Smažený Sýr with Potato Salad

A vegetarian dinner that a cheese-loving child will treat as a reward is rare, and this is as reward-shaped as dinner gets: it is, essentially, a giant mozzarella stick on a plate. I want to learn how Czech cooks keep the cheese from leaking out of its crust (a cold slab, a thorough double-breading and a quick, hot fry seem to be the rules), and I want to make bramborový salát properly, since Czech families treat it with the seriousness Americans reserve for Thanksgiving stuffing. The whole thing costs under twenty dollars and the shopping list is almost entirely things already in the fridge.

• Edam cheese: Buy it in a block, not pre-sliced, so you can cut 1/2-inch slabs; the deli counter at most supermarkets will cut a piece of Edam or Gouda to order. Young Gouda, Havarti or a block of low-moisture mozzarella are fine substitutes; avoid aged, crumbly cheeses, which will not melt into a single soft layer.
• Fine dry breadcrumbs: Czech cooks use plain, fine crumbs (strouhanka), not panko. Supermarket "plain breadcrumbs" from the canister are right. Panko gives a craggier crust that leaks more easily.
• Pickles: Czech potato salad uses sweet-sour pickled cucumbers. Bread-and-butter pickles or a jar of Polish-style dill pickles with a little sugar in the dressing get close.
• Mayonnaise: Full-fat. The salad dressing is mayonnaise loosened with a spoon of mustard and some pickle brine.

1. Start the potato salad first so it has time to cool. Peel the potatoes and carrots, cut into 1/2-inch dice, and boil in salted water for 10–12 minutes until just tender; add the peas for the final 2 minutes. Drain well and spread on a tray to cool and dry for 10 minutes.
2. Finely dice the onion and the pickles. Hard-boil one egg (10 minutes), peel and chop it.
3. Whisk 1/2 cup mayonnaise with the mustard, the pickle brine, 1/2 teaspoon salt, a pinch of sugar and plenty of pepper. Fold in the cooled vegetables, onion, pickles and chopped egg. Taste for salt and sourness. Refrigerate.
4. Make the tartar sauce: stir 1/4 cup mayonnaise with 1 tablespoon finely chopped pickle, 1 teaspoon pickle brine, a squeeze of lemon and chopped parsley or chives.
5. Cut the cheese into 3 slabs about 1/2 inch thick and roughly palm-sized (cut a smaller fourth slab for a child-size portion if you like). Keep it cold until breading.
6. Set up three bowls: flour; the remaining 2 eggs beaten with a tablespoon of water and a pinch of salt; breadcrumbs. Bread each slab: flour, egg, crumbs, then egg and crumbs a second time, pressing the crumbs firmly onto every edge and corner. The double coat is what keeps the cheese inside. Chill the breaded slabs 10 minutes if you have time.

1. Heat the oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until a crumb dropped in sizzles immediately (about 350°F). The oil should be about 1/4 inch deep.
2. Lay in the cheese slabs without crowding. Fry 2–3 minutes per side, until deep golden and crisp; turn once, carefully, with a spatula and tongs. If the cheese starts to bulge at a seam, it is done: lift it out.
3. Drain for a minute on a paper towel. Fry a second batch if needed.
4. Cut the lemon into wedges and take the potato salad out of the refrigerator.

Put a cheese slab on each plate, cut it in half so the melted center shows, and add a generous scoop of potato salad and a spoonful of tartar sauce; a lemon wedge over the cheese is a Czech pub touch. Everything here is mild, so the only adjustment for a child is likely to be picking the onion out of the salad; I'll make my son's scoop from a corner I left onion-light. Leftover cheese does not reheat gracefully, so fry only what will be eaten; leftover potato salad keeps three days and is, by Czech consensus, better the next day.