cheese section of the supermarket!
Disclosure: this post is written in collaboration with @USACheeseGuildSG
#USACheeseGuild #USACheeseLovers #CheeseFromTheUSA
