Super Easy, Super Yummy Baked Mozzarella Cheese & Red Onion Rounds

Hi Honeys
It's still raining down outside and I'm beyond fed up of waiting for Spring.  So yesterday, equally fed up with the constant rainy, miserable weather, I decided I'd ignore the nasty grey skies outside, make a huge crunchy green salad (yumm!) and pretend to myself the sun is shining and Mother Nature has come to her senses :)

Having decided on salad I went in search of a salad buddy... something I can make to serve with the salad and then I saw the mozzarella in the freezer and bingo! An idea was born :)

Poor Hubby has the patience of a saint :) He never knows when he'll come home to one of my kitchen experiments and he never complains :) What can I say, I love to experiment, I love to try new ingredient or recipe combinations to see what happens, it's fun :)

So, yesterday when I saw the mozzarella in the freezer.... in the freezer you ask? What are you? Some kind of nut?  Who keeps mozzarella in the freezer?  You can see why here honeys :)

What could I make with grated mozzarella that might be yummy with a lovely, crunchy green salad? Before I knew it, this had happened....

Mozzarella & Red Onion Baked Rounds

Ingredients

4 or 5 medium sized potatoes
1 ball of mozzarella (frozen)
I red onion, finely chopped

plain flour to roll out/shape mashed potato
1 egg
breadcrumbs

Directions

1. Peel the potatoes and place into a pot of cold water.  Place onto the stove and bring to the boil. Cook until tender - approximately 18 to 20 minutes.  Remove from the stove, carefully drain the water.

2. While the potatoes are cooking, grate your mozzarella and finely chop your red onion.

3. Mash the still warm potatoes.  Everyone has their own way to mash potatoes I've been told honeys.  I'm rather proud of my fluffy mash :) I make mine by adding a little butter and then a couple of splashes of milk and beat with a wooden spoon (although I've been known to use my little electric hand mixer on more ouchy days)

4. Add your grated mozzarella cheese and finely chopped red onion to the fluffy mashed potato and mix through until all combined...

5. Lightly flour your work surface.  scoop out a couple of spoonfuls of your potato, cheese & onion mixture and dust with your plain flour. Form into rounds, if you'd like to you could use a cookie cutter :)

6.  In a small bowl lightly beat one egg.  Into another bowl place some breadcrumbs.  I used a box of the breadcrumbs used to coat chicken or fish before cooking.

This is where it gets a bit icky, but hey I was already wearing vinyl gloves (I can't do icky hands.. shudder!) If you were to try to coat your potato rounds in egg by dunking them they'd basically fall apart so instead, holding your potato round or patty in one hand, use a pastry brush to brush the egg onto one side of the round, then pick up a handful of your breadcrumbs and scatter them over the round (holding it over the breadcrumb bowl to catch escapee breadcrumbs.)

Turn the now coated round over and repeat on the other side.  When the whole round is coated in breadcrumbs, gently place it onto an oiled baking tray.  I made six rounds, enough for dinner and for Hubby to take a couple of work for his lunch with some of that lovely crunchy salad :)

7.  Having made six rounds I had about half of my potato, cheese and onion mixture left.  So this mixture would easily make around twelve rounds or enough for four to six people if you wanted to honeys.  The leftover mixture went into a sealed container and into the freezer, it will be lovely served as is, a yummy cheesey potato mash or maybe the filling for cheese & onion pasties?
   

I love to freeze mashed potato!  It's such a help on busy days (or pain filled days) because 8-10 minutes in the microwave and you have perfect fluffy mash again.  Since potatoes appear to start sprouting on the way home from the supermarket these days (has anyone else noticed how quickly food goes "off" these days?) I can cook a whole large bag of potatoes, use some for dinner that night and freeze the rest :)

I've also frozen potatoes without mashing them, allowed to mostly defrost and then roasted them in the oven, adding them to a roast joint of meat for the last 20-25 minutes.. yum!  Back to our baked rounds then :)  

8.  Pre-heat your oven to 180C (360F) or 160C (320F) for a fan oven.  Place your baking tray on the middle shelf and bake for 10-12 minutes until the rounds are golden brown.



These were delicious honeys :)  Hubby liked them too (thank you sweetheart x) and agreed with me that next time I made them (next time! Isn't he wonderful? bless him, he doesn't just put up with my kitchen experiments he actually encourages them :) Hubby agreed I should try a stronger cheese?

Maybe a red Leicester or an extra mature cheddar.   What do you think honeys?  If you don't like red onions you could always substitute your favourite alternative.  What about using Spring onions (scallions for our USA cousins or sybies in Scotland.)  

I hope you're having a fabulous week honeys, and that you're having better weather than we are here.  Till next time dear ones, stay warm, have fun, and hug a whole lot :) Huggles always xxx