This is the famous cheese soup of the Engadine and little known in this country. One of its seasonings is nutmeg and until one has used it in cheese dishes, it is hard to describe how perfectly it gives that extra something. The recipe, as given, is for each plate, but there is no reason why the old-fashioned tureen could not be used and the quantities simply increased.
Put a slice of stale French bread, toasted or not, into a soup plate and cover it with 4 tablespoons of grated or shredded Swiss cheese. Place another slice of bread on top of this and pour over it some boiling milk. Cover the plate and let it stand for several minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Serve topped with browned, hot butter. Use whole nutmeg and grate it freshly.
½ pound mellow Roquefort
¼ pound sweet butter, softened
A dash cayenne
¾ cup champagne
With a silver fork mix cheese and butter to a smooth paste, moistening with champagne as you go along, using a little more or less champagne according to consistency desired. Serve with the demitasse and cognac, offering, besides crackers, gilt gingerbread in the style of Holland Dutch cheese tasters, or just plain bread.
YIELD: 2 servings. 235 calories per serving.
½ pound farmer cheese
2 eggs
1 level tablespoon powdered milk
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon gelatin or agar powder
4 egg tomatoes, quartered, or
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
½ head lettuce and/or 1 cucumber
¼ cup wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Fill bottom of double boiler with water to ¾ mark. Sprinkle salt in upper part of double boiler. Boil over medium flame. When upper part is hot, put in cheese, powdered milk, baking powder, gelatin, caraway seeds and pepper and garlic powder to taste. Mix. Break eggs into this mixture, cook over low flame, continually stirring. Add tomatoes when mixture bubbles and continue cooking and stirring until tomatoes have been cooked soft. Remove to lettuce and/or cucumber (sliced thin) which has been slightly marinated in wine vinegar and sprinkle the parsley flakes over the top of the mixture.