Creamy Cheese Fritters With Thyme Food

CREAMY CHEESE FRITTERS WITH THYME

Steps:

• Using a 3-inch ring cutter, cut one round from the center of each slice of bread. In a bowl, mix grated cheese, flour, nutmeg, minced garlic, lightly beaten eggs, salt, and pepper. Slowly add the wine and chopped thyme. Stir until thick paste forms. Place a dollop of the cheese mixture on each bread round. Using wet hands, mold the mixture into smooth high mounds. Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and fry the Malakoff until golden brown. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce and a bottle of rich white wine.

ZUCCHINI FRITTERS WITH THYME AND CHEESE

Steps:

• First make sure the zucchini is grated, mix some salt with the zucchini and let it drain for a while (the zucchini should still feel moist, but should not be dripping). You can give the zucchini a bit of a squeeze when you're ready to add it to the batter to be sure it's not still too moist.
• At this time you may want to put a serving dish for the fritters in the oven to preheat it (set the oven to a low setting). (The fritters can cool quite rapidly and are nicest when warm.).
• Separate the eggs and whisk the three egg whites in a large bowl until they're "loose" and slightly fluffy. Sift in the self-raising flour until it is well combined with eggs.
• Add the milk and stir until the batter is smooth. The batter should be fluid enough to allow pouring, but not runny. You should be able to take a spoonful and let it flow from the spoon.
• Add the cheese and zucchini (squeeze it a bit to make sure it's not too moist) and stir until they are well combined with the batter (the batter should keep more or less the same consistency).
• Finally add the thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and combine them well with the batter.
• Now put an anti-stick pan (with a bit of oil if you like, but it's not necessary) over medium heat, put the batter next to the pan, put a tablespoon in the batter, have a (non-metal) spatula/turner nearby, turn off the oven and make sure you have the serving dish ready to take the finished fritters (cover it with aluminium foil to keep them warm, you could probably also leave the dish in the warm oven).
• Take a large spoonful of the batter and deposit it in the pan (it should spread a bit, but not much, it should be about 5 cm in diameter and about 1 cm high). Continue depositing batter in the pan (taking care that you leave enough room around each fritter) until there is no longer sufficient room left to "manouver".
• Once the fritters can easily be moved in the pan (should happen reasonably soon), start turning the fritters occasionally until they are golden brown on both sides (shouldn't take very long, perhaps a minute or two per batch). Then put them in the serving dish (take care to cover with aluminium foil or to leave it in the warm oven) and continue with the next batch until you run out of batter.