Cooking 101 : Cheese Souffle

        Since we are not related to Donald Trump, eating out every night of the week is not an option. AND since we love the Travel Channel and Food Network, trying new and exotic food are high on our list of things we love to do. So every now and then we put our heads together and come up with a recipe that tests are abilities (homemade chicken mole anyone, yummy but LOTS of ingredients). This portion of the blog will be called Cooking 101 and no I will not be explaining how to take Banquet chicken from the box , put it on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Oops I just  did , OK there's your first recipe !!

       For this adventure we decided Souffles were in order, Why? Who knows it sounded good at the time and was exotic and hard enough to make us see if we could master it. Why a savory souffle? Again I can not remember the exact thinking other than maybe we wanted a healthy version ( RIGHT) or more likely it is impossible to keep chocolate in our house (you know who you are). But first a drink was in order, as a very wise woman once said " I love cooking with wine, sometimes I even put some in the food". So today's concoction a Ras-Mintini.

For the soon to be world famous Ras-Mintini;

In a cocktail shaker, Muddle a small handful of fresh mint and fresh raspberries together.
Add 3 ounces of your favorite rum (we used Mango Rum for an extra tropical kick).
Top with Fresh lemonade, add ice, shake, strain and Voila a perfect summer cooler.

           With Mintini in hand, we were ready to tackle the mysterious souffle. And since this isn't a detective novel let me fast forward to the end, Souffles are EASY,  the absolute hardest part is separating six eggs. But I am getting ahead of myself. What to serve with the soon to be spectacular souffles? A beautiful side of wild sockeye salmon, cooked simply on the grill with an Indian spice dry rub.

          Allow me a quick rant, (like you could stop me, I am writing this after all). Our local Costco store had some gorgeous wild sockeye salmon fillets and right around the corner, in the same case, farm raised salmon for a dollar a pound MORE !!   And people were buying them !!! PEOPLE, PEOPLE farm raised salmon is tasteless and REALLY, REALLY bad for the environment. Gigantic pens in the ocean, leeching chemicals, food and waste into formerly pristine waters. PLEASE, always buy wild salmon , and if its not available look for Steelhead fillets, these are pond raised in the USA with very strict controls. Nothing leeches out, it all stays in the ponds, which are closely regulated by our government. And now back to our regularly scheduled recipe.

          First step , always mis en place (French for everything in its place or in English don't forget the most important ingredient dummy). You will need;

4 tablespoons Butter
1/4 cup All purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups Milk warmed but not boiling
6 Eggs (at room temperature) separated
1/4 cup Fresh Herbs (whatever you have growing , you do grow fresh herbs right?) We used a combo of Basil, Rosemary and Thyme YUMMY
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 cup grated your choice Cheese (we used smoked Gouda but next time may switch to a hard goat cheese for a more robust cheese flavor).

Pre-Heat oven to 375 one hour before you want to start cooking. Yea, this isn't a recipe to try when its 100 outside, it will heat up your kitchen to hellish levels.

Prepare souffle ramekins or 2 quart souffle pan (we used six, cup size ramekins that I had gotten with a creme brulee set and these worked great though we did have left over souffle so 8 would of been perfect), by thoroughly buttering the insides (don't skimp its important) and dusting the inside with grated Parmesan, it will stick to the butter and you can dump the excess out into the next ramekin.

        Now lets start assembly. But first a Food Network hint, when separating eggs use three clean bowls, separate over the middle one, add yolks to one bowl and pour out the white into a separate bowl, that way you always only have one egg white in the bowl in front of you. Absolutely sucks to get to the 6th egg and drop yolk into the other five whites, ruining it all. We went through ALOT of eggs but only ruined one at a time, (to be fair the dozen eggs we bought had 4 cracked ones GRRRR). Back to assembly, melt the butter at med-low heat until it stops foaming, stir in the flour and whisk for around three minutes until well incorporated and starting to color a very little bit.  Now whisk in the milk a little bit at a time, allow to cool slightly and whisk in the egg yolks and the cheese. Once the cheese melts, remove from heat and set aside.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, (we used a stand mixer MUCH easier but keep your eyes on the whites as it takes very little time once they start forming to get to stiff peak, ours may have been a touch too stiff but they worked, phew).

          Hang in there gang, we are on the home stretch. And I apologize for not having photos as we assembled, I blame the Mintinis.  Now add the herbs to the yolk mixture and mix 1/3 of the egg whites in, don't worry about being gentle at this point you need to loosen up the yolk mixture. Add the rest of the egg whites and now you need to be gentle, fold with a wide spatula from bottom to top until all incorporated, its OK if there is still some white showing you need to keep the air in the mixture so it will rise. Pour into each ramekin (or one big one) until almost full, we put the ramekins on a cookie sheet just in case and plus its easier to handle on a cookie sheet than 6 individual ramekins. Put into the oven for 30 minutes or until a skinny skewer comes out moist but clean (what the heck does that mean, we left them in until they were really nicely browned on top and a toothpick came out clean, about 26 minutes).

           And to deflate (hee hee) a misconception, you do not have to tiptoe around the kitchen just to make sure the souffles actually rise. We went about our normal business and even (gently) peaked in the oven (maybe not the best idea) and we had no problems. OK, stop drinking mintinis and go put the salmon on the grill, flesh side first for a few minutes to get some nice grill marks and then flip until cooked , probably 10-15 minutes for a good size fillet, stop when the thickest part still shows a little raw as it will continue to cook off the grill,  DON"T OVERCOOK YUCK !!  And for the grand unveiling;

   So as you can see, souffles are not made of gold and us ordinary mortals can make them just like the pros, except we don't have someone to do the cleaning for us, DARN. Just a couple last observations, Souffles do deflate, so plan on serving them as soon as the get out of the oven, this means have everything else ready and serve HOT. But cold souffles are darn tasty (Who Knew),if just a little flatter, though to me they taste like quiches, not necessarily a bad thing.

   On the Andy scale of cooking from 1(EZ Mac) to 10 (Molecular Gastronomy) I rate this recipe a 4. Really people, the hardest part is the prep work, so have fun and play with the flavors, this recipe just calls for improv, different cheeses, different herbs. Wifey says next time we are to add cooked bacon bits to the batter YUMMY !!  And I have a recipe for a chocolate souffle with a white bourbon sauce added to the center. Until next time Happy Cooking !!