Restaurant Day: Souffles, like Moody Celebrities

December 08, 2016

Restaurant Day: Souffles, like Moody Celebrities

Wednesday means restaurant day at the BHM training restaurant, Palette. And this week’s was a French menu.

MENU

(Vegetarian)

Blue Cheese Soufflé

Tomato and Pepper Tart with Mesclun Salad

(Non-Vegetarian)

French Onion Soup

Chicken Piccata with Mushroom Beurre Blanc and Potato Rosti

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(Dessert)

Milk Cake, Burnt Caramel, Wild Walnuts and Strawberries

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I really enjoyed the menu. The dishes were simple, yet each dish had one or two ingredients that were the hero!

While I’d say the Tomato and Pepper tart was my favourite dish to eat, it was definitely the Blue Cheese Soufflé that I was most excited to make. A soufflé can be tricky because it has to be mixed and popped into the oven exactly before the guest wants it, baked till the crown is just perfect and served without a minute’s delay, else the whole thing collapses into a deflated lump of custard!

Tomato and Pepper Tart

With orders flowing in, we thought it would get tricky to make the soufflé “a la minute” – to the minute. But with only a small number of orders it was managed fairly smoothly.

I was fascinated by the simple physics and chemistry that created the marvel that was a soufflé. Whisked egg whites that trap air in a mesh of protein are added to a blue cheese custard. Then on baking, said air expands from the heat, and a crown miraculously rises from the surface. The crown of the soufflé is like a moody celebrity - making a grand appearance, waiting to be marveled at, and leaving with a sulky, floppy exit if ignored for too long.

We followed a recipe of approximate quantities, making a batch of 20 odd soufflé portions. The recipe is as follows (Disclaimer: this is not an exact recipe, but it won’t suffer too drastically with a few grams here and there):

For the Blue Cheese Custard:

50g unsalted butter
50g refined flour
500ml milk
6 egg yolks
120g blue cheese (if you love the umami flavour of blue cheese you could add an extra 10-20 grams, as the flavour mellows down after all the stages of mixing and baking)
Pinch of ground black pepper
NO salt – the cheese is salty enough to season the custard

Mix the butter and flour to make a roux and roast on a low flame for a few minutes. Do not let it brown.

Once well incorporated, add the milk and whisk, so there are no lumps.

Add the egg yolks and whisk on a low flame.

Crumble your blue cheese into the custard (nibbling on a few nuggets and crumbs in between, if you’re anything like me!) and whisk till the custard just starts to thicken a bit.

Remove from the flame and set it aside to cool off a bit. You may want to cling wrap the container to prevent a skin from forming on the surface as it cools.

For the Rising Agent:

12 egg whites
Pinch of salt
Completely clean, dry bowl

In the bowl, add the egg whites, with a pinch of salt, and whisk till stiff glossy peaks form. Over-whisking can cause the egg whites to spilt, forming little lumps of the white protein, which separate from the water. As tempting as it is, do no over-whisk.

For the Soufflé:

Blue cheese custard
Beaten egg whites
20 odd ramekins
Softened/melted butter for greasing the ramekins

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

In a bowl, mix the custard and egg whites, maintaining an approximate 1:2 ratio. Gently fold the two together, do no stir or beat, else the air form the eggs will be knocked out, leaving you with a dense, lumpy, anticlimactic attempt at soufflé!

Fill the ramekins about 2/3rds to the rim and bake immediately in the preheated oven, for about 6-8 minutes.

Keep your eye on the soufflé, removing it from the oven as soon as a lovely golden brown crown rises from the surface.