Just for fun 😊
Soufflé is a luxurious creation, full of things that are guaranteed to pile on the pounds, but swimming in unctuous delight. It uses a simple mixture of egg whites, egg yolk and cheese sauce, although it can be elaborated, with some suggestions below. This is a recipe for one large soufflé, done in a 14cm, which does me as a main course with a side salad, with no need for a starter.
Whisked egg whites fill the souffle with air and give it the structure it needs to rise. An egg yolk is used in the cheese sauce. Egg yolks are miraculously good at reinventing the texture of sauces, and this gives the béchamel a luxurious silky quality. I use whatever cheeses I have floating around, but usually try for three different types of cheese (such as taleggio, mature cheddar and parmesan) and aromatic tarragon, marjoram or oregano from my garden or a big handful of finely chopped chives, all of which complement the cheeses fabulously, although fresh thyme or sage work perfectly too. I usually add a few shakes of piri piri or Jamaican jerk seasoning to add just a little heat. In theory it needs full fat milk, but I never have any in the fridge, so I always do it with semi and it always rises perfectly and tastes delicious. An electric whisk makes things easier, and a soufflé ramekin (a 14cm one in the recipe below), or something else with straight sides, is required.
The only problem I’ve ever had making soufflé is with ovens rather than recipes. Timings depend on the vagaries of ovens. This recipe works just so long as your real oven temperature (which can be checked with a meat thermometer) is the same as the one in the recipe. When you scale up or down when using bigger or smaller ramekins, remember that temperature is not always a linear progression, meaning that if you double the ingredients you will need to experiment with a shorter or longer cooking time. In spite of the usual warnings about never opening the oven door, I have found that just a super-fast peep to poke it with a chopstick or skewer to check that the souffle’s interior is not liquid should not hurt as long as it is done at the very end of the cooking time, taking care to release as little heat as humanly possible.
I’ve kept it simple in the recipe below, but Mum used to do a cheese souffle with a cooked spaghetti Milanese in the bottom of the ramekin, with the cheese and egg white mix turned onto the top of it before going into the oven (many online Milanese recipes seem to have chicken in them, but Mum’s was vegetarian). An arrabiata would be good too. I’ve done it before with a butter-fried mushroom, bacon and oregano base, being careful to drive out most of the moisture in the mushrooms, and I also love to add a small tin of crab or some raw king prawns (wrapped first in kitchen paper to absorb excess moisture) tossed in to the cheese béchamel . If I have time I infuse the milk beforehand with a court bouillon mixture to add a more aromatic edge to the flavour of the soufflé, which works a treat.xxx
Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/gas 3.
Cooking time around 25 minutes for a main course serving
Equipment:
- a 14cm souffle dish
- a hand-held electric whisk for the egg whites if you don’t like hand-whisking
Notes:
- If you are putting an additional component in the bottom of the ramekin beforehand, make sure that it goes into the ramekin neither cold nor piping hot, but warm, so that everything has a chance of heating through at the same rate.
- If you are adding ingredients to your cheese béchamel, ensure that they are patted dry.
Ingredients
- Some butter to grease the interior of the ramekin
- Breadcrumbs or finely grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle over the butter lining on the ramekins
- 18g / 1 heaped tablespoon unsalted butter
- 18g / 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
- 150 ml milk. Most recipes advise full fat, but I only ever have semi in the fridge, and I find that this works perfectly, perhaps because I use plenty of cheese
- 2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh marjoram or oregano or chives (or thyme if you prefer)
- 85g grated cheese – for example, 20g Parmesan (or Pecorino or Grana Padano), 45g of any hard, well-flavoured cheese such as Gruyere, Comté or Cheddar, and 20g soft cheese such as Taleggio, mild Brie or other soft Mediterranean cheese with a good but not overwhelming flavour
- 2 egg whites
- 1 egg yolk (you can use the spare egg yolk for other things, including mayonnaise)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- In my case, two teaspoons of Jamaican Jerk seasoning or piri piri, for just a gentle hit of heat
Method
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Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter and use it to grease the ramekins. Mix together 1 teaspoon of the chopped herbs and 2 teaspoons of the grated Parmesan, then sprinkle this over the buttered walls of the ramekins to form a light coating. This helps it to rise without sticking to the sides.
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Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan, add the flour and whisk. Slowly add the milk, continuing to whisk, which will first make it into a paste and then a sauce. Simmer, whisking regularly, then cool for 5 minutes or until it feels comfortable to the skin when you dunk a finger. This prevents the egg yolk, in the next step, from scrambling
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Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks, being really careful not to let any yolk find its way into the whites, or you will have trouble whisking the whites
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Add 1 egg yolk, the cheese and the remaining Parmesan and herbs. Season with salt and pepper (and the Jamaican jerk seasoning if using) and whisk until smooth. At this stage add the cooked bacon, raw prawns (they will cook in the soufflé) and/or tinned or fresh crab.
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Put the egg whites in a squeaky clean bowl (any hint of oil or grease and the whites won’t stiffen) and whisk with an equally super-clean electric whisk to form stiff peaks. You are whisking air into the whites, and if the next step is to work out well, you need to whisk the air in fully.
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Fold one third of the stiff whites gently into the rested cheese-herb sauce. Don’t whisk. Try to distribute the whites evenly without beating out the air. Fold in the remaining egg whites, very gently, until fully incorporated, trying to eliminate all the white bits. Do not over-stir.
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Pour the mixture into the prepared 14cm ramekin and bake in the middle of the preheated oven until risen and brown on top, for 25 minutes. Keep an eye on it and if it seems to be overcooking, open the oven lid very slightly and stick a wide skewer or chopstick into the mixture and if it comes out clean you should be ready to go. If it comes out covered in sauce, leave it for another couple of minutes
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Serve straight away before the soufflé sinks.
They are best served in the ramekin when doing small ones because they look so stunning, but when larger like this one, and to prevent the heat of the soufflé cooking them any further, they can be served on plates or in heated dishes (earthenware ones look good, giving the soufflé a rustic look), with or without salad. It’s difficult to make them look elegant when removed from the dish, but the taste is still glorious. Also, if you have added a spaghetti Milanese or something else in the base, it is a lot easier to get to it if you are not trying to excavate through soufflé in a large ramekin to reach it!
I like to add freshly grated parmesan and chopped oregano over the top for serving. I generally serve mine with a small tomato, onion and fresh mint or marjoram salad. Like all things involving eggs and cheese, it is infinitely more filling that one might imagine.
Whilst the soufflé is cooking I used the leftover egg yolk to make mayonnaise (my mayo recipe is here). Two egg whites used in the soufflé recipe, but only one yolk is used, so this ensures that the second yolk does not go to waste. Yolks are easy to dispose of, and can be used in numerous ways. Just yesterday I had my favourite avgolemono soup, which depends on egg yolks to thicken it, giving it a rich, satin texture. Another favourite is spaghetti carbonara (with a twist), which some people do with both yolks and whites, but I think is so much better, and more velvety, with just yolks.
Ideas for using up leftover yolks: Herb mayonnaise, spaghetti carbonara (with a twist), and Greek avgolemono (egg and lemon) soup with rice. All great ways of using up egg yolks when you have used the whites for something else.
These and other Adventures with Churton Honesty Eggs are here
