Snack: Spam, Pickles and Cream Cheese Bites

By TNTPayne

Recipe courtesy Pat McDonough and Jeremy Woerner, owners Blue Door Pub in St. Paul, MN

Ingredients

• Batter
• 1 1 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 5 5 large eggs
• 1 1 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• Breading
• 20 20 20 saltine crackers
• 4 4 4 cups kettle cooked potato chips
• Filling
• 1 1 1 can SPAM (Chopped)
• Handful Handful sliced pickles
• 2 2 2 pounds cream cheese
• All-purpose flour for hands
• Vegetable oil, for frying

Preparation

Step 1

Batter: Combine all of the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.

Breading: Pulse the crackers and potato chips in a food processor until finely ground. Transfer the mixture to a shallow bowl.

Filling: Cut the canned SPAM into chunks and put it into a food processor with the pickle slices. Pulse until the mixture becomes chunky. Do not overmix.

Roll pieces of the cream cheese into 1 1/2-ounce balls with floured hands to avoid sticking. Fatten each ball with the palm of your hand. Portion out the SPAM mixture to match the amount of cheese balls. Put a portion of the SPAM into the middle of a cheese ball and fold the cheese over the SPAM to enclose. Once you have a ball formed, dip it in the batter and then roll it in the cracker mixture. Repeat with the remaining cheese balls and SPAM.

Heat about 1-inch of vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Gently fry the bites, in batches, until golden brown. Remove them from the oil to a serving platter and enjoy!