Text 10351, 135 rader
Skriven 2011-05-04 10:00:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av HAP NEWSOM
Ärende: horizons 290
====================
 -> Though gin has its place.
 HN> Yes, I like gin! When I was single
 HN> and in Hawaii, I kept Gin, Scotch,
 HN> and 151 rum in the freezer...along
 HN> with ice...don't think I EVER had 
 HN> food in that freezer!! (grin)

Nor much in the fridge, I reckon.

 -> Wild Turkey has its place, too.
 HN> And it often put me in MY place!

Had some Kweichow Moutai the other day, and it had an
effect on me that no booze ever has before - knocked me
right on my ear, it did, and I passed out for 2 hours
and was woozy for a long time after that, with the taste
of the stuff coming and going both in my mouth and from
my skin pores until yesterday. It was distressing enough
that I went on the Web and looked for "moutai disorientation"
- didn't find anything but discovered that what I had was
likely counterfeit, made out of heaven knows what, maybe
methanol and I'll go blind. I had only a couple ounces.

 -> South Philly sling
 -> Horizons, Philadelphia
 HN> Ok...that's just WRONG in SO many ways!!

Just trying to expand your horizons, is all.
South Philly in its essence is just wrong in so
many ways.

 HN> (BTW did you see that the M's
 HN> beat the sox 2out of 3?)

Not such a difficult feat this year it seems. But I
suppose the correct response is "shaddup, you!"

Malakoff - Swiss Deep-Fried Cheese Sticks
cat: starter
yield: 1 batch

300 g hard cheese*
1 bottle white wine (Swiss if you can find it)
2 eggs
150 g flour
Salt
Oil for deep-frying
A strong stomach

*The cheese you choose should have no holes, not break
easily but still melt properly. Here I used alpine meadow,
unpasteurized Etivaz-type Gruyere, that's the Bentley of
cheeses. But you can do this with other cheese types.

These deep-fried cheese sticks named after the taking of
Malakoff during the Crimean war are the most delicious
deep-fried calorie bomb I ever tried.

Regular readers of FXcuisine have enjoyed reading about
deep-fried calorie bombs, such as the Neapolitan Deep-Fried
Pizza and its Scottish cousin or the Deep-Fried Candy Bar.
Today let me have a dose of my own medicine and introduce
the malakoff, a specialty from my homeland, Switzerland.

This recipe is said to have been brought back by Swiss
soldiers who were drafted by the French in the Crimean War,
a military adventure in the fine tradition that later
fostered WW1 and the Iraq Debacle. The recipe commemorates
the taking of Malakoff in 1855 in the Ukraine. It is a very
typical recipe of the canton of Vaud on the Northern shores
of Lake Geneva.

Ask the cheesemonger to cut the cheese at least 0.5"/1.25cm
thick. Remove the crust and slice carefully in sticks of
equal size. Please note that this dish is sometimes prepared
with cheese slices to make a sort of deep-fried cheese
steak.

Put the cheese sticks in a plate and cover with the white
wine. Cover and let marinate for one hour at room
temperature.

Meanwhile, prepare the batter by mixing 150 g flour with
2 dl/200 g white wine.

Whip until no flour lumps are visible and you have a smooth
but thick batter. Add flour if the batter is too runny - we
want it to stick to the cheese.

Cover and let it rest for one hour.

Beat stiffly 2 egg whites and incorporate delicately to the
batter once it's rested.

Discard the wine used to marinate the cheese sticks and pat
them dry. Roll them in flour until the sticks are no longer
sticky. This is designed to let the batter better stick to
the sticks.

Heat your oil to 190C/375F.

With a pair of kitchen pliers, dip a cheese stick in the
batter and gently drop it into the oil. Instant karma alert -
if you don't do it gently, the oil will spill and burn you.

Fry until golden brown, then remove to a huge pile of
kitchen towels to try and absorb as much of the frying oil
as possible. It is possible that your sticks stick to the
basket. In that case leave them until fried through, remove
the basket, let it drip and only them proceed to unstick the
fried sticks. Otherwise you'll just break the batter and
they'll fill with oil. Very nutritious but not hugely
healthy.

Serve as an appetizer, with a salad or a soup. They are
really delicious, with the cheese gently melted inside and
perfumed with the tart white wine flavor, all in a crispy
white wine batter. Maybe you could organize a
malakoff-eating contest to see who can eat most?

I've never seen this dish in any restaurant but most Swiss
mistake the malakoff with the more common Beignet de Vinzel,
a cheese fritter on a slice of bread. Many restaurants put
"Malakoff" on the menu but serve beignet de Vinzel and
you'll have a hard time convincing a Swiss that they've been
calling it incorrectly for their whole life. But if one ends
up being the only one to speak correctly, it is probably
time to move on and adopt the common usance. But what would
we call the malakoff then, if that word is used to speak of
the beignet de Vinzel?

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