A few years ago, back in 2015, I ate this Walliser Käseschnitte in a mountain hut near Zermatt in Switserland. You can translate this into English as a slice of bread with cheese. A dark brown slice of bread and cheese are indeed the protagonists for this recipe.
I wrote this article shortly after we came back from moutain hiking in 2015. But in 2020 an urgent update was needed. The recipe is still the same, but the images and the article really needed an update.
Walliser Käseschnitte
Ingredients
- 2 slices dark brown bread sourdough
- 1 dl white wine
- 2 dl cream
- 2 eggs
- 250 gram grated cheese Emmentaler
- 1 shallot
- 1 tomato
- 4 gherkins
- 4 pearl onions
- pepper
- salt
- nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 200°C and grease a mold with some butter.
- Cut two thick slices of the dark brown bread and put them in the greased mold.
- Separate the egg white and yolk. Beat the egg white until stiff.
- Chop the shallot finely.
- Mix the grated cheese with the egg yolk, cream, the shallot and the spices.
- Then gently add the beaten egg white so that you have a creamy mixture.
- Sprinkle the dark brown bread with the wine. Then pour the grated cheese mixture over the bread.
- Finish with some slices tomato, sliced gherkins and halved pearl onions.
- Put it in the oven and let it bake for 20 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown.
- Serve with a salad and a cool glas of white wine.
Nutrition
About Walliser Käseschnitte
As mentioned before, the best translation in English for “Käseschnitte” is a slice of bread with cheese, or a cheese sandwich. In Wallis they prepare and serve them in many different ways. Often you will have it as a sandwich with melted cheese and a fried egg on top. Like a bouncer. However for this article I choose this creamy variant. The main reason is that this is more or less the one I ate during our mountain hike.
This is also a perfect recipe to use some stale bread. It tastes at its best after a big hike, preferably in the mountains. After that you will have a good appetite and it is really no effort to make it.
About Wallis
geografy
Wallis/Valais is a canton in the south of Switzerland. It actually encompasses the entire Rhone Valley in Switzerland, from Lake Geneva to the Rhone Glacier of Gletsch. The western part, from Lake Geneva to Sierre, is French speaking. The French name for this canton is Valais. At Sierre/Siders, the language changes from French to German and the Rhone becomes Rotten. The Rhône/Rotten has its springs at the glacier in the east near Gletsch.
As Wallis/Valais is in fact also one big valley, it is no surprise that the name comes from the Latin word vallis. In Roman times, this area was known as Vallis Poenina. So you can actually say that Wallis/Valais is the great valley of Switzerland.
No valley without mountains. Here you will find, for example, the iconic Matterhorn near Zermatt and Mont Blanc on the border with France and Italy. And you have famous glaciers such as the Rhone / Rotten glacier and the Aletsch glacier. Unfortunately, both melt at lightning speed.
Wallis and I
In Wallis, I also discovered my love for mountain hiking. We used to go to Vercorin with my parents for many years on summer vacation. This is at the border of the French-speaking side, above Sierre. A few years ago, I was with friends on a mountain hut tour near Zermatt. The difference of 30 years was clearly visible in the pictures of the Aletsch glacier. Unfortunately 🙁
This big valley of Switserland has even more culinary delights to offer, apart from Walliser Käseschnitte. I remember a raclette on an Alpine meadow when I was on vacation with my parents. The special raclette cheese is melted near fire and then scraped off. With baguette and white wine ideal for a local folk festival. Cheese fondue with typical Swiss cheeses is also very well known. We had it regularly on the menu after a beautiful and difficult mountain hike. And I have already made rösti with a salmon burger.
I could write for hours about this beautiful region. But we are a food blog and not a tourism blog. However, do not hesitate to contact me for more information 🙂
If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.
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