Wednesday, September 2, 2009

my first souffle!

I recently saw "Julie and Julia", and like most people who saw the movie, I was totally inspired to cook French cuisine. I really want Julia's book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", the book that Julie cooked her way through and blogged about, buuuut i'm thinking its probably mostly meat, and what isn't meat is probably uber unhealthy. I found Julia's recipe for Hollandaise sauce and could NOT allow myself to prepare it. It was literally butter and eggs (not to mention runny eggs freak me out). So, from now on, I will use Isa Chandra Moskowitz's vegan Hollandaise sauce recipe, which can be found in her book, Vegan Brunch, and which also kicks ass.

Anyway, because I was so inspired by Julia, I found one of her recipes that I CAN allow myself to make, despite that its still pretty unhealthy. Cheese Souffle! I've heard souffles can be pretty temperamental, but i think mine turned out ok. It tasted great, even if it didn't puff as much as i wanted it too. As Julia would say, Bon Apetit!

Ingredients:
Finely grated parmesan cheese
1 cup whole milk
2 1/2 tbs unsalted butter
3 tbs flour
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
pinch nutmeg (it was a big pinch)
4 egg yolks
5 egg whites
1 cup cheese - I used this great Swiss that I found

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter or oil a 6 cup souffle dish and spread the parmesan cheese over the oil. This gives the souffle a nice flavorful crust.

2. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it is steaming. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large saucepan and whisk in the flour. Stir for a minute or so, until it starts to thicken, but don't let it brown. Add the milk and whisk a few more minutes. It will get to be the consistency of thick yogurt.

3. Remove from heat and whisk in the paprika, salt and nutmeg.

4. Add egg yolks 1 at a time, whisking after each one. (Tip: separate the eggs in a bowl, 1 at a time, and add each yolk and white into its own container. If you get any yolk at all in the white, that white is ruined.)

5. Let this sit while you prepare the egg whites. This is the base of the souffle and can be made ahead of time (2 hrs ahead). You want this to be room temperature when you are ready to combine the egg whites with it).

5. Using an electric mixer, mix egg whites until they are very frothy and form stiff peaks, but are not dry. If the whites are too dry, add another egg white and whisk a little longer, but don't let them dry again. Whites froth much better at room temperature. See the stiff peaks?

From Food pics


6. Mix about 1/4 of the egg whites with the souffle base. After this is mixed, gently fold in the rest of the whites. Be extremely gentle and do not over fold. At this time you can - slowly and carefully - fold in the cheese (or whatever else you wanted to put in it).

From Food pics


From Food pics


7. Pour mixture into prepared souffle dish. Add a tin foil collar around the dish, just in case you are lucky enough for your souffle to puff over the rim of the dish. Be sure to spread the collar with oil or butter to prevent sticking.

8. Place in the lower third of the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 375 degrees. It will bake for about 40-45 minutes, but check it after 35 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN BEFORE THEN!

Unfortunately we didn't take pictures of the finished souffle, but let me assure you, it was delicious!! Here is a picture of the unbaked souffle about to go in to the oven. The second picture shows the collar that can be added.

From Food pics


From Food pics

Monstera Deliciosa

I bought this fruit at the local co-op because I was going insane with curiosity about it. Its a fruit normally grown in Central America, and apparently has to peel itself on its own before it can be eaten. The scales will start to fall off starting at the stem end, and once the scales are gone, its ok to eat. Ours has already started shedding the scales - we'll take some pics at home tonight and I will post tomorrow!

From Food pics


From Food pics


and here it is when it starts to peel...

From Food pics