Culinarty

You must know at least one kid that declared a war against a healthy vegetable. Once he’s there, it takes hard work and sometimes years until he will include that vegetable in his meals again.

Yeap, I too was that kid. My enemy? The carrot. Even now I can’t eat plain raw carrots. However, I have nothing against boiled or sautéed carrots. A lot of parents around here try to trick their kids into eating carrots by telling them that carrots help them whistle. I had my share of that story. What kid doesn’t want to whistle? When grandma told me the big secret I wanted to make sure my sacrifice won’t be in vain. Since she ate carrots pretty often I asked her to whistle. But there was a problem my friends: grandma couldn’t whistle. I was deceived :(. Years later the story repeated itself with my little cousin, but this time I was only a spectator with a bitter-sweet smile on my face.

In time though, I became more interested in nutrition facts and I couldn’t ignore the carrot’s benefits. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very picky when the rabbits’ favourite comes into the picture, but I try to get my “recommended daily allowance” by including it in very tempting meals. The meatless cordon bleu serves my strategy well.

Ingredients for 7 pieces

• • 12 heaping Tbsp of lukewarm mashed potatoes (made out of baked potatoes; boiled potatoes won’t do because we want them to be as water-free as possible. When lukewarm mashed potatoes stick better)
• • 5 Tbsp of grated raw carrots
• • 7 Feta sticks (8 cm/ 3 inch long, 1 cm/ 0.4 inch thick)
• • 7 Emmentaler sticks (8 cm/ 3 inch long, 1 cm/ 0.4 inch thick)
• • 4 Gouda square slices (10×10 cm/ 4×4 inch)
• • 3 processed cheese square slices (10×10 cm/ 4×4 inch) – Cheddar flavoured
• • 2 Tbsp fresh parsley leaves – chopped
• • 1 egg
• • 100 ml/ 1/3 cup of milk
• • 75 g/ 3 heaping spoons all-purpose unbleached flour
• • 100 g/ 3.5 oz bread crumbs
• • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• • Salt – to taste
• • Fresh ground pepper mix (black, white, red and green) - to taste
• • Grape seed oil – for frying

Directions

Mix well mashed potatoes, grated carrots, parsley leaves and nutmeg. Taste the mixture and season with salt and pepper.

In a small mixing bowl mix together flour and egg. Gradually add in the milk stirring to blend into a smooth batter.

Now let’s make the cheese rolls. We’ll make 4 using Gouda and 3 using the processed cheese slices. Place 1 stick of Feta and 1 stick of Emmentaler on each Gouda/ processed cheese slice, then roll the slices. Prevent the roll from opening by keeping it close in your palm.

With your free hand start coating the rolls with the mashed potato mix. Keep coating until there are no more cheese spots showing through and the roll doesn’t open when you release it.

Dip each coated cheese roll into batter, then bread crumbs.

In a frying pan, heat 1.5 cm/ 0.6 inch deep grape seed oil to 180 C (360 F). Fry the coated cheese rolls on both sides, over medium-high heat.

Remove from heat and drain on kitchen towels to absorb the extra oil.

Serve immediately while the cheeses (except Feta) are still melted.

They are even better when served with a pickles salad.

Bon appétit :)!