Last Saturday L and I went into Duikelman to buy me a set of knives. Actually, to buy me 1 chef’s knife, which was my birthday present, however we ended up with a set of 3 knives. L is wonderful that way. He saw the glimmer in my eyes and me drooling and decided I should get the whole set. More on the set later though.

While walking around the store I saw about a million-and-a-half things I wanted to have, and then, there it was, the beautiful, old-fashioned French charlotte that had been on my wish list for quite some time.

I’d wanted a charlotte ever since I watched an old episode of Julia Child’s ‘The French Chef’ online. She adviced the charlotte as the perfect dish to make soufflés.

The timing couldn’t have been better, as the deadline for the Daring Cooks challenge was coming up and this month’s challenge was soufflé.

Sure I could’ve made it sooner and made it in two cocottes or something, but hey, sometimes you’re lucky, Murphy can be on your side and in this very instance my procrastination lead to me being able to bake my soufflé in the beloved charlotte. I love it!

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

Following Dave and Linda’s suggestions I adapted one of their recipes to my own needs (and to the stuff I happened to have laying around and sounded good in a souffle. I ended up with a cheese and scallion soufflé. And my-o-my, was it good or what?!

Next time I make it, I’ll tweak the recipe some more, using Julia Child’s tips. And when I’m not making a huge batch, I will omit the collar I put around the charlotte, so I can actually see what’s going on. Oh, and we’ll have a camera set-up so we’ll be able to time lapse it. But other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing, as it was Just That Awesome!

As a final note, I’d like to add, soufflés aren’t as scary as they sound. Even if you remove them a little too early (which I did) you can still put them back and they’ll rise back up again, at least to a size that’s okay to show off. Oh, and when using the convection setting on your oven (which was a must in the oven I used) lower the temperature a bit to prevent running the risk of it over-browning (which was why I tried to remove it too early).

All in all this challenge proved a huge succes. L told me I should make this more often, which I definitely will!

 

[print_this]Cheese and scallion soufflé (recipe makes 1 medium sized one)

• 20 grams of butter
• 20 grams of AP flour
• 160 ml milk
• salt, pepper, nutmeg and hot sauce to taste
• 3 eggs, separated
• 2 small scallions
• about 70-75 grams of grated cheese (I used emmenthal)
• 1/4 tsp (heaping) cream of tartar
• butter and tin foil as necessary

Prepare your dish and collar by buttering them generously. Sprinkle some grated cheese (a tiny bit) on the bottom and sides of the dish.

In a small saucepan melt your butter and add the flour. Stir together and let it cook about 2 minutes to lose the flour-y taste. Heat up your milk in the microwave. Take saucepan off the stove, pour the hot milk in, all at once and whisk vigorously until you’ve got a thick white sauce. If it doesn’t thicken up much, place it on the heat again for a little bit while whisking. You probably won’t need that though! Add salt, pepper a tiny bit of nutmeg and a drop or 2 of tabasco or other hot sauce if so desired.
Once the sauce has cooled down a little bit (make sure it doesn’t form a ‘crust’ by  whisking occasionally), add the 3 egg yolks to the sauce and stir them in completely. Chop the scallions into thin half rings and mix them in with the white sauce.

Beat your egg whites in a very clean bowl (it’s best when the egg whites are room temperature), once they start to foam a little, add the cream of tartar and a pinch of salt. Beat them until they form stiff peaks, but still have their ‘velvety’ sheen. Stir a good spoonful of the egg whites into the now severely cooled down white/egg yolk sauce, then transfer all the sauce mix into the side (emptied/pushed aside) of the egg white bowl. Fold the whites into the sauce, while adding in the grated cheese a bit at a time (save a heaping tablespoon of cheese to sprinkle on top). Fold quickly, gently, but thoroughly!

Pour the mixture into your baking dish and (if desired) place your buttered collar around the dish. Place the souffle in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees celsius on a regular setting, probably about 160-165 at convection) for about 40 minutes. Check after 30-35 minutes (not before 25 minutes) and sprinkle cheese on top, then keep an eye on it to make sure it’s fully cooked and not burned before you remove it from the oven.
You can test your soufflé like you’d test a cake, with a skewer to see if the filling is still wet.

Serve your souffle with a nice green salad as a main dish, or separately as a starter. If you bake it in individual small dishes like cocottes, reduce the baking time by a lot! (25 minutes or so?!??!)

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