Cooking and Breathing

Tonight, for my first baking adventure, I will attempt to cook cheese souffles for dinner! Souffle is French for Breath - so with a deep breath I started reading up on how to create the perfect pouffy souffle.

I started with Joy of Cooking (75th Anniversary Edition, by Rombauer, Rombauer Becker and Becker). I love the Joy of Cooking for all the food basics, honest explanations and realistic expectations. Bon Appetite also had an article in May 2008 about souffles where they quickly dismiss the notion that souffles are difficult to make. The evidence of such a claim? The author of the article boasts:

I don't know what all the bluster is about - this business if souffles being so finicky, so hard to master - because I've yet to have one let me down.

Joy of Cooking on the other hand tells you straight up: "Some last a bit longer than others, though all have a built-in limit for holding their puff." (p. 204) This gives me hope! It's hard to go wrong with cheese and eggs, even if it does have a short-lived "breath".

Pictured above: Dinner guests Louise and Fiona Hamer give the meal a 27 out of 10!

The souffle recipes in Joy of Cooking direct you to the "Know Your Ingredients" section in the back to read about beating egg whites (which is THE key to souffles). To give you a sense of the tone here is how they start the lesson, "To attempt to describe the beating of egg whites is almost as cheeky as advising how to lead a happy life." (p. 978)

I also read up about eggs in the cookbook Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, which I got from my sister for Christmas. Sally loves eggs and fervently attacks all myths of eggs raising cholesterol levels, calling eggs "brain food" for all the important vitamins and nutrients in eggs (p. 436). This is good news to our dinner guests tonight since the menu includes both souffles AND creme brule!

A souffle has 3 parts: the white sauce base, egg yokes added to the base, and then egg whites folded into the base. The whole trick is to beat the egg whites until they are "stiff, but not dry" and then add them gently to the base. It is the air bubbles in the whites that expand and make the souffle pouf up. Not so hard, right?

Here is the recipe I am making tonight (from epicurious.com): Goat Cheese, Sun-Dried Tomato, and Roasted Garlic Souffles. Stay tuned! I'll let you know how it turns out...

Voila! Souffle!

Dinner was wonderful! The souffle puffed right out of the oven and although it fell is was still tasty - in fact it was much better after it cooled down so that all the flavors came out. I think I would try the Basic Cheese Souffle next time rather than one with so many ingredients. It's hard to beat the goodness of eggs and cheese.

I have to mention that the rest of the meal was also exquisite, thanks to the baking of my husband Boyd! (This was a switch because I usually do the baking while he does the cooking...)

Here was our complete menu (with links to the recipes):
1. Twice Cooked French Fries with homemade Sweet-Hot BBQ sauce and Dijon Aioli sauce
2. Souffle (paired with dry white wine)
3. Squash and Broccoli with Ginger Butter
4. Creme Brule (from Joy of Cooking) (paired with Ruby Port)

Below: Boyd fires up the Creme Brule

Bon Appetite!