Ingredients
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400 g Semi-salted Gruyère AOPyou can use Mild Gruyère Cheese or Goat cheese
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200 g Flour
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300 ml White Winepreferably “Chasselas” grape variety, can be replaced by a dry white wine
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150 ml Milk
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3 Eggs
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1 tbsp Oil
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Pepper
Directions
Malakoff de Vinzel or de Luins (counties of Canton de Vaud) is a famous meal in Switzerland and there are a lot of different stories about its creation.
Here is one version: in 1853, Napoleon III went to war against Russia, in what is now known as the Crimean War. As his army passed through Swiss villages, he hired mercenaries to reinforce his troops. Their first victory, after 14 months of fighting, was the capture of Fort Malakoff. At the end of the war in 1855, Swiss mercenaries returned home in their hundreds every day. Being hungry and needing something simple and sustaining to eat, they came up with the idea of frying balls of cheese, naming them after the captured fort.
Preparation:
- First, cut the cheese into sticks: for an appetizer, sticks of the size of a thumb will do, for a main dish, cut longer and wider sticks. Then marinate the sticks in the white wine for 2 to 3 hours.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff. In a bowl, mix the flour, 3 egg yolks, and the milk. Stir in the egg whites and season with pepper.
- Drain the cheese, coat them in flour, then dip them in the batter. Heat the oil to 180°C and dip the battered cheese sticks in the oil.
- When they are golden, take them out, drain them, pat them dry with kitchen paper, and serve hot with a green salad.
