Daring Cooks Challenge November - Souffle

Souffle was the perfect tie in for Julia Child but I have been super slow in posting as a result of BG's arrival - annoying as this was cooked well ahead of time. It was accompanied by Supremes de Volaille a Blanc (Breast of Chicken with cream) cooked in the pan briefly then in the oven with the le creuset - the sauce was the chicken cooking juices, stock, wine and butter with (naturally) cream stirred in at the end. The Julia cooking has been fairly sparse for several weeks but we also managed Veau Poele (Casserole- roasted veal) the week before, which was tasty.

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.

I chose egg white souffle from MTAOFC and followed Julia's suggestion that I could substitute all manner of things for the diced cheese, substituted diced ham and broccoli - delicious!


Souffle Aux Blancs D'Oeufs 
(Cheese souffle w/ egg whites only)
Serves 4

Grated cheese and butter for prepping souffle dish

2.5 TB butter
3 TB flour
3/4 c. simmering light cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
Big pinch nutmeg

6-7 egg whites (3/4-7/8 cup)
Big pinch salt
3/4 c. (3 oz.) coarsely grated Swiss cheese
3/4 c. (3 oz.) Swiss cheese cut into 1/4" dice (or substitute 2/3 cup ground fish, chicken, sweetbreads, ham or vegetables)

Preheat oven to 400F. Generously butter 6-cup souffle dish and coat evenly w/ grated cheese (I like parmesan). In saucepan over low-med heat, melt butter and then stir in flour. Cook for about 2 min. making sure it doesn't brown. Off heat, add simmering cream and seasonings. Bring to boil and stir for 1 min. Take off heat.

Beat egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. Stir one quarter into cream base. Stir in all but a TB of grated cheese. Then add diced cheese (in my case broccoli and ham). Gently fold in remaining whites.

Pour mixture into prepared souffle dish, sprinkle w/ reserved grated cheese. Set in middle of oven and immediately reduce heat to 375F. Bake for 25-30 min. til souffle has puffed and browned. Don't open oven door for at least 20-25 min. Serve immediately!