Contact

Olivier@Duhamel.bz

B L O G
 

15 October 2006-  The soufflé au fromage.
 

This is a detailed recipe for the "soufflé au fromage" (literally: Puffed up cheese). This is for four people.
The first thing you need to make a good soufflé au fromage is about 45 minutes. Then you also need:

HARDWARE:
- a BPU ( Baking Process Unit or oven).
- A soufflé peripheral ( I don’t know what that is, If you don’t have one, any dish that's about 2 to 3 inches deep, slightly more than half a foot wide and goes to the oven will do)
- A bowl, large and deep.
- 2 cups
- A saucepan.
- A wooden spoon.
- A fork or ideally an egg mixer with all the network connections

SOFTWARE:
- 3 fresh eggs.
- a handful of finely grated gruyere (75 grams), Cheddar will do just fine, the older the better.
- About 3 spoonful of butter (30 grams). Some use margarine, but it is not the same without butter!
- A pinch of salt, another of pepper.
- A bottle of wine ( red or white ).
- 4 spoonful of flour (30 grams)
- Half a cup of milk ( 1/4 Litre)

First, break the eggs and separate the yolks into the first cup, the white into the bowl. So far, so good.

Things get slightly more difficult.

You now have to make a thick " béchamel sauce ". This is also called a white sauce of which a good description can be found in the Edmond’ s Sure To Rise cookery book. On a low heat, melt most of the butter in the saucepan. Set aside a small nut of butter for later use. When the butter has melted, add all of the flour and mix it with the wooden spoon for a few seconds until a smooth mix is obtained. Gradually add some milk and continue to stir without stopping until all the milk is incorporated into the mix. If you stop stirring, the sauce will quickly stick. With your third hand, add salt and pepper. The end result must be quite smooth. Remove from the stove and cover with a lid.

You can now pour yourself a glass of wine in the second cup and take a short break. Turn on the oven on a medium heat. First make sure the oven is quite empty. ( Other people living in the house might use it to store various things that are not meant to be baked.) The next step is very important. Add a pinch of salt to the eggs whites and briskly beat them until quite white and quite stiff. If you use the fork this exertion can be long and tiresome. This is why I recommend the use of an egg mixer, mechanic or electric. The souffle will not puff properly if this step is not done to perfection. Congratulations ! you deserve a second cup of wine. Mix the yolks and grated cheese with the white sauce. The sauce should still be hot enough for the cheese to melt, but not so hot as to cook the yolks. This is why I recommended earlier that you take only a short break. Cautiously and gradually combine the eggs white to the béchamel in the saucepan. Use the wooden spoon as it presents less risk of breaking the white than a metal one with sharper edges. Grease the walls and bottom of your dish with the nut of butter that you left aside earlier. Pour the content of the saucepan into the dish. You should have spent no more than twenty minutes to reach this point, but it does not really matter if took you longer, this is only for planning purposes.

In theory you are now ready to put your soufflé in the oven for the final stage, In practice, just pour yourself another glass of wine and wait for you guests to arrive. This is because once baked, a soufflé must be served immediately. Should your guests run a bit late and your soufflé be ready early, it will deflate before you can serve it and all the visual effect will be lost. In cooking as in anything, first impression is vital. When ready put the dish in the oven and talk with your friends about the weather or some other light subject. Avoid asking them about their trip to Buenos Aires because you'll soon need to interrupt their account to go back to the kitchen and check on your soufflé. Some people may take offence of you not listening to their fables. Count on 20 to 25 minutes for your soufflé to start to puff up. If you do not have an oven with a glass window or if the window is, as it is often the case, so dirty that you cannot see through, you will need to open the door to have a peek, do this very carefully as a sudden change of temperature inside the oven may cause a soufflé which has just started to rise to deflate instantly which is not a happy sight. When the soufflé has finally reached nice proportion and the top has a nice golden color, wait another two minutes. Serve immediately and learn all about Buenos Aires.

I would suggest that the only two variable parameters be, firstly the kind of cheese you use, different cheese for different taste and secondly the kind of wine you drink for inspiration.

Comments
 

© Copyright Olivier Duhamel 2003-2009